Everyone's a Leader

Many times when I speak to people about leadership, they say, “I am not a leader.” I then ask them the following questions, and if they say yes to any one of them, then I say YOU ARE A LEADER:

Are you married? Then you are a leader. It does not matter if you are if you are the husband or wife. You are leading in some way, no matter how small.

Do you have kids? Then you are a leader. Your children will look to you for direction and in many cases their lives will be shaped by what they see in yours.

Do you work? Then you are a leader.  Whether you are an employee, a supervisor, or a manager, you are leading those employees who work alongside you or who report to you. I believe that the front desk receptionist is also a leader. People are influenced by his or her attitude and character, and some will emulate what they see.

Do you have friends? Then you are a leader.  Your friends are looking at you and your influence is being felt. You can influence them in many ways, so don’t take your leadership lightly.

The question then becomes ‘what type of leader are you?’ There are good and bad leaders. I am sure for every good leader you can name, you can equally name bad ones.

Leaders influence and, as result, people will follow.

So, what kind of leader are you, or what kind of leader do you want to become?

Tool Check

Have you ever used the butt of a wrench for a hammer or a butter knife for a screwdriver? I am ashamed to admit it, but I have. Recently I was engaged in a conversation with a young lady who shared a story with me about her father and his love for his tools. She said while cleaning his tools one day that he explained to her that it is important to always keep your tools cleaned and well maintained. If you do, they will always serve you well.

That got me to thinking about employees in a company and how crucial it is to take care of them. Like tools, you need to make sure they are being maintained properly. Just like it is important to select the right tools for the job, it is also critical that you select the right employee for the job. Ensuring the right fit will go a long way to making sure the job is done correctly.

In today’s economy many companies are stretching their staffs to the brink. There is so much pressure to perform that many managers forget to manage their teams to accomplish realistic expectations. Here are just a few keys to remember when leading your team:

• Employees should be able to do what they do best. Like selecting the right tool for the job, don’t force a wrench to do a hammer’s job. If the person’s strength is administration do not force them to be a sales person.
• Treat your employees well by mentoring, coaching and checking in with them to insure that they will be productive in the future.
• When you see that an employee is not performing well, don’t wait until they fail. This is the time to evaluate whether they should be in a different position to bring greater benefit to the company or whether some retraining would equip them to improve where they are.

In the current economy we are asking our employees to do more with less. It just happens to be the environment we are all living in. However, it can be counterproductive to place so much on someone who clearly does not have the capacity to do the work.

Effective leaders continue to check in regularly with members of their team to insure that that they are working to their strengths and accomplishing what they have been tasked to do. They treat their people the way they want to be treated.

Are you being used properly in your job? How many days a week do you have the opportunity to play to your strengths? Is there anyone under your leadership who may be misplaced in the job they are doing?

Smile

Today my daughter and I served breakfast at an organization in Oakland called World Impact. Although the morning was grey and dreary there was a light that shone brightly in the smile of my daughter. Despite being tired from a long late night at a friend’s sleepover party, she said she still wanted to go with me. I asked her why she still wanted to go and she said with a smile, “I really love serving them.” (When you really have a passion for an activity it energizes you, even when you are tired.)

While serving coffee and juice she flashed her smile at one of the residents who said, with a smile in return, that she made his day! It’s amazing what a smile can do to raise the spirits of a person. My daughter did not fully know the overall impact she made in that person’s life, but in a neighborhood where many of the residents have little to smile about, her smile made a difference.

In today’s world where there is so much uncertainty, hopelessness and fear, many find it difficult to smile. As a leader there will be times when we need to give the people we lead a reason to smile. In the TV series Man vs. Wild, Bear Grylls, survivalist, often says that no matter how bad things get when you are lost in the wild, a fire brings warmth and a feeling of hope. I believe a genuine smile can have the same effect.

Leaders who can communicate a message of hope and encouragement with a smile will find that their teams will respond in a way that will keep them engaged even when things are going well.

Less than 15 minutes after returning home, my daughter was snuggled in her bed with a smile on her face, fast asleep.

"Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing."

Mother Teresa

The Value of Engagement

“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

John Maxwell

I had the opportunity to visit the company of a friend who was the VP of a large service organization. During the visit we toured the warehouse and I was amazed to see how many of his employees responded to him as moved through the building. They all said hello and he acknowledged each of them by name. He told me how long some of them had been working with the company and special stories about their families. It was quite apparent that there was a lot of respect between them. He genuinely cared about his employees. As a result, he led a high performing team which year over year met performance goals.

During lunch we discussed his company and his philosophy on leadership. He expressed that no company can truly be successful without a fully committed and engaged work force. Part of cultivating the engagement is to treat everyone like you want to be treated and to value each employee personally. No one likes to work in anonymity. They want to know that they matter and that you care. They want to feel and be treated like they are genuinely important and that the work they do is important.

As a result of my experience, I have made a conscious effort to engage with every member of my team. I do not do it because I am trying to get more out of them, but because I want them to know that they are important to me and our company. It is about people and building solid working relationships. I am not saying we need to be best buddies with everyone that works with us, but an effort should be made to connect with them on a meaningful level. Above all else people are a company’s greatest asset.

Has there been a time in your career that you felt anonymous at work? How did it impact your performance? Did it leave you feeling disconnected? Maybe you feel like just another number.

Have you ever worked for a company where you felt valued?

Looking Back

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." Jack Welch

As a leader I sometimes wonder what kind of impact, other than profits, I have had on the people I have led. When I received this letter from one of my former hourly employees it encouraged me tremendously. Hearing this employee's observations confirmed that my principles of leadership were finding their mark, and it motivated me to continue to work to strengthen my leadership abilities even further:

Dear Tony,

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for all of the guidance and encouragement you have given and taught me in the past.

You were and continue to be an inspiration to me and many others that are fortunate to know you.

Over the past few years you have shown me what it takes to be a respected leader. I originally thought it only took a loud voice and some organization to be successful. It couldn’t have been further from reality. You have shown me that it takes respect, encouragement and follow up to be a successful leader.

No matter how busy you were flying around the country or how many meetings you were tied up in you always managed to follow up and keep your word as if I was your only employee.

The greatest thing you taught me was to figure out a difficult situation on my own. You always encouraged me by asking me “what do you think we should do” rather than telling me how to handle it and making me feel rushed. With that type of leadership I felt encouraged and motivated.

Your knowledge and patience has earned the respect you have today from so many people you have affected throughout the country.

I make every effort possible to utilize the many techniques you have taught me and I can only hope that someday I will have just as much respect from my employees as you have from yours.

Many thanks.

Sincerely,

S

It felt so good to know that I was able to play a small part in the development of an individual who is now is a leader in his community.

As a leader I want to encourage you to think about what kind of impact you are having on the people you lead. Are you motivating, inspiring, serving, and respecting the people on your team? I am sure there are individuals whom you have influenced that can say the same thing about your impact on them that my former employee said about my leadership. I hope sharing this letter will inspire you to always be mindful of how you are managing and supervising individuals who work for you as well as those who may be looking at you from afar.

Leadership Essential#2, Respect - check.

Room To Grow

Like most men I know I am not really into taking care of plants. However, in my office I had a plant and for a long time it thrived and gave me a lot of visual pleasure. Over time I noticed that the leaves on the plant had begun to turn brown. I continued to water it, but to no avail. The leaves had a burned look and then began to wilt. I thought about whether I should throw the plant away.

One day a woman with a floral printed smock and a floppy straw hat came by my office bringing new plants. I asked her what she was doing and she said her company provides plants for offices and maintains them on a weekly basis. I asked her if she could take a look at my plant and let me know whether it could be saved. She took one look at it and told me the plant had outgrown the planter. All that needed to be done was to place it in a larger planter with new soil and it would recover. At my request, she placed it in a new planter with new soil and shortly thereafter the plant gradually showed signs of new life. Over the next few weeks the plant was back to full health.

As a general manager I was responsible for leading a team of over 70 salaried staff. Part of my responsibilities was to work with the various supervisors in evaluating the individual performance of their team members. During one such evaluation we were discussing one of our once-excellent employee’s work. We noticed that over the previous few months his performance had not been up to standard. In spite of our best efforts we could not turn him around and as such we had to make a decision on whether we would need to separate him from the company.

I kid you not, while sitting in my office one day I glanced at that plant that had once been dying and was now completely restored and thought of that employee. We brought him into my office and had a different conversation this time. The result was we determined that he had outgrown his position. He felt stagnated and unchallenged. It so happened that we had a manager’s position opening up that we believed he would be a great fit for, and would do an excellent job. We promoted him and sure enough he became one of our best managers.

When I look back, I think of what a shame it would have been to throw both the plant and employee out simply because I did not understand the importance of environment. As leaders it is our responsibility to mentor, coach, and challenge our employees to grow and play bigger within our organizations. When we do, we all win and we have the pleasure of watching the growth of our potential replacement.

Have you ever been in a pot too small or given someone an opportunity to grow, and how did it turn out?

Great Expectations

One day while traveling on our rapid transit system, I overheard two women talking about their jobs. During the conversation one of them expressed her total dissatisfaction with her employer, to be specific, her boss. She stated that her supervisor was unrealistic in his expectations of her. He provided no clear direction, few resources and did not appreciate her efforts. Does this sound familiar?

It is said that people do not leave their jobs because of the company, but because of the managers. The problem is that in the current market, not many are leaving their companies voluntarily, so they are more likely to put up with poor leadership, at least until the market changes.

In order for companies to be positioned for the eventual economic turn-around, they will need a highly skilled and talented workforce. The successful company will place a high value on its people process. (How does the company attract, hire and retain high quality talent that fits with its Operations Plan?). One way is a Performance Management system that consistently measures the performance of the employee.

Seven Success Factors for effective Performance Management

~ Make sure the employees know what is expected of them each and every day. The expectation should be clearly articulated by the employees.
~ Give them the opportunity to do what they do best every day, to play to their strengths.
~ Give them the tools and resources they need to succeed.
~ Develop clear goals that support the company’s overall goals.
~ Develop metrics that support and track the employees’ performance against established goals.
~ Implement a rewards system that rewards the right behaviors. Remember it’s not just about money.
~ Take the time to meet with employees individually, at least monthly, to discuss their performance and to give the appropriate feedback.

I am convinced that the two women I overheard on BART would have had a different conversation if they were exposed to an effective Performance Management system.

Do you know what is expected of you?