Many people define the term “leader” differently, but there are several core leadership skills that define a great leader. For example, as a successful leader, there is often a need for transparency. You should also be able to listen without distractions and create an appropriate workplace culture for your team. Even if you are already a good leader, there’s always room for more growth. Whichever areas you’re lacking in, you can focus on improving. Below, we discuss five key areas you should look to focus on to improve your leadership skills.
Your team looks up to you for direction and inspiration. Whenever they feel lost, the group naturally expects you to show the way. You can only do this if you’re the kind of person that takes initiative. Learn not to be complacent. You should aim to step out of your comfort zone regularly, as this will help your team trust you.
Remember that taking on more responsibilities also gives you more opportunities to learn. Every project you take on is a chance to boost your knowledge. A leader should be skilled in a variety of areas to be able to share knowledge with their team.
The best leaders can foresee potential issues before they occur by analyzing current conditions. They can also find ways to prevent some of the problems before they emerge. As a leader, you should be the person who identifies opportunities and maximizes these opportunities to benefit the organization.
Luckily there are several approaches you can use to improve your critical thinking skills. These include challenging common assumptions, finding different perspectives, and keeping an open mind. You should encourage your team to discuss and debate any issues that arise to help them grow.
As a leader, you’ll be communicating regularly with multiple employees from every corner of the organization. Often you’ll also be presenting business strategies and various reports to your team and the higher-ups, including CEOs and investors. To get the right feedback in any of these circumstances, you must be a good listener.
Using open-ended questions, listening without interrupting the speaker, and adapting your listening to the other person’s point of view (with factors such as culture and background in mind) is a good start.
Every team in an organization experiences conflict at some point. Indeed, due to the wide range of differences among people, the lack of conflict may signal the absence of effective interaction. The best leaders view conflict as an opportunity to address underlying issues and build stronger relationships between people and groups.
You should aim to be honest and straightforward. It takes a lot of courage, but it’s the first step to dispute resolution. Additionally, learn to listen actively and be impartial in your judgment. You would be able to pick up these skills if you were to do a Deakin leadership degree.
An often overlooked area of leadership is delegation. This is a crucial leadership skill that many new leaders lack. However, the best leaders don’t attempt to do everything on their own. You must understand that letting someone with better knowledge do the job guarantees better results for the organization. You should also appreciate that a new set of hands and pair of eyes can help your team do the job faster and better.
So how do you delegate? Theodore Roosevelt made it simple. “The best leaders are those who have enough sense to pick the right people to do what they want to be done, and the self-restraint to avoid meddling with them while they do it.”
There are many other skills imperative to being a successful leader, including discipline, motivation, and team empowerment. The bottom line is that the best leaders are constantly looking to improve their leadership skills. Like we said in the beginning, there’s always room to grow.
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With many precautions in place due to COVID-19, many industries are suffering from employee retention challenges as workers head back into the office. This is often due to fear, lack of funding, or demotivation. It can cripple your business productivity if not rectified quickly.
Here, we talk about four essential tips to get employees back to work and how to support your team going back to the office.
As a manager, you need to support your employees to the best of your capabilities. Ask yourself what systems have been implemented to support your workers during COVID. Utilize the following strategies to help safeguard your workflow.
Many agencies and businesses have cut down losses by terminating workers. This is already a concern in the minds of your employees. By executing work-from-home policies, you ensure that work resumes as usual without disrupting the workflow. As part of this workflow, add steps to ready them for going back to the office. Most offices are looking at a balance between work from home and office days.
As it is, there is a lot of pressure with lockdown and curfews in place. When transitioning from a work from home schedule, consider reducing strict working hours. Allowing your workers more time to spend with their loved ones will boost their morale and help them feel better about going back to the office set up.
People cope with fear in different ways. Some of your employees may shut down, and others may go entirely off the radar. Learning to identify their concerns and support them is crucial to getting their head back in the game.
Start by encouraging them, lend an ear, and provide a platform for them to air out their concerns. Some may be anxious over the repercussion the pandemic has over their lives, family, friends, and even their job security. Things are changing yet again and they are likely unsure of what will happen next. Let them know that though there's a crisis, you and the whole company care. When you help ease their dilemma, you restore balance and stability. In time, things will return to normal.
Right now, most people are worried about what lies ahead. Boosting employee morale, especially during this pandemic, is vital to productivity and keeping the workflow moving. Not only will it help uplift the tension, but it also endorses positivity.
How to increase morale and engage with employees
Fostering a healthy bond with your colleagues is the right way of keeping things light and unburdens the weight during this critical situation.
Poor communication is the Trojan horse to many reputable industries, citing a loss of 62.4 million dollars annually. To avoid leaving your workers in the dark, enable proper channels of communication between you and them. Already people are stressed and are uncertain what lies next.
While things are slowly getting back together, this doesn't necessarily mean your employees are ready to go back to the work office. However, by considering their feelings and placing protocols into action, you can make them comfortable and ease them into returning to the office. Communication will make all the difference to how your team reacts to the upcoming back to work changes.
Looking for help? Tired and believing there has got to be a better way?
Let's talk about your business. With over a decade of experience leading companies and transforming lives, and a Master's degree in Org. Development and Leadership, Mike can help you find the best way forward!
Contact Mike today to start the breakthrough!
Employees are the fuel that drives your business. Is your company is struggling with low productivity, high turnover, and a lack of collaboration? It may be time to look for innovative ways to motivate team members. Many companies resort to revenue goals as a way of motivating their employees. And while money is critical to any business and its workers, people don’t just work for money. In fact, only 12% of workers leave their jobs because of the actual pay.
Natural motivation among your team comes from the impact they feel that they have in the workplace. By setting goals that inspire, connect with team members, and have a direct measurable impact, you can achieve better success when motivating your employees. Thinking beyond revenue goals is a team effort that requires you to connect with your workforce and boost the morale of your employees.
While money helps your team meet certain needs, it rarely inspires workers over a prolonged period. This means that setting revenue-based goals could ultimately result in a series of short-term objectives that don’t help to propel your business forward. Consider setting goals that are etched in the long-term and inspire your team to continue to think ahead. In this way, you’ll avoid making quick decisions that aren’t in line with your bigger picture.
Long-term goals also allow you to consider the needs of your customers while designing a marketing and promotional strategy that solves their problems. Such goals also create a vision for your team and keep them inspired beyond immediate financial gain.
A worker who spends the entire day compiling reports or answering phone calls may often feel as if their job isn’t valuable. Such employees may struggle throughout the day and only give minimum effort towards their job responsibilities- regardless of pay.
To increase morale for workers in this position, remind them that their job is something bigger than themselves. Make each employee feel like part of a team that fuels the success of your organization, and encourage them to look for opportunities to move up within the company.
But how can you achieve this? Share your company’s vision and mission statement with every staff member. Display this message in all employee workstations and hold regular meetings that remind your staff of how much you value them. You should also circulate customer success stories that were a direct result of your employees’ efforts, especially if employees are named directly.
As previously mentioned, team members like to feel the impact that they’re having on the organization. By making your goals relevant to each employee, relatable (in terms of the tasks that one is carrying out), and measurable, you can tap into this motivational factor and get more out of your team members. Making goals relatable to every employee means breaking down daily tasks and establishing a connection to the final objective.
For example, if you’re looking to convert 20% more leads for your business, emphasize how each worker in every department plays a direct role in this objective. You may remind the finance team how proper accounting ensures that resources are available for marketing campaigns. While also motivating the janitorial staff to keep all physical stores looking as welcoming as possible, to encourage those customers to return.
It’s human nature to desire love and recognition. By recognizing your employees and making them feel like they matter, you can increase morale and make the workplace more productive. Consider sending out signed birthday cards, issuing gifts for weddings/baby showers, and having an employee of the month and year award. By making your employees feel appreciated, they will give more and have more dedication towards their jobs.
By following these tips and connecting with your employees you will start to see the difference in productivity and turnover. Motivate team members and think beyond revenue goals will ultimately help to increase your revenue. Due to the fact that employees are working harder and feel dedicated to their jobs. By treating your employees as more than just cogs in a machine, you will soon see positive results across the board.
Looking for help? Tired and believing there has got to be a better way?
Let’s talk about your business. With over a decade of experience leading companies and transforming lives, and a Master’s degree in Org. Development and Leadership, Mike can help you find the best way forward!
Contact Mike today to start the breakthrough!
A leadership devotional what?
My leadership devotional is a 30 day guide that you read daily. Basically, there is a short topic each day about leadership and it has some key points for reflection and a biblical Scripture reference you can look up for further study. The goal is to help the reader to reflect and sharpen their leadership skills.
However, the question remains, why would you publish this Mike?
I typically write on digital marketing and social media topics. All of these are practical and somewhat technical in nature related to the online marketing and web arenas. However, my premise always is that people do business with people, and therefore backing up to the 30,000 view it comes down to your interactions with people...and leadership.
So I dive into the "why" of a leadership devotional in this podcast and give you a quick peek at a few of the topics I cover.
Ready to dive in?
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So why did I publish a leadership devotional when I focus on marketing, social media, and web development? Because each of these involves people at the core, and leadership is the opportunity to influence in a positive way and to add value in any sphere we relate to others in, including marketing, social media, web development, non-profits, for-profits, and our families.
Let me dive deeper into my reasons...
I believe that with leadership we can influence, and influence is a way to add value.
I do not believe we are here by random chance or that we have no purpose other than what we try to create. We have a purpose and a role to play and it always includes adding value to others. We win when others win so we need to be aware of our ability to influence and use it for the greatest good in our businesses and organizations.
As noted a devotional is intended to be something you do daily, in this case for 30 days! They say it takes 21 days to develop a habit so in 30 days you can develop improved leadership habits and the art of reflection.
The unexamined life is not worth living! That's a great quote I've heard and it has value. I've pitched my podcast as a chance to stop, reflect, set a game plan, and then go and make improvements to your business to win the game in the second half.
So it is with a devotional. It allows you to stop, reflect on what and why, and through that reflection you can learn and improve going forward. That's my aim...to add value to you...to hundreds...to thousands, by enabling them to stop, reflect, learn, and go forward better, wiser, and more capable as leaders.
You are busy! I know that. I am too. This is intended for the busy marketplace person. You can spare 10 minutes a day and this is all you need.
I wrote this intentionally to be be able to be ready daily within 5 minutes and then you can spend 5 looking up the Bible reference and reflecting on the devotion for that day. You can even write notes in the devotional!
Take 10 minutes to stop, go deeper, and you can go forward a better leader that makes better decisions in life and business. Isn't that good business?
Sometimes the question of whether leaders are "born" or "made" comes up for debate. I'm not here to debate it, I'm here to tell you we all have a skillset given to us by birth but we are responsible to develop it and see our potential realized.
And leadership is part of this. No matter your gifts, you need to develop your leadership skills and have them improve. To be stagnant is to regress in leadership and influence. Leaders need to be ever-growing and have "learners" mentality.
This devotional adds value because leaders want to learn, grow, and contribute.
Show me an organization that last and that performs at a high level and I will show you an organization with very good leadership. Businesses may pop up fast and have a season of growth but they can't sustain it without good leadership.
Why do companies have high turnover? It is usually able to be linked back to the leadership and decisions that leadership provides.
Again, a great performing team is not by happenstance and random big bangs. It is from effort, dedication, and intentional leadership that seeks the greater good of the team and customers. It takes regular, sustained effort to provide leadership, connect with teams, and empower your team to support customers. This is not random, it takes diligence and effort. It takes study and reflection, and this leadership devotional provides the opportunity for that.
My goal in life is to add value and to do that I need to contribute, and contribute in uncommon ways. This devotional fits the mission!
I've had multiple forms of leadership roles over the past 25 years and I've learned from the good and the bad. I've made mistakes and I believe I learn from them and improve. And my aim is to pass on some of what I've learned to help others.
I've led businesses, teams, small groups, ministries, organizations and more over the past 25 years. Along the way I picked up a M.S. in Organizational Development and Leadership as well. I don't know it all for sure, but I have picked up some things and want to pass those on.
Read a sample day devotional and get the purchase link on Amazon at www.mikegingerich.com/blog/lead.
Buy "Add Value. Be Uncommon." Leadership Devotional book now:
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I’m an Indiana Hoosier native where basketball is the top sport. Every team heads to the locker room at halftime to evaluate the first half and create an updated plan for the second half. That plan includes adjustments based on reviewing what worked and what didn't. The “halftime” is a key review point where the game stops, the team pulls away to huddle in the locker room away from the fans, and they come out prepared and ready to succeed in the second half.
That’s what this podcast is all about, taking the time to pull away for a bit to evaluate, learn, and set some strategies for your business to succeed in the second half. Join me by subscribing and let me be your “business halftime” to help you find great success going forward!
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Grab my helpful checklist that includes strategy for social media lead generation. Click image!
Are you struggling to close sales?
What's the number one key to selling? People must first buy into you before they buy your product or service. You have influence.
The impression you give a potential buyer is critical to their decision-making. The impression you give is more important than anything people hear about your services or products. Show your leads that you're an expert, they'll trust your knowledge, and you'll close more sales.
Humans love genuine interaction. If your sales presentation sounds overly scripted, then you'll fail to connect on this basic level, and your prospect won't be likely to trust you.
Know your product inside and out. Know how your product will solve your client's problems. Your presentation should be engaging, and present relevant facts and real-life examples of how your product makes life easier.
You have to be passionate about your product, and let your passion and expertise shine during your presentation. If you aren't passionate or don't know what you're talking about, why would anyone trust you or buy from you?
Price shouldn't be the only way you stand out. Tell your potential clients how your product or service can't be matched by anyone else. Show the differences between you and the competitors. Become an expert on the competition's products, so you can clearly explain why yours is better.
You should have the most industry knowledge in the room when speaking with customers.
Another good strategy is to anticipate what your potential customers will ask. Prepare ahead of the meeting so your presentation will provide all the information that your potential customer wants to know. Be ready to present solutions focused on their needs.
There's a lot of psychology in sales. Customers buy based on the way you make them feel. Your goal is to make your potential customers confident in you and your product. If your leads have confidence in you, they're likely to buy from you.
However, you should never be too pushy. If you rush people to make a decision, they'll feel like you are just trying to make a sale, instead of trying to help them. People need time to make important decisions.
You also need to be empathetic. Listen to the problems and concerns your leads have, and show them how your product will give them a better experience.
Partnership produces sales. Your leads have problems that you can solve, and you can work together to build a solution. Build trusting relationships with your leads, and empower them with your product.
Here's the full blab with Jessika, and me. Enjoy!
Why do you do what you do in business?
For the profits?
To provide for your family/lifestyle desires?
It's important to know the "why" that drives you in business.
I call it "the WHY that drives the WHAT".
The why must be of such substance that it drives you forward when the going gets tough.
Guess what, the why needs to be more than money and profits.
In this episode I explain the critical importance of a deeper why as I dive into this territory in more detail. I open up and share with you my why that drives my what.
When the going gets tough, the tough keep going if they have a why! Explore and refine your why as we dive in.
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What’s your key takeaway that you need to do in the next 24 hours based on listening to this?
What's your Why?
Share below!
Resources outlined in this episode:
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I’m an Indiana Hoosier native where basketball is the top sport. Every team heads to the locker room at halftime to evaluate the first half and create a updated plan for the second half. That plan includes adjustments based on reviewing what worked and what didn't. The “halftime” is a key review point where the game stops, the team pulls away to huddle in the locker room away from the fans, and they come out prepared and ready to succeed in the second half.
That’s what this podcast is all about, taking the time to pull away for a bit to evaluate, learn, and set some strategies for your business to succeed in the second half. Join me by subscribing and let me be your “business halftime” to help you find great success going forward!
Subscribe: Halftime Mike on iTunes | Android users via RSS | Listen on Stitcher.
It's been said, "Everything rises and falls on leadership."
A critical key to business success but often overlooked in the pursuit of quick gains and flowing with the latest trends, is leadership. Leadership matters. It's the under-girding and visionary force that sustains and unifies.
In this episode of the Halftime Mike podcast I'm privileged to host Marcus Sheridan, The Sales Lion, and we dive into a topic that Marcus is passionate about, one that supercedes Inbound Marketing and Content Marketing, it's leadership. Leadership in business and life is our focus. It's important to take a step back from social media tactics and look at the deeper values and reasons why we all do what we do. In this interview Marcus shares from the heart and delivers the goods on why leadership is so important to business and how it impacts life.
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Click to Tweet > [inlinetweet prefix="Marcus Sheridan says " tweeter="on @Mike_Gingerich" suffix="via @thesaleslion "]Leadership is a willingness to follow your gut!"#HalftimeMike[/inlinetweet]"
Marcus hails from northern Virginia and is the author of 3 self-help books. He launched River Pools and Spas in 2001, and after nearly failing, the pool company grew to be one of the largest of its kind in the world (due to his leadership with inbound marketing efforts and an incredibly popular swimming pool blog).
Because of the huge success teaching other pool professionals how to embrace inbound marketing, Marcus has become a very successful HubSpot Partner, training inbound marketers and companies everywhere how to find success. With an incredibly entertaining and educational style, Sheridan has become a highly sought after speaker for many marketing and business conferences globally.
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SUBSCRIBEI'm a Indiana Hoosier native where basketball is the top sport. Every team heads to the locker room at halftime to evaluate the first half and create a updated plan for the second half. That plan includes adjustments based on reviewing what worked and what didn't. The "halftime" is a key review point where the game stops, the team pulls away to huddle in the locker room away from the fans, and they come out prepared and ready to succeed in the second half.
That's what this podcast is all about, taking the time to pull away for bit to evaluate, learn, and set some strategies for your business to succeed in the second half. Join me by subscribing and let me be your "business halftime" to help you find great success going forward!
Download:
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I'm big on your "next doable task". Take one point from today's podcast and make sure you go out and do it right away!
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A good post from Pat Lencioni and worth reflecting on...
The Enemy of Innovation and Creativity
Maybe it was just the kind of kid I was, but I’m guessing that most
children are constantly reminded by adults to be more efficient. Maybe
not exactly in those words. More likely it comes in the form of
phrases like “don’t be late”, “use your time wisely”, “don’t waste
money” or even “turn off the lights when you leave a room”.
And while it’s difficult to argue with a parent’s or teacher’s or
coach’s motivation for instilling these principles in the youngsters
they’re responsible for, there comes a time in life—especially in
certain situations—when those very traits become problematic. One of
those situations is the call to innovation or creativity.
I’ve become convinced that the only way to be really creative and
innovative in life is to be joyfully inefficient. Again, maybe it’s
just my personality, but I’m guessing it applies to most of us whose
jobs or lives involve dreaming up or improving on new ideas. And this
makes sense. Asking someone to be both creative and efficient reminds
me of that quote from Einstein: “You cannot simultaneously prevent and
prepare for war.” The two activities are fundamentally opposed to one
another.
Efficiency requires that we subdue our passion and allow it to be
constrained by principles of logic and convention. Innovation and
creativity require us to toss aside logic and convention, even without
the near-term promise of a payoff. Embracing both at the same time
seems to me to be a recipe for stress, dissonance and mediocrity, and
yet, that is exactly what so many organizations—or better yet—leaders,
do.
They exhort their employees to utilize their resources wisely and to
avoid waste and redundancy, which makes perfect sense. They also
exhort them to be ever-vigilant about finding new and better products
or processes, which also makes sense. And yet, combining these two
perfectly sensible exhortations makes no sense at all, and only
encourages rational, responsible people to find a middle ground,
something that is decidedly neither efficient nor innovative.
So what are leaders, who want both, to do? First, choose their poison;
decide which of these two characteristics are truly more important and
live with the consequences. And when you simply have to have both,
create skunkworks efforts which allow a small group of people to be
joyfully inefficient. No guilt. No confusion. No hesitation. And keep
them largely separate from their efficient peers, at least until
they’ve developed their ideas and are ready to share them.
But whatever you do, don’t chide creative, innovative people for their
inefficiency. And try to avoid throwing faint praise and backhanded
compliments at them (e.g. “I guess you creative types just aren’t
capable of hitting a deadline or staying on budget”). Few people have
the self-esteem and courage to continue being inefficient when others
are calling them out as being flaky, irresponsible and unreasonable.
If we’re serious about innovation, we have to celebrate—yes,
celebrate—the inefficiency of the people who we rely on for new ideas,
even if it means they are late for meetings, they waste a little time
or money and they leave the lights on when they go home.
Yours,
Patrick Lencioni
Posted via email from Mike's posterous
One of the most important elements of a successful organization is the staff team. You need the right people in the right roles! We can all relate to stories of hirings gone bad due to the "right fit". We also know people we'd like to "clone" because of the way they added value to the team.
Here's a good quick read from the blog of Jon Gordon, an author and trainer, relating 5 simple steps to helping you get the right people on board your bus.
Get the Right People on The Bus
In the classic book Good to Great, Jim Collins says, "...to build a successful organization and team you must get the right people on the bus." His research shows that great companies and organizations do this. They get the right people and put them in the right seats.
But a question I've been wondering lately that is not in his book is "Who are the right people?" After all, in order to get the right people on the bus you must identify who the right people are, right?
While speaking to the Cornell University lacrosse team in December I had the chance to spend time with the Head Coach, Jeff Tambroni, who has built Cornell into one of the top lacrosse programs in the country. As a former Cornell lacrosse player and given the work I do now I was very curious how Jeff was able to build a winning team and attract great players year after year.
Without hesitating he said, "We know who our type of player is. We have identified what we are looking for in a Cornell lacrosse player. We tell them that we will work and train harder than any other team in the country. So if they don't have a strong work ethic they are not our type of player. We also find the right athletes who we can develop and mold into our system. This has made it a lot easier on our recruiting. Instead of recruiting 30 players we go after the top 10 that are right for us."
This principle of identifying the right people was echoed by the Director of Learning at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. He told me how the Ritz has saved millions of dollars by identifying the key characteristics, strengths and traits of each job/position at the hotel and then creating a benchmark that every potential employee is measured against. Utilizing a company called Talent Plus they interview each potential employee and then identify how they measure up to the benchmark of the position they are applying for. As a result they are better able identify who the right people are for each job at the hotel.
As managers, team leaders and engaged employees it’s not enough to say that we need to get the right people on the bus. We must identify who the right people are and create a process that gets them on the right bus and in the right seat.
Here's a simple process to get started.
1. Identify who the right people are. Each organization and team will have different needs so your right people may be different than other organizations and teams.
2. One exercise you can do is to sit down with your leadership and human resources team and identify several people in your organization who you wish you could clone. Write down their characteristics and traits and create your own benchmark of the right person for each position.
3. Identify the type of person that fits your organization and team culture. For example, if you want to create a positive culture make sure you hire positive people. If you want to create a culture that is creative then hire creative people.
4. Make sure you take your time during the hiring/recruiting process. If you invest your time, resources and energy to get the right people on the bus you’ll have less headaches, expenses and flat tires later on.
5. Remember, the people you surround yourself with will often determine the kind of ride it's going to be.
How does your organization get the right people on the bus? Join the conversation at our blog. www.JonGordon.com/blog
I enjoy Jon Gordon's posts as they typically inspire me to be more positive and give me some good "reflection material." This most recent blog post is one of those.
I've attached the first 5 of the 20 Ways to Get Mentally Tough and included the link for you to click through and get them all via pdf. - Mike
(Excerpt from Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else)
1. When you face a setback, think of it as a defining moment that will lead to a future accomplishment.
2. When you encounter adversity, remember, the best don’t just face adversity; they embrace it, knowing it’s not a dead end but a detour to something greater and better.
3. When you face negative people, know that the key to life is to stay positive in the face of negativity, not in the absence of it. After all, everyone will have to overcome negativity to define themselves and create their success.
4. When you face the naysayer’s, remember the people who believed in you and spoke positive words to you.
5. When you face critics, remember to tune them out and focus only on being the best you can be.
Here's a short article from John Maxwell that is a number of years old but has lasting nuggets of wisdom.
I think the points that stick out most to me this time around reading it are collaboration and debriefing. Collaboration is so crucial or else you don't have buy-in; you don't have the best ideas; and you don't engage the best of others in the pursuit. As well, I think de-briefing is ignored far too often. We do something and move on, failing to learn and glean wisdom from the journey because we fail to stop and reflect together. De-briefing enables learning to occur; it enables the team to work through anything that came up during the process, and it allows relational bonds to go deeper. So here is the article, I encourage you to read and reflect on it! - Mike
TREES AND TEAMWORK
Leadership lessons are all around for those who know how to look
for them. I've observed some powerful motives for leading
through teams from the trees around me.
A few winters ago, parts of the southeastern United States,
including Atlanta where I now live, endured a much tougher than
usual winter. Following a wet, six-inch snowfall, pine trees
made a great parable of the need for teamwork.
Along the roads I noticed that where tall, young pine trees grew
in large stands, even though the branches were bowed with the
heavy snow, the trunks and branches were able to lean against one
another, thus providing support. When the snow melted, those
trees that had support sprang back into their usual vertical
position. But where that same species of tree stood alone, the
snow's burden had a much different effect. Branches bent until
they snapped. Occasionally, the trunk even split in two.
Otherwise healthy, young trees lay broken on the snow.
On the West coast, where I previously lived, a different type of
tree provided another dramatic parable. The giant redwoods only
achieve their great size in forests of redwoods. The root
systems of these mammoth trees are relatively shallow. Planted
alone, they will inevitably topple in high winds. But in redwood
forests, their roots become entangled and bound together below
the earth's surface. Each tree is tethered by all its neighbors,
and together they can withstand hurricane force winds.
Leaders who go it alone will fail alone. Collaborative
leadership takes more effort, but it yields greater results.
Collaborative leadership takes more time, but it provides a
greater probability of success. The adage, "None of us is as
smart as all of us" becomes evident when your failure is a direct
result of failing to enlist the input of people on your team.
1. Plan together.
This allows you to share the victory with your team, and allows
your team to share with you in the face of defeat.
2. Prepare together.
Getting input from your team members not only improves your
chances of winning, it also prepares others for leadership roles.
When leaders and potential leaders work together, they learn from
each other new ways of processing information and planning
strategically.
3. Celebrate together.
Never pass up an excuse to throw a party. One of the most common
flaws I see in leaders across the country is when they reach a
significant milestone, they immediately set their sights on
another without stopping long enough to celebrate the victory
they've just won. Do it! Not for you, but for everyone else who
gave so much to make the win a reality. And if you lose one once
in a while, celebrate the fact that it could have been worse!
4. Debrief together.
After each win or loss, schedule a brief meeting to find out from
each participant what went well - and what could have gone
better. You'll see the situation from multiple viewpoints, and
you'll also see first-hand who on your team is growing in their
ability to handle success and defeat.
When you apply the lesson of the trees, you'll emerge from the
storms of life intact!
Good statement to reflect on from SAMBA (www.SixMonthMBA.com) - Mike Gingerich
Cozy is the enemy of action.
Waking up in the morning, all snuggled down in the covers, it’s so tempting to never come out of your warm and cozy cocoon.
You feel like nothing can get to you there. All is right with the world as you burrow further down, safe and snug.
The problem is, while you’re playing Rip Van Winkle, the world is moving on. Things happen without you. Progress is made. Innovation occurs. Rules change.
Beware getting too cozy with where you are right now. Whether in life, love, work, play, getting cozy means standing still.
Playing catch-up later is far harder than being the one taking action today.
