Are they with you?

People keep asking me, “what do you think is happening given the current economic situation, what do you think leaders need to pay attention to?”

There are several things, but today I’m going to touch on one.  You need to remember that it’s better to have people working with you than for you.  And it’s even more important when making and communicating decisions that you remember they’re people and not human resources.  They may well interpret your words and actions in ways you hadn’t foreseen.  They’ll be influenced by the media / their peers / sources you may or may not be aware of.  Fear and scarcity are sources of motivation and the media are currently banging that drum very well.  A workforce driven by fear is nowhere near as valuable as one driven by a mission, a desire to be there, to work with you.  Choice is a valuable component.  Now just before you go, yes I know this, cor how flippin obvious/basic/apple pie, take a moment to check just how much of this are you putting in to practice, and would those who work with you agree?  If there was such a thing a a fear-o-meter where would the needle be?

If you need to make redundancies who do you need to re-engage and how soon can you do it?  Putting it another way if you over look this, or do it badly, you build a wave of disillusionment and insecurity that can spread.

Right now what needs to be re-enforced – the vision, the immediate goals, the behaviours that will give you agility and resilience…???

Defining who you are as a leader before you lead

It is often said that great leaders are made but it can also be said that these same leaders are sometimes lost.  The ability to lead is different for each person and most will find that to be effective in leadership they must define for themselves who they are in this position.

Defining who you are as a leader is important before you can lead other people.  Many have found that trying to be the type of leader that others want them to be may not fit with their personal integrity.  It is up to every leader to define exactly what this means.

In many organizations leaders are chosen not on their abilities but on the need of the organization.  Sometimes an individual is put into a leadership position unexpectedly.  As an example, recently a leader in a nonprofit organization stepped down after ten years in the same position.  This should have been a very important transition for her but instead, it was met with bittersweet memories.  The problem was that she was thrust into a leadership position after the founder of the organization died.  She had been there the longest and was asked to take the position.  Although she didn’t feel ready, she was flattered and took it.  As soon as she took the position she went back to school and achieved a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management.  She thought this would be enough but what she wasn’t prepared to do was work with some of the volunteers in the organization who had their own agendas. Sadly, she started off on the wrong foot with them by not being a confident leader.  Although she was able to make some changes in the organization, she wasn’t able to bring it to where she would have liked to see it go.  What she learned from this is that she had to pull her leadership from within herself instead of trying to please the other people who expected her to be like the founder.  This is something that effective leaders find out.

Education can only give you theories and ideas; it cannot actually show you how to lead.

Most leaders have had life experience that brings them to a certain philosophy of life and this philosophy usually comes with them into their leadership position.  They learn how to treat people well, and they learn how to move people forward when they can get their cooperation.  They also have a strong vision for their own lives and where they want it to go.   When this vision matches with the organization’s mission or at least complements it, the individual is able to lead effectively.  Leaders who rely on that intrinsic knowing of what to do in any situation seem to be able to strike a balance between what they expect from employees and what they expect from themselves.  When this comes together for them in the workplace, it allows them to develop other leaders.

In the future, we are going to need more leaders to fall back on this intrinsic knowledge in hard times.  They will be the ones to create innovative ways for organizations to move forward.

Life Long Learning

“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”  Rosalynn Carter

Our life is one long learning process.  Learning does not come to an abrupt halt after the completion of school or college, but it continues throughout our lives. 

Leadership should include providing everybody with the scope to learn and develop.  You may say, ‘but I do, they just don’t seem to take it up’.  It’s worth finding out if this is because they haven’t made the connection between the learning and development on offer and the future direction of their role.  Equally another common reason is they’re worried to take on something new in case they make mistakes in the process and it will not be appreciated by their leaders.

Are you in the habit of :-

-  highlighting improvements made

- offering words of encouragement

- helping them learn from their mistakes

- offering guidance at every stage so they don’t lose their focus / direction

Or do you tend only to have conversations when things have gone wrong?

A great leader is conscious of all the quintessential ingredients which make up great leadership and as part of this is often already developing the future leaders of the department / organisation.   Managing that balance between striving for the growth of the organization and exerting equal preference for the growth of the staff. 

Learning and development is not just attending a course.  Courses are great when new skills need to be acquired.  More often though your staff don’t need a new skill, they need to learn the finer points and experiences of how to make more of what they already have.  A different conversation and one you can have with them on a regular basis.  If you don’t feel you can do that then talk to a business, career or leadership coach.

Transforming the Corporate Culture

When a corporation hires a proven leader to revive a sagging operation, the hardest part of the job isn’t what’s seen on the balance sheet.   Of course attention is given to improving the numbers in sales, productivity, employee retention and other measurable items.  However very often the biggest challenge comes in transforming the corporate culture.   Unless this happens early in the new leader’s reign, then little else will go right.  Corporations have a culture that was either shaped by the previous leadership or occurred by default.  Either way if the ‘unit’ isn’t performing as desired then the current culture is a significant factor.

A weak or distant leader ignores the corporate culture, which makes it possible for divisions to be created between departments and middle managers.  If you do a values based feedback on these leaders, often words like controlling, manipulative or being liked crop up.

Any new leader has to immediately make an impact on the corporate culture in positive ways or that leader will lack the power to implement significant and lasting change.  Easier said than done with something as intangible but powerful as culture.  You could watch and pay attention, but that’s the long game and maybe you don’t have time.  You could measure it, find out what everyone in the organisation really values and thinks is important – and rarely does your staff satisfaction survey ever reveal this level of information.

Transforming the corporate culture isn’t tossing out all that exists as wrong and imposing a new culture by memo.  A real leader magnifies and applauds the positive factors in the corporate culture and then, by motivation and inspiration as well as example, begins to turn the corporate culture away from negative attitudes. The blend of the best of the old culture and exciting new ideas can revitalize a corporate culture and motivate employees to perform at their very best.  You’ll see the fruits of your labour in the balance sheet, your sales, productivity, innovation and employee retention figures will show a marked difference.

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