Leadership, it's simple really
Five tips to being an effective leader.
Leadership has been a buzzword for more than a decade now and can be interpreted in multiple ways. Some believe that there is no such thing as a leadership position, rather leadership is an action. Others believe that leaders require charisma and innate ability to really be effective. This is not necessarily true. There are things that everyone in the workplace can do to bring enhance their leadership capabilities. Making use of these five steps will help you on the road to being more effective at leading others.
1. Listen. This sounds redundant, and has been so much a part of every leadership theory that it is almost a cliché. However, listening is essential to any communication. The key to effective listening is making sure you are an active participant in the exchange. Hearing is not enough. We hear in our sleep, however, we cannot actively listen in our sleep. When someone wants to speak to you, turn away from your computer or work area, and really focus on the individual. Don’t look beyond them to see what is happening around you. Don’t think about what you are going to say next, as often times listening with all of our senses requires all of our processing power. We need to learn to listen to what is being said, how it is being said, who is saying it, and what is not being said. All of these things will help to bring a better understanding of the individual and their needs.
2. Accountability. One of the ways to really impress your co-workers, bosses, direct reports, etc. is to hold yourself accountable for your actions. If you make a mistake, the best way to handle this situation is to admit the mistake, how you have rectified the mistake or a recommendation on how it can be resolved and then how you will prevent it from occurring again. This response will be appreciated by others for as first, you are seen as genuinely honest and that you are taking responsibility for your actions. Second, you are being proactive in your approach to a problem or mistake by coming up with a solution and preventative steps for the future. Lastly, you earn respect for choosing the difficult path of admitting you did something wrong. When you take this approach, you make it easier for the people who report to you to admit their own faults and mistakes and to grow as individuals by taking responsibility for themselves. In fact, you should expect this from your direct reports. Doing so helps to eliminate groupthink and to have open dialogues that benefit you, the company, and the employees who report to you.
3. Be a Steward. This is not your job. They are not your employees. So take the hiker’s approach and leave everything better than you found it. Even if you have been with a company for 20 years, you are still not in possession of your position. Rather you are holding it in trust for someone else. Even the owners of businesses will not own the business until the end of time. Either they will eventually sell it to someone else or pass it on to the next generation. So if we are not in possession of our positions, what should we do with them? Improve them for the person who comes next. If you are a manager of employees and you see them as being in your trust, you are more likely to have a more engaged approach in their development. And so you should. Developing employees to be better employees, better individuals makes you look better at the same time. And anyone you help to be a better person is more likely to give more of themselves to you and the company. (I would add something here because while this sounds good – in the workplace, people are all about themselves and what’s in it for them. Maybe talk about the fact that some employees feel entitlement but that the reality is that all we are entitled to is a safe and fair workplace. Everything else that makes a company a great place to work are the people in it and that you are only responsible for yourself. If everyone took responsibility to create an environment of mutual respect and professionalism, then the company will be more successful as a result).
Be Candid. No one is going to benefit by beating around the bush. It is important early on to share expectations with all employees. That way, if you have an employee who is doing a great job, you can let them know just how well they are doing. On the other side of the coin, if you have an employee who is not meeting expectations, you can refer back to the expectations. e candid about how they are not meeting their goals and (as a good Steward) offer to help them improve their performance. Clarify if needed what your expectations are and a timeline for meeting those expectations. Also, in very difficult cases, this may require that you include the accountability aspect. . .
Understand Motivation. Understanding motivation is not nearly as easy as it sounds. You need to work with what motivates the invidivual. If the department is meeting its goals, it is important that you give credit where it is due. This is usually not with you, rather with the people who are doing the work in the trenches. Some individuals prefer monetary rewards, others a day off with pay, others want public recognition in front of peers and superieors. If you can reward them in a way that motivates, that will go a long way in building good will and loyalty to the company
Too often, companies try to motivate based on a blanket approach and this usually leads to failure. For example, I had some challenges with a front line employee who had his Master’s degree, was probably a paper millionaire, and had had at least three successful careers. His motivation for working was definitely not the paycheck. I asked my employee why he bothered to work at a low paying, front line job and his response was that it gave him the opportunity for socialization and the ability to use his problem solving skills with relatively little stress. Dangling cash in front of him wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Instead, with this employee, I used his desire to solve problems as a tool for improving performance and asked him to look at his goals as problems to be resolved. That employee went from being one of my poorest performers to being one of the best.
The hard part about this approach to motivation is that it requires you to make use of all four of the other tips. You need to set clear, candid expectations, listen to what is important to the employee, help the employee improve, and hold both of you accountable for the outcome
In conclusion, while defining leadership is neither easy, nor absolute, by doing these five things, you can effectively improve your own ability to lead others. And in doing so, you will see the people who report to you grow as individuals. You will see the people you report to gain respect for you. And you will see your own abilities to lead others increase by an order of magnitude.
Leadership has been a buzzword for more than a decade now and can be interpreted in multiple ways. Some believe that there is no such thing as a leadership position, rather leadership is an action. Others believe that leaders require charisma and innate ability to really be effective. This is not necessarily true. There are things that everyone in the workplace can do to bring enhance their leadership capabilities. Making use of these five steps will help you on the road to being more effective at leading others.
1. Listen. This sounds redundant, and has been so much a part of every leadership theory that it is almost a cliché. However, listening is essential to any communication. The key to effective listening is making sure you are an active participant in the exchange. Hearing is not enough. We hear in our sleep, however, we cannot actively listen in our sleep. When someone wants to speak to you, turn away from your computer or work area, and really focus on the individual. Don’t look beyond them to see what is happening around you. Don’t think about what you are going to say next, as often times listening with all of our senses requires all of our processing power. We need to learn to listen to what is being said, how it is being said, who is saying it, and what is not being said. All of these things will help to bring a better understanding of the individual and their needs.
2. Accountability. One of the ways to really impress your co-workers, bosses, direct reports, etc. is to hold yourself accountable for your actions. If you make a mistake, the best way to handle this situation is to admit the mistake, how you have rectified the mistake or a recommendation on how it can be resolved and then how you will prevent it from occurring again. This response will be appreciated by others for as first, you are seen as genuinely honest and that you are taking responsibility for your actions. Second, you are being proactive in your approach to a problem or mistake by coming up with a solution and preventative steps for the future. Lastly, you earn respect for choosing the difficult path of admitting you did something wrong. When you take this approach, you make it easier for the people who report to you to admit their own faults and mistakes and to grow as individuals by taking responsibility for themselves. In fact, you should expect this from your direct reports. Doing so helps to eliminate groupthink and to have open dialogues that benefit you, the company, and the employees who report to you.
3. Be a Steward. This is not your job. They are not your employees. So take the hiker’s approach and leave everything better than you found it. Even if you have been with a company for 20 years, you are still not in possession of your position. Rather you are holding it in trust for someone else. Even the owners of businesses will not own the business until the end of time. Either they will eventually sell it to someone else or pass it on to the next generation. So if we are not in possession of our positions, what should we do with them? Improve them for the person who comes next. If you are a manager of employees and you see them as being in your trust, you are more likely to have a more engaged approach in their development. And so you should. Developing employees to be better employees, better individuals makes you look better at the same time. And anyone you help to be a better person is more likely to give more of themselves to you and the company. (I would add something here because while this sounds good – in the workplace, people are all about themselves and what’s in it for them. Maybe talk about the fact that some employees feel entitlement but that the reality is that all we are entitled to is a safe and fair workplace. Everything else that makes a company a great place to work are the people in it and that you are only responsible for yourself. If everyone took responsibility to create an environment of mutual respect and professionalism, then the company will be more successful as a result).
Be Candid. No one is going to benefit by beating around the bush. It is important early on to share expectations with all employees. That way, if you have an employee who is doing a great job, you can let them know just how well they are doing. On the other side of the coin, if you have an employee who is not meeting expectations, you can refer back to the expectations. e candid about how they are not meeting their goals and (as a good Steward) offer to help them improve their performance. Clarify if needed what your expectations are and a timeline for meeting those expectations. Also, in very difficult cases, this may require that you include the accountability aspect. . .
Understand Motivation. Understanding motivation is not nearly as easy as it sounds. You need to work with what motivates the invidivual. If the department is meeting its goals, it is important that you give credit where it is due. This is usually not with you, rather with the people who are doing the work in the trenches. Some individuals prefer monetary rewards, others a day off with pay, others want public recognition in front of peers and superieors. If you can reward them in a way that motivates, that will go a long way in building good will and loyalty to the company
Too often, companies try to motivate based on a blanket approach and this usually leads to failure. For example, I had some challenges with a front line employee who had his Master’s degree, was probably a paper millionaire, and had had at least three successful careers. His motivation for working was definitely not the paycheck. I asked my employee why he bothered to work at a low paying, front line job and his response was that it gave him the opportunity for socialization and the ability to use his problem solving skills with relatively little stress. Dangling cash in front of him wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Instead, with this employee, I used his desire to solve problems as a tool for improving performance and asked him to look at his goals as problems to be resolved. That employee went from being one of my poorest performers to being one of the best.
The hard part about this approach to motivation is that it requires you to make use of all four of the other tips. You need to set clear, candid expectations, listen to what is important to the employee, help the employee improve, and hold both of you accountable for the outcome
In conclusion, while defining leadership is neither easy, nor absolute, by doing these five things, you can effectively improve your own ability to lead others. And in doing so, you will see the people who report to you grow as individuals. You will see the people you report to gain respect for you. And you will see your own abilities to lead others increase by an order of magnitude.
posted by Unknown at 5:20 PM
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