Leadership
Here is an article that I found interesting for leaders. Enjoy!
5 ways to create a better workplace
October 7, 2019
Isaac Smith/Unsplash
With a tight labor market and a low unemployment rate of 3.5% (as of September 2019), employee retention remains top of mind for many senior executives.
Fortunately, leaders at every level have the power to make small changes that over time create better places to work, and thus attract and retain employees. This article offers five simple ways leaders at any level can create better workplaces.
1. Lead yourself
William Penn said, "No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself." Self-leadership is about knowing who you are and what you stand for, then making decisions and course corrections based on this self-identification. When I first started my business, my decision-making process was based on the maxim “improving communication and relationships everywhere.” If what I was doing didn’t improve communication or relationships, then I knew it was time for course-correction.
What to do: Create a maxim. A maxim is a short pithy statement expressing a rule of conduce. Test every decision and behavior against your maxim and you will know when you are on or off course.
2. Build trust
There’s probably nothing more important to your leadership reputation than the ability to earn the trust of your employees, colleagues and executives. According to Stephen M.R. Covey, a top thought leader on trust and author of "Speed of Trust," “Trust includes two primary components: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, motive and intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, skills, results and track record."
What to do: Create your own trust audit that includes five character traits and five competency traits. Grade yourself on a scale of 1-10, then compare those scores with 10 volunteers who agree to rate you anonymously.
3. Speak truth kindly
When giving feedback, it’s easy to let frustration override facts. This is why many new leaders avoid difficult conversations: They don’t have the skills to override strong emotions so they simply procrastinate initiating conversations that need to happen. Avoiding the elephant in the room only creates surprises and resentments later.
What to do: Focus on facts, not frustrations. First, identify the gap in performance. What are they doing or not doing? Then connect the dots. How does their behaviors affect the business? Example: “When we don’t greet customers immediately we put ourselves at risk of losing them,” works a lot better than, “You aren’t very observant and it doesn’t seem that you really care.”
When you learn how to state the facts without letting emotion wash over you it’s easier to address small problems before they turn into major issues.
4. Stop rescuing
Just because you are the leader doesn’t mean you need to fix every problem. When you fix every problem you create co-dependency, and your open door will soon become a revolving door. You must distinguish between helping and rescuing. Helping is teaching a man to fish, while rescuing is serving up a fish dinner and then offering to wash the dishes.
What to do: When an employee comes to you with a problem, be prepared to coach the employee to solve the problem. The way to coach is by asking questions, so be prepared to create a list of questions relevant to the situation. Some qood questions to begin with are: What have you tried so far? What choices do you think you have? What is your intended end result?
5. Create a conscious bias
As a leader, you have to constantly work on how you “see” your employees. We are all subject to unconscious bias, stereotyping people by their age, background, race, education and other characteristics. The way we see others affects how we interact with them. David Rock, author of "Your Brain at Work," says, “ When you think someone is a foe, you don't just miss out on feeling their emotions, you also inhibit yourself from thinking their ideas, even if they are right."
What to do: Create a conscious bias that works for the common good. For example, when Tom Landis opened his ice cream store in Texas, it was for the specific purpose of offering jobs to people with disabilities. This entrepreneur decided to consciously look at possibility instead of disability. Decide to create a conscious bias by choosing to see your employee’s humanity, their potential and their value.
Conclusion
Leaders have a lot of power when it comes to building great places to work. The leader must be the example, and then must offer resource and guidance so that employees can continue to grow and add value for the organization.
Marlene Chism is a consultant, international speaker and the author of "Stop Workplace Drama" (Wiley 2011), "No-Drama Leadership" (Bibliomotion 2015) and "7 Ways to Stop Drama in Your Healthcare Practice" (Greenbranch 2018). Download "The Bottom Line: How Executive Conversations Drive Results." Connect with Chism via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and at MarleneChism.com.
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Tags:
conscious bias, Marlene Chism, leadership, culture, managing a team
It is very easy to do what has been established. It is also very easy to aim for comfort in leadership. After reading this article I was intrigued at how we sometimes want to be comfortable as leaders and thought to share it in my blog. Check out this challenge from Mike Henry.
It is always a challenge to think of oneself as a servant leader.
Sometimes the actions we take in good faith look like servant leadership,
but are they really servant leadership qualities or traits.
Check out Dan@leadershipfreak.com to see if you measure up.
Below is an excerpt from Dan. Enjoy your reading!
THE TOP SIGNS YOU’RE A SERVANT-LEADER
The first time I was asked what a servant-leader looks like I was dumbfounded. Who wouldn’t know? But after some thought, I realized that some may not understand what to look for when hiring leaders with a servant’s attitude.
Servant-leaders:
#1. Servant-leaders turn conversations toward others.
One of the first signs of humility is open ears and a closed mouth. Servant-leaders believe they have room to grow. They learn from anyone.
Apart from the foundational character qualities of leadership like integrity, curiosity is one of the top predictors of success.
#2. Servant-leaders use people’s strengths, aspirations, and capabilities as guides for evaluation.
Egotistical leaders compare people’s performance with their own. Servant-leaders don’t impose their strengths on others.
Ego wants others to act like itself and pressures people to do things the way it would do them. Arrogance believes others should be mirrors. That’s why so many leaders hire mirror images of themselves.
Note: If an employee’s strengths, aspirations, and capabilities don’t bring value to your organization, help them find a place where they bring value.
#3. Servant-leaders concern themselves with how others feel about themselves, not what others think of them.
It’s normal to be concerned about opinions, but egotistical leaders are consumed with image.
#4. Stand behind others.
Super-star leaders defend themselves and willingly sacrifice others along the way.
Servant-leaders defend their team. If you can’t defend the members of your team, one of three things needs to happen.
- Fire them.
- Fire yourself.
- Develop people to the point where you are proud to stand behind them.
#5. Take responsible risks.
Egotistical leaders play it safe because you can’t risk failure if your identity is defined by your last success.
#6. Servant-leaders revel in the success of others.
Envy is a sure sign of arrogance.
How do you spot servant-leaders?
Dan Rockwell 2018
How to Overcome Your Biggest Leadership Fears
Lolly Daskal has shared some key fears that most leaders have. She goes on to challenge leaders to face their fears. Enjoy the reading!
Lolly Daskal, April 2019
Something I’ve noticed in my work as a leadership coach is people’s surprise that even the top leaders in their field can be troubled by fears. People think once you make it to a certain level you have it all under control. But running a business and leading people are difficult, complex jobs, and leaders—like the rest of us—have their share of fears.
It’s not having fears that’s important—we all do, at least once in a while. It’s what you do with your biggest fears that makes a difference in your future. Here are some of the top fears I coach top leaders through. Do any of them sound familiar?
Not being smart enough. Many leaders are afraid of not being smart enough, knowledgeable enough, and competent enough. It’s a fear so common it has a name—imposter syndrome, the feeling that you’re not at all qualified to be doing what you’re doing and that you landed where you are through some oversight or mistake of the universe. Left unchecked, this is one of the most destructive fears to leadership. Learn to leverage your fear by tapping into your competences and capabilities so you can build the confidence you need to banish imposter syndrome.
Making a bad decision. Making decisions is a big part of leading, and it’s something you likely do daily if not hourly. It’s easy to lock up out of fear that you’re going to make a wrong choice and disaster will follow. But here’s the thing: you will make a wrong decision at some point. Every leader does. And the best way to overcome the fear is to remember that fact.
Taking risks. Every leadership role demands a significant amount of risk taking, which leads naturally enough to fear of failure. But a certain amount of risk is necessary for successful leadership—so allow yourself to feel the fear, then do it anyway.
Being ineffective. Every leader wants to be effective, and fear often takes the shape of concern that you’re not being as impactful or credible as you could be. The only way to overcome the fear of ineffectiveness is to make sure your character and values always lead the way. You can never go wrong when you lead from within.
Failing badly. The fear of failure is possibly the most pervasive among leaders. That’s why it’s important to remember, is that failure not fatal. Often failure is the thing that causes you to look at things differently and improves your odds of success the second time around. Virtually every success includes some degree of failure.
Fears will always influence us and cause a certain amount of inner turmoil. It’s what we do with these fears that will make the difference.
Lead from within: As a leader, you gain strength, courage and confidence through every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face and work through it with dignity.