Leadership Deflation

Ever been publicly criticized; reprimanded; reproved?

Often goes something like this; "Great results from Colleague A & B – thanks A & B, but poor results from you – when are you going to get your act together and do as good as them?"

Think back to how that made you feel; where you inspired and motivated to rise up and embrace your mistake with a renewed devotion to do better? Probably not, unless you are a masochist.

This is a chicken way out of doing the right thing. It can be hard to reprimand or coach someone one on one and takes a great deal of energy and time. However, providing completely candid feedback in a private setting is the best method of solving any issue and will not only allow you to maintain the respect of your team, but will cause that level to grow – especially among those that you extended respect by coaching in private.

Only cowards publicly humiliate members of their team.

Leadership Deflation

One of the best leaders I had the opportunity to work with

Her expectations were clear – everyone on the team understood. She was firm. She also knew everyone as if her own children and cared for them deeply. She worked alongside her team; coaching them in a way that no would ever consider it coaching. She would never ask anyone to do anything that she would not do herself.

The product / outcome:

Virtually no turnover – other than which would be considered favourable. New hires that did not fit the culture of the business unit left in a short period of time, on their own – they just didn't fit.

Extremely low absenteeism; If someone had to be absent, it was understood that they would find a replacement for themselves. This expectation was accepted willingly as being a part of the team.

Readily and enthusiastically contributed to the greater team outside of the business unit.

Every member of her team was devoted to her.

Highly successful business unit – consistently within the top 5 of the entire organization.

She was a tremendous supporter and positive influence of any superior for whom she worked. I was fortunate to be one of them.

Thank you Donna for demonstrating so clearly what a great leader looks like.

One of the best leaders I had the opportunity to work with

Finding the good

We need to catch people doing things right. What is right? Is it perfection? If you get 80% on a test – is that right? Is it good even though it is not perfect? What if the usual was 55%, but today the score improved to 70%; is that good? I think most would offer praise, which of course would be the right thing to do. If you were critical of the missed marks in these examples, you probably shouldn't be reading this blog.

The weird thing is that in the workplace, we do criticize in the gap between right and perfection. Instead of recognizing what is good, or right, we magnify the areas that are less than perfect. The reasoning: calling that which is not perfect, "good," is not doing my job. If my boss knew that I was providing positive recognition for this, that is less than perfect, he would think I don't understand the standard.

The reality: it will never be perfect!

If you recognize everything, or every part that is right (good), those that did the work will try harder than ever to bring the remaining parts to good, usually without you ever having to mention them. They will just want more of that praise and will work harder than ever to receive it.

Not being able to find something good says more about you the leader than it does about anyone else.

Finding the good

Intentional Influence

If leadership is "intentional influence," which it is, what separates great leadership from poor?

Influence, is often unintentional; setting a bad example. True leadership is intentional; done on purpose, not by accident. Therefore, there is no separation between good or poor within the word "intentional" in our definition.

It is the "influence" part where we find either remarkable or abysmal leadership, or varying degrees between.

Great leaders can describe their influence with these words: persuade, empower, inspire, encourage, win over, stimulate.

Poor leaders are identified by these descriptions: control, pressure, manipulate, power, command, and threaten.

If you were to reflect personally on your past 24 hours of leadership, which description most accurately matches your behaviour? Your influence impacts every person that you come in contact with; at work, at play, your family. It includes those around you that you never even speak to: at the grocery store, your neighbours or other drivers sharing the same road as you.

Someone is always watching what you are doing. Hopefully you are always showing the example that you intend.

Intentional Influence

“Make me” or “Make me want to”

I believe that leadership can be segregated into two basic styles / categories: make me, or make me want to.

The make me style focuses on telling people what to do, how to do it and when to do it. It is dictation / dictatorship. It can be effective in accomplishing goals, but will never empower individuals to strive for more or greater results. Leadership that falls in this camp must continuously apply their authority and influence in order to maintain results. Results end the moment the pressure disappears.

The make me want to style focuses on explaining the reason why – the rationale behind what we are trying to accomplish. It is inspirational and leads to exponential growth of the what, or desired results and goals.

The differences between these two camps are much more significant than we typically realize. I like the analogy of communism to capitalism, where the make me model is communism, and the make me want to is capitalism. History has perfectly demonstrated the oppressive and destructive consequences of communism and the limitless possibilities of capitalism.

I once had a boss tell me to "do it or he would find someone else that will." Definitely make me.

I have also had the opportunity to work with many leaders that provided guidance and direction with heavy emphasis on the explanation of why, but focused most of their energy on recognition of ideas, effort and results. They all made me want to!

We can't always pick our leaders and if you find yourself under the leadership of a make me leader, it does not have to be hopeless. Move beyond his or her dictation by discovering the why behind what you are being commanded to do. It is virtually impossible to do something with any passion for which you do not understand the purpose. Ask questions; seek to understand why you are doing what you are doing. Then, motivated by this inspiring knowledge, exceed the desired result or goals. Go beyond what is expected – or dictated. You just may find yourself going beyond that person that is doing the dictating.

“Make me” or “Make me want to”

Go-around managers

They are focused! They find a way to get it done. Obtaining results is the only thing that matters. At first glance this may seem desirable and sound like someone you might want to have on your team and in your organization. It could and it may, but it also describes the "Go-around manager."

Go-around managers, go around. They skip one, two, three and sometimes more levels of hierarchy to get something done. They live by the motto "if you want something done right - you have to do it yourself." Go-around managers deal with symptoms and use band-aids vs. working at the root with permanent solutions.

It looks like:

• Senior executive sending communication directly to the front line with a specific request rather than communicating vision through their direct reports and encouraging innovation and ingenuity.
  
• Managers continuously going around supervisors to get things done out of frustration because the supervisors are not getting them done.
  

This approach may get results, in the short term. However, it does nothing to solve problems long term and counteracts leadership development. Leaders inspire and influence others to obtain the desired results.

Your go-around managers may be getting good results, but when they leave, and everybody eventually leaves, those results stop.

Leaders develop leaders. Go-around managers do not.

Go-around managers

Should leaders ask for help?

I had a business problem. I was not alone - many of my peers had the same business problem. I believe that there is a solution to every problem. Despite our efforts, collaboration and attention on this problem, we had not been able to develop a satisfactory solution. This was quite frustrating. However, as business leaders – all we could do was press on in our attempts to solve.

I was given some advise – some wise council. Why don't you ask for help? My initial thoughts were: executives don't ask for help - executives solve their own problems. Asking for help is a sign of weakness. This is why men don't ask for directions – it shows helplessness – vulnerability. However, the more that I thought about it, the more I realized that this was just pride – I didn't want to look stupid, inadequate. The truth is that we all have weaknesses – we all need help from time to time. Ignoring that is just arrogance.

So, I did the unthinkable – for an executive – I called my boss and asked for help, admitting that I could not solve this business problem on my own.

I would love to report to you that everything worked out – that my boss appreciated my reaching out for help – that the problem was solved and everyone lived happily ever after. I can't.

Regardless of the outcome of my experience, I realized that humility in leadership is essential. Leaning on the team for help in times of need is critical. The absence of positive results from this is does not indicate that it was a bad idea, but rather indicative of weaknesses in the team in general.

In fact, great leaders can identify and react to those who need help. Strong leadership includes the ability to know when to step in and offer assistance. Consequently, the need to reach out for help is generally non-existent in teams led by great leaders.

Have you ever asked for help? What was your experience?

Related Posts:

Great Leaders

Character

Should leaders ask for help?

Distractions

There will always be distractions.

Opportunities, details, problems, crisis, tragedy, can pull our focus and attention from what we should be doing. (Details? Sometimes our focus on the minutiae replaces the purpose for them.)

What should we be doing? Only that which takes us closer to our Vision - our purpose.

Great leaders:

1. Relentlessly ensure that everyone has absolute understanding and clarity of the Vision.
   
2. Put every distraction into proper perspective, and continually refocus and reset energy and efforts back toward the Vision.
   

Some leaders entertain and/or are the creators of distractions. This is why they never become "Great" leaders.

They frustrate.

Related Posts:

Pet Bureaucracies
Parallel Parking: the sacred cow

Distractions

Great Leaders

I am currently in the midst of a career transition.

Many people have stepped out to help me during this transition in various ways. Friends, family, colleagues – some people that I have not spoken to in years – and even some that I have just met.

If you have ever been unemployed, you understand how much it means to have people on your side – doing what they can to help.

Great leaders understand that: the more people they can help - push up - the more successful they themselves become. They find fulfillment in helping and investing in others and there are no dividing lines between their personal and professional life when it comes to relationships. I am grateful that so many have crossed my path.

If you know someone that is in between jobs, careers or vocations, help them out. Introduce them to someone in your network, refer them to a potential employer – forward their resume, or just take them for coffee and listen to them.

Your acts of kindness will never be forgotten.

Great Leaders care about other people.

Photo by: FotoFling Scotland

Great Leaders