My Leadership Solutions

lead·er·ship: not only for those with a fancy title. High doses can lead to success. Side effects include courage and confidence

Mastering Leadership

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I just finished reading a great book about mastery and what it takes to achieve it in your field.  The information was quite relevant to developing your leadership skills and becoming the leader you strive to be.   We’ve become so accustomed to quick fixes that we sometimes forget that real change and improvement takes time and effort.  Society constantly reminds us of what we don’t have and advertisements prey on our fears of falling behind in society if we don’t buy certain products.  When it comes to mastery in any area, it’s going to take time, effort, and discipline.

In his book, Mastery:  The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment, George Leonard says there are “five keys” to the journey to become a master.  I want to share these keys with you and tie them to how you can use this information to become a better leader.

Becoming a Master Leader

1)      Instruction:  Find a mentor who possesses leadership skills that you lack and would like to develop.  This person can be someone in your organization or outside of your organization.  You can also choose to pay for the services of a leadership coach to help you, but you want to make sure to meet with the person first to find out whether or not they’re a good match to work with you.

2)      Practice:  It’s going to take a lot of good old-fashioned practice for you to improve your leadership skills.  Set short-term and long-term goals for yourself.  Incorporate practice into your daily or weekly routine.  Focus on what you’re going to do each day to improve your skills. Have difficult conversations that you’ve been putting off.  Listen when you’d prefer to be speaking.  Make courageous moves.  Empower employees to move forward with their own ideas with minimal supervision.

3)      Surrender:  You have to surrender your old thoughts and actions in order to learn new skills.  This doesn’t mean you’ll give up all of your old beliefs, since they are a large part of who you are, but you will want to work through any limiting thoughts or beliefs that hold you back.  Sometimes, you’ll have to take steps back in order to move forward and that’s okay.  Analyze any thoughts or actions that currently stand in your way and take the time to understand them.  Only then can you move away from them and embrace learning new skills.

4)     Intentionality:  Having the intention to do something and seeing it in your mind will give you more power to achieve it.  Think about becoming the leader you strive to be.  Before the day begins, visualize specific actions you’ll take that day to reach your goals.

5)     The Edge: Once you feel as if you’ve become the ideal leader, you should continue learning and still push yourself to improve.  Leadership is not a final destination; leadership is a continuous journey.

Benefit From Giving a Bad Presentation

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After putting in weeks or months of preparation, you feel ready to give a great presentation.  Nothing could possibly go wrong.  And then it does go wrong.  It falls flat.  It doesn’t reach the goals you were intending.  You don’t do the best you could.  Whatever the reason for the miss, you decide to give up on presentations.

You may be disappointed by your presentation.  You may feel as if you never want to give another presentation again.  You may feel as if you don’t want to face those people ever again.

Just as with any new endeavor you take in life, there is a possibility that things won’t go as well as you expected and that you will be disappointed.  Should you give up?  Absolutely not.

After a bad experience, many of us want to forget it ever happened and move on.  Or we promise ourselves that we will never give another presentation again.  Or we label ourselves as a bad speaker and decide to live with that label.  Or we label our audience as being too stupid to understand us.

None of these tactics will help you improve.  They will push you down and keep you from moving forward.  After all, it’s a lot easier to stay where you’re at than admit that you have the potential to do better.  It may feel safer in the short-term, but it’s actually dangerous because it’s keeping you stuck where you’re at with no hope for improvement.

First of all, you should congratulate yourself for going out there and making the effort.  Then, if you are feeling emotional or down, give yourself a few days to calm down.  Don’t think about the presentation during this time if possible.  Don’t beat yourself up.  If you want to feel sorry for yourself during this time, that’s okay too.

After giving yourself a few days to calm down, stop feeling sorry for yourself.  Analyze your presentation objectively and write down specifically what went well and what didn’t go so well.  Ask someone who was in the audience for feedback.  Now, ask yourself what you will do for the next presentation to make it better.  Write down concrete goals that you will take action on between now and your next presentation.

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat,” said F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Giving up is a choice; if you choose to give up, it will be a final defeat.  How will you choose to handle disappointment?

Poor Manager Communication Costs Companies

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If your managers are not communicating effectively with their employees, it may be costing your company more than you think. 

In the Gallup 2013 State of the American Workplace Report, Gallup CEO, Jim Clifton, said that choosing the managers is the most important thing that companies do (Gallup, 2013).  Poor management can affect an employee’s level of engagement in the job.  The report shows that unfortunately, 20% of workers are actively disengaged and 50% are not engaged, which can cost the company millions of dollars in lost productivity, healthcare costs, turnover, poor customer service and mistakes.

So what does communication have to do with it?

Poor communication from managers can lead to employee disengagement.  Effective communication is not just about how often the manager talks to employees or how nice he or she is to them during conversations.  It’s about having the right types of conversations.

The right types of conversations include conversations around the employee’s strengths and talents and how the employee can use those talents on the job.

Managers should be giving performance feedback that is timely, consistent, specific, and relevant.  These conversations should be in-depth and should occur on a frequent basis.  Don’t just give feedback on areas that the employee should improve, but also recognize an employee’s positive performance. Show appreciation when someone does an exceptional job. It doesn’t take a lot of time on your part, but it means a lot to employees when you show them that their hard work is being recognized.

Managers should communicate to employees about what is expected of them and how they measure against those expectations.  If there are areas that they need to develop, help them come up with ideas or a plan for developing in those areas.

As noted in the Leadership and Listening Series article, Really Listen to Your Employees, communication isn’t just about talking; listening is a key part of effective communication for leaders.  As a manager, you should be asking for and listening to employees’ ideas as well as listening to employees’ career goals and helping them meet those goals.  Employees should feel valued to be part of the organization and feel as if their contributions are making a difference.

Using communication to empower employees to do their jobs requires effort, but the results are worth it.  According to the Gallup Survey, engaged employees come up with the most innovative ideas, bring in more customers, have higher productivity, and produce higher quality work (Gallup, 2013).

 

 

Leadership and Listening Part 5: Really Listen to Yourself

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Listening to others will help you become a better leader, but a key part of great leadership is also listening to yourself.  Really listening to yourself means more than just thinking about what you’re going to say. It means taking the time to assess where you currently are and where you want to be.  It means taking the time to look at your goals, priorities, and values to make sure that they are in alignment.

Why Listen to Yourself?

Listening to yourself helps guide your intentions and keeps you on the right track.  If the thought of adding one more task to your already hectic schedule stresses you out, I completely understand.  Start with just 15-30 minutes per week.  That short amount of time can help you come up with ways to improve how you’re currently doing things, so it’ll actually save you time.

Also, listen to your body.  If you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or burnt out, ask yourself what you need in order to recover.   If your body is telling you to slow down and you’re still moving at warp speed, you’ll wear yourself out and not be as effective of a leader.

How to Listen to Yourself?

  • Choose a quiet location where there aren’t any distractions.
  • Have a piece of paper and pen with you.
  • Close your eyes and ask yourself questions.  Write down the answers if it’ll help you guide your thinking. I’ve included some sample questions to help you get started.  Once you start the process, you’ll think of many more that are unique to you and your current situation.

Sample Questions

What are my priorities right now?  What are my goals?  What are my values?  Am I spending my time in a way that’s aligned with my priorities, goals, and values? What’s bothering me?  What’s keeping me from being as effective as I’d like to be?  What skills do I need to develop to reach my goals?

  • Write down goals you have and what skills you would like to develop in order to reach those goals.
  • Think of specific detailed actions you can take to acquire those skills you’d like to develop.  For example, if you want to develop your skill in giving feedback, your action could be to get advice from a specific person at work who is good at giving feedback.  Another action could be that you’ll make it a point to give feedback on a daily or weekly basis.

So as you go about planning your week, remember to find a small chunk of time to spend listening to yourself.

This article is part of a series of listening articles.   Access the other articles in this series by clicking on the links below.

Listening and Leadership Part 1:  Why Should You Listen?

Listening and Leadership Part 2:  Stop Faking and Really Listen

Listening and Leadership Part 3:  Really Listen to Your Clients

Listening and Leadership Part 4:  Really Listen to Your Employees