It is imperative that new leaders are fully trained before participating in a meeting like this.
Every week a leader may share many messages with their team but how many are actually listened to? It has happened to me more times than I care to mention where a member of my team does not deliver on something I have asked them to do and their standard response is denial that the request was even made.
This challenge is not just limited to leadership but also in everyday dealings with other colleagues. How many email boxes are clogged up with emails where they were CC’d in? The CC in numerous occasions is simply there because the sender does not trust the person they are sending the email to and as such they CC in the world so that the person knows that if they don’t deliver then all those CC’d in the email will also be advised that they did not deliver.
The question I ask myself is really a simple one. “Who is the problem?”. Is the person who is not listening “The Problem?” or is the person that is speaking “The problem”. Some may say both, however I have seen teams that deliver 100% of the time and don’t miss deadlines and in all cases they have a great leader who communicates effectively. The leader ensures that everyone understands the message not just hears it but rather that they understand it and there is a massive difference between hearing and understanding.
Ask yourself this question? If an outsider listened and saw how I spoke with my team (verbally, via email, sms or any other medium) would they say my messages are clearly articulated and easy to understand? Or would they be highly confused as to what is really expected? Such as the message below:
“Please ensure that you are all ready to share your numbers at the next team meeting?”
This seems clear enough yet what were you actually thinking when you wrote that statement. Were you thinking year to date numbers? The numbers for the week? Were you thinking about a specific product or promotion? Don’t assume that your team will connect that sentence to a statement that you made previously a couple of days earlier.
Team frustration = A communication problem?
May you be an effective communicator that ensures your team not only listens but more critically understands.
It will happen at some stage to every leader. The patience wears thin and suddenly explosion. Yet just like an explosion at a demolition site leaves rubble all over the place, so does the explosion in the office leave emotional scars on those that were part of it. Is it right to explode like this?
Watch the clip and let me know your thoughts?
Nothing prepared me for all the prickly engagements I faced as a leader, such as the time a direct report challenged me in front of the team telling me they don’t like me and the first time I had to performance rate a team member and they disagreed with everything I said. There was also the time when a team member shouted back at me in a team meeting as they felt I was victimizing them.
The training and preparation I had in leadership was mainly focused on the operational components of the role such as a “to do list” and a “tick box” exercise that I met the compliance training on what the role entails. I also read a couple of books that gave me strategies to execute, however all these things never got up close and personal to help me understand what to do as a leader in the work place.
This led me to the conclusion that there was a need for more to be done to help a leader understand what was really going to happen when they lead people. This is the reason I wrote “The New Manager – How to become a leader in 52 simple steps”. The title plays on the words manager and leader as anyone that is responsible for people will need to do both in order to be truly effective (manage and lead). The fifty two also tries to connect the leader with the 52 weeks there are in the year thus showing that the book encompasses all of what a leader may go through during a calendar year.
The book is jam packed with “true stories” that have happened in the workplace to help the leader understand the likely scenarios they will face. There are also six core themes, these being: how to bond with your team, how to build credibility, how to develop individuals, how to develop the team, how to deal with storms, how to performance rate both the individual and the team as a whole. Every chapter is full of questions to help the leader unpack what their personal views are. The leader should quickly be able to say, yes, I have seen that happen in the work place. It had to be real in order for it to make a difference.
In the book I don’t offer new theories and six easy steps to be the best leader in the company. I do offer practical guidance on how to deal with the numerous challenges you as leader are likely to face.
I do hope that you purchase a copy and that it achieves its intended purpose and that is…… Leaders are primarily there to develop the people they lead. That is the core, the heartbeat of what true leadership is and the more leaders we have that develop the individuals they lead the better and the brighter all our futures will become.
All the best Steven
“You are the sum total of your thoughts about yourself”, “You can achieve your dreams”, “Dream big dreams”, “You can achieve anything you set your heart to do”, “Network with the right people”, “Promote yourself”
There are so many of these statements flying around at the moment and the core focus is on the individual, on YOU. The underlying principles of these statements are true in that a person that has self confidence, works at their dreams and does not cower away in fear will have to a certain degree some success.
The problem is that leadership has very little to do with what a leader can get out of the team for themselves but everything to do with what the leader can do for the individuals in the team to get the best out of the team for the team. The leader that sacrifices self for the team is the leader that will promote individuals in the team, will try and highlight the team members they lead to others to ensure they grow. Will spend countless hours coaching, motivating and nurturing the team members with the sole purpose of helping them to become the best they can be.
If I were to offer you two types of leaders, the one is egotistical and full of self interest and the other was selfless and committed to help you to grow. Which would you choose?
The statements leaders should cling to should be “Help your team have the right thoughts about themselves as that is what they will become”, “Help your team achieve their dreams”, “Lead your team in such a way that they dream big dreams”, “Help your team achieve anything they set their hearts to do”, “Expose your team to the right people”, “Promote your team”.
A leader can have internal desires to become someone great, however until their desire to develop their team exceeds their desire to develop themselves they will miss the opportunity of achieving the heights of the sacrificial leader.