In my last post, I outlined Three Phrases That Should Make Every Leader Sit Up and Take Notice.
As a reminder, these phrases were:
“I have an idea [to change or improve something specific] and here are the benefits of doing so.”
“How can I help/serve you better?”
“I don’t think that’s the right way to go; I’d like to challenge you on that.”
All of these phrases require several leadership traits to be present in any leader who wants to prevent them from remaining completely off their radar, causing them to miss golden opportunities to recognize and nurture budding leadership talent in their team members and retain them for the long run.
Growth Mindset
If any leader is too happy maintaining the status quo, these phrases will not only be meaningless to them, but annoying as well. The leader who does not wish to grow (personally, professionally or as an organization) doesn’t want to be forced to learn new information, procedures or methods of operation, and slams down any suggestion to do so.
Their motto is often, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” However, too often, not only is something “broke” and no one realizes it – but sometimes people do realize it, but they’ve stopped bringing it to anyone’s attention because their suggestions fall on deaf ears.
Case in point: I called a company’s customer service department once and had a horrendous time getting through their automated phone system. When I finally reached someone, of course the teacher in me came out and I made a suggestion that they may want to simplify this very frustrating process.
He replied, “I’ll tell them, but they won’t listen. They never do!”
OUCH! Wouldn’t you just love to have that team member working for you? NOT!
This system WAS “broke” but leadership didn’t know it (or didn’t care) because no one is bringing anything to their attention any more. There shame of it is that there are so many easy ways to incent and reward team members for going the extra mile, such as:
- Creating a suggestion box or website that is monitored and answered by someone who lets each suggester know they were heard, informs them of their suggestion’s status and even rewards them for making suggestions! Some companies give bonuses for implemented ideas; others give tickets for each submission, holding quarterly raffles and awarding prizes. The more ideas you submit, the more tickets (and entries into each raffle) you receive.
- Add goals to each team member’s performance evaluation to reward them for bringing forward ideas for improvements and implementing positive changes. Bonuses could be earned for over-achieving on any particular goal.
- Leaders can also add these types of goals to their performance evaluations, earning higher bonuses for encouraging, receiving, reacting to, and acting upon great suggestions from their team members.
- Team rewards could also be offered for positive results.
The upshot is that when a leader doesn’t possess a Growth mindset, everyone except that leader often recognizes it and stops trying to make anything better. What you’re left with is an employee roster of automatons who sleepwalk through their days, ignoring customer requests and turning a blind eye to things that go wrong, rather than stepping up with ideas for improvement.
Caring Attitude
Leaders must genuinely care about the success of their people, not just the success of the organization. When someone cares enough to offer help in an area that the leader could be missing, if that leader doesn’t show enough care about that team member to listen and genuinely consider their request, it shows not only a lack of concern for the other person but a lack of self-awareness.
That team member may see an opportunity to free up the leader’s time for more valuable tasks than what they are currently spending time (or too much time) doing. One example I hear often is that many leaders try to book their own travel arrangements, believing it will take too much time to train their assistant or cause them to lose control. If they’re going to have to review the options anyway, why not do the original research and make the decision in the process? Two birds with one stone…
I have been there and done that! I came from an administrative background and had become quite proficient at researching and making travel arrangements. When I first started my speaking and consulting business 20 years ago, it was all right to do this for myself. But as I began to travel more and take on more work, it became impossible to do it all myself!
Yet, I still resisted because I thought, especially with my background, that I could do it more quickly and easily myself. But when I hired the right assistant, Patti, that changed everything! One day, out of desperation, I typed a quick email outlining three upcoming trips and asked her to do the research for me and email me with the best options. When I looked at the situation in the clear light of day, I realized that yes, it had taken me about 10-15 minutes to look up the details of the trips and put them into an email for her. But that was nothing compared to the hour (at least!) it would have taken me to research all the travel details I needed for just those three trips.
Bam! “I could have had a V-8!” (Thank you, Patti!)
This situation literally proves the saying, “Just because I can doesn’t mean I should.”
Leaders (like me) who fall into this trap believe, “If I want something done right, I have to do it myself!” While this may be true for some tasks, there are many that we don’t have to do ourselves – and if we calculate the hourly rate involved in doing it ourselves versus those who should be doing it, we realize the ridiculous amount of money and productivity we’re wasting doing things that should be left to others.
Allowing Patti to use her expertise and ability to serve at a higher level, instead of slamming her into one small box and telling her to stay there, has created an incredible partnership between us. I don’t know what I would do without this strategic partner whom I know will always have my back.
What can you and the right partners do together?
High Self-Esteem
Leaders must possess enough self-esteem and self-confidence to resist feeling “threatened” by others who disagree with their opinions. This applies even, or especially, when the leader has strong convictions, as the tendency when “threatened” regarding a belief we hold dear is to get defensive – and often to attack. I’m sure we’ve all witnessed disagreements and debates that devolve into disrespectful behavior on both sides. Sometimes we have to just respectfully agree to disagree and leave it at that.
But leaders should be open to hearing opposing viewpoints for several reasons:
- It helps them see if they are missing a critical perspective on the issue.
- It offers respect to others.
- It may serve to allow them to think through and strengthen their own opinion.
People who are confident in their own abilities and knowledge are able to resist the feeling that their intelligence is somehow diminished by the presence of other intelligent people around them. Thus, they are able to resist the impulse to “one-up” someone else with their knowledge because they are able to allow another to bask in the warmth of the accolades of others without having to prove that they are just as knowledgeable (or more knowledgeable) on any given topic.
They also know that surrounding themselves with other intelligent people is an intelligent move on their part. Besides, the intelligence of their companions has a good chance of “rubbing off” on them! So, surround yourself with intelligent people and let them shine!
Sense of Humor
The ability to laugh at life in general, and ourselves/our mistakes specifically, is a wonderful gift.
A perfect example of the power of humor was during the 1984 Presidential race between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. When the issue of Reagan’s significantly older age arose, he humorously said, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Even his opponent had to laugh at that! View the clip here.
What Reagan did was to defuse the tense situation brought up by the question of his age, making himself extremely likeable in the process. What he also did was dispel the notion that he was no longer quick on his feet or able to think fast. Mondale even laughingly said later that he knew he’d lost the election right there!
Just remember that anything we can do to become more self-aware, make our people feel more at ease to serve at a higher level and laugh, even in difficult situations, is a step in the right direction toward earning their respect and getting them to engage.
Leaders: Follow this link for tips to improve Employee Morale & Job Satisfaction.
Sandy Geroux, M.S. is on a mission to help you turn your workplace into a WOWplace through engaged and inspired leadership which leads to exceptional customer experiences and loyalty and a lasting culture of WOW. In her latest book, “Turn Your Workplace Into a WOWplace!: 5 Rules for Going From OW to WOW,” she presents a successful structure for creating cultural consistency in the face of human inconsistency. She is also the author of many articles and publishes a blog at www.wowplace.com. Tens of thousands of people worldwide have learned from her ideas through training programs. For more information, visit www.thewowplace.com.
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