Change, dreadful change! It is amazing how hard we, human beings, reject change, and even more when it is forced on us.
So, don’t be surprised if, in the beginning, the people in your organization appear nervous and cynical about any changes you want to introduce, even if they clearly are for good.
In order for you to build endorsement towards the change to a contagious leadership culture, you must be receptive to the attitudes of others and put into practice a contagious leadership program that will encourage participation.
Take GE for example. When this company launched its Work-Out program to give workers, managers, and leaders the opportunity to get together, share ideas, and get barriers out of the way, in the beginning it was a voluntary program. It seemed (like) a town meeting, and many people showed up with healthy disbelief.
Before anyone was willing to take an active part in it, they had to confirm it was a safe setting, a place where they could voice their opinion without taking the risk of being accused later, and they had to believe that the ideas they were presenting were being considered seriously; thus, Jack Welch and his team defined a strategy to create endorsement.
To begin with, they asked people to wear khakis and t-shirts so that no one would look superior to others, and the leaders were directed to address ideas right there in one of three ways: approve it, reject it, or request more information.
Very soon, everyone noticed that they were serious about the program, and eventually, it was a requirement to attend.
Getting someone to get your back takes time and honest effort. If you don’t walk the walk and talk the talk, you will kill any program you start.
These are some strategies to build endorsement, right from the files of the top leadership speaker on the topic of contagious leadership:
- Define clear goals and ensure everyone on your team knows what you are planning, what you wish to achieve, and why.
- Start a vibrant communication program, in other words, communicate early, regularly, and harmoniously; and make sure everyone is informed about:
- What you are doing
- Who is doing it
- Why you are doing it
- How well you are doing
- Who is doing well
- Ensure communication is internal and external.
- Focus on successes, not on failures.
In the end, your goal should be that everyone in your organization gets your back… not for your sake and personal interest, but as every contagious leader believes, for a greater and general good.
Yes, it is no longer enough to see someone’s resume to know if he or she is the best person for that meeting planner or assistant’s job.
Long gone are the days when people were rotated through a position to find a match, or when a competitor’s star player signed on for the big bucks only to fail miserably in meeting very high expectations.
A bad hire today implies such high costs, that the future of a company may very easily be in the hands of the person in charge of hiring the best candidate for the job.
Today, you have to look beyond the resume when hiring a leader, because normally that piece of paper is more filled with air than a hot air balloon.
Presently, you have to hire leaders by measuring their cultural compatibility. Instead of regarding only a certain set of skills, first you have to consider the person’s behavior and attitude towards the meeting planner’s environment.
In fact, there are 4 criteria that are crucial when hiring or promoting someone to a meeting planner or assistant’s job:
Attitude
It is not easy, but is a must, to identify a “can do” leadership attitude. This requires observation, open-ended scenario questions, and self-confidence demonstrations.
Behavior
This one also requires lots of observation and assessment, because it impacts everyone within the company.
You have to decide if you need an aggressive, results-oriented, fast-paced leader, or a stable, dependable, and caring one; this based on what the meeting planner or assistant’s job requires, not on your personal preference.
Competencies and cultural compatibility
Every job needs a given set of competencies. Define the competencies and behavioral attributes that best fit the position and see which candidates have them.
The candidate who best fits the competencies needed is the most compatible with your company.
Skills
You should hire a skilled meeting planner or assistant, but do not make his or her skills the decisive factor.
Most candidates will be able to learn most skills; however, not everyone is capable of changing or learning a new leadership attitude, behavior, or competency.
A leader should develop a system that measures a combination of these 4 criteria to find the right candidate.
This process is so vital that many companies hire a renowned leadership speaker and consultant to guide them through it as well as to help them design the right behavior, values and competency assessments, to conduct email and face-to-face interviews, and to thoroughly analyze resumes when hiring and promoting individuals, all of this in order to lower the chances of making a bad hire.
Permission mentoring is the habit of ripening aspiring contagious leaders. It is a crucial step in becoming such a leader, who literally learns from example, and one that must be tackled correctly to be able to get the best out of the person being mentored.
According to a top leadership speaker, here’s how to get into the permission mentoring habit successfully:
Ask permission
Always ask people if they are interested in being mentored. Never assume everyone wants to become a leader, because this is not true.
Some individuals are not interested in becoming contagious leaders, and some others may not be interested in being mentored by you, and this is fine, everyone is entitled to choose what works best for them; thus, it is only wise to make sure you are investing your time in people who truly want what you can offer them.
The good thing is that a very powerful force is activated when you ask and someone says yes, a new level of commitment arises, and the results are remarkable; in other words, a new individual is born.
Create parameters
Your mentoring must have well-defined and approved boundaries. If the goal is for the employee to become a contagious leader, focus on the habits such a person requires and reach an agreement as to what is expected.
Before beginning the mentoring program, ask the employee to self-assess each habit, and compare it to your assessment. Talk about the progress you both expect to see, and establish time limits for each session and for the totality of the program in a way that lets you both get the best out of it.
Focus the parameters on activities and behaviors instead of on results, because the first are the ones that will guide the person towards the desired result, while many outside circumstances can affect the second.
Schedule uninterrupted time
There should be a time exclusively devoted to discuss, review, measure, and offer feedback. Honor the process, and your commitment to being a contagious leader and a mentor, by giving it meaningful time. Never allow the person to feel forgotten or neglected.
Employ involved recognition
A mentoring program is a great opportunity for you to practice the habits and qualities of a contagious leader.
Keep an eye on your attitude, focus on the person’s strengths, and employ involved recognition as much as possible. Pay attention and identify as many opportunities as you can to recognize the actions and behavior of the person you are mentoring.
This is key to strengthening the confidence in their ability to become contagious leaders, and will teach them how to use it themselves.
Never stop measuring
Your job as a contagious leader is to develop many other contagious leaders, and you have to make sure the persons you are mentoring are moving in the right direction.
You must keep track of how each one of them is doing and of how many you have at a certain stage of development, so as to be able to control and anticipate when these individuals are ready to move on.
This may sound impossible to you, but in many cases, it is true. Not everyone wants to move on to a leadership position… and this is actually a good thing.
Some people are more comfortable and much more effective in other roles; they know themselves and are intelligent enough to make choices that are right for them.
There’s also the possibility that they do want to advance, but may not want your help to do it.
This is why contagious leaders should always ask for permission before mentoring someone, and this is something a good leadership speaker can’t emphasize enough.
Permission mentoring is the habit of ripening aspiring contagious leaders. Mentoring someone who does not want to be mentored is not only a waste of time but will deeply annoy the employee.
Think for example that your teenage daughters love borrowing your clothes because they are so “cool”, and they just go and take anything from your closet at any time. You would probably feel exasperated every time this happened; however, if they just asked, you would most likely and very gladly let them take anything they wanted.
Well, the same goes for mentoring, you have to ask if the person wants to be mentored, and this is necessary for various reasons:
1. Clarity
Simply to know, for sure, that the person is open to your mentoring. Once a person says yes, you and him know you are the mentor, and your time will be worth spending.
Even when you only want to offer a suggestion, you should ask the person if they are open to ‘suggestions’ or ‘a bit of mentoring’, before presenting it. Just basic psychology.
2. Good manners
Not asking is simply disrespectful and invasive, and this behavior is never welcomed.
Most people hate change because it is forced on them, this is why it is so hard to see it initiated spontaneously; thus, if you force mentoring, it will be basically, hated.
3. Choice
Everyone likes to be given a choice. We like to feel we can either accept or reject a suggestion, an opinion, or mentoring.
A very strong energy arises when we accept something after seriously considering it. A powerful commitment is established, everything is taken more seriously, people prepare more carefully, and the results are amazingly productive.
Ensure you are ready to hear ‘no, thank you’ after you offer a choice, because you will hear it sometimes; so be prepared to accept it.
4. Politeness
It is always polite to ask. Since a while back, business has become a very bad-mannered arena. Once you start asking for permission in your company, the environment will relax in unimaginable ways.
Contagious leadership is a style that is taught through example, and there are big opportunities out there, in very simple and everyday activities, to shape and strengthen it within yourself and others in your company.
Here we offer you 5 significant ways in which you can celebrate all kinds of success, big or small, in a meaningful and open manner to make contagious leadership stick within your organization:
Go public
Recognizing people for their good work is always effective no matter how it is done; however, if done in a public way, it will produce a massive impact, and its value will last longer.
Do it immediately
The most important thing for an employee is to celebrate his or her successes. The sooner you praise their achievements, the bigger the impact this will produce on them and on everyone else within the company.
On the contrary, the longer you wait, the more the person will grasp that you are being insincere in your spotlighting, involved recognition, and vibrant communication efforts.
Be precise
Don’t just come out and say, “Well done, Amy!” Specify what was it that the person did that was so outstanding, special, and worthy of praise.
For example, something along the lines of, “You did an amazing job solving the situation, Amy. The customers truly felt tended to and are very excited about working with us again in the near future. This kind of response is what will get us far ahead. Thank you for caring so much”, would work wonders.
Focus on the strengths
If you want to take someone down and annul every possibility of taking advantage of that person’s qualities, nag them incessantly by pointing out what’s being done wrong or is missing.
In contrast, if you are truly committed to excellence and to seeing the positive in everyone and in everything, focus on the strengths people have and on how you can potentiate them in benefit of your company and that person’s life.
Announce all accomplishments
Any successful action, no matter how small, is a good excuse to celebrate.
Celebrate good habits and qualities, instead of celebrating numbers:
>Send handwritten “God job!” notes regularly to your employees’ homes. You have no idea how such a note from the CEO will make an employee feel. Everyone will know about it in less than 24 hours.
Give this a try: Take a pen right now and spend 10 minutes handwriting five praising notes for five people in your team. Tell them why you value them, and be specific.
Next week, write one note per day; the following week, write two daily notes, and start paying attention to what happens and how things begin to change.
Even without feedback, you will see the difference.
> Honor even the smallest accomplishment, and involve the highest levels of the organization in the celebration.
>Establish a ‘Contagious Leader of the Month’ program. Everyone votes, and the winner gets to participate in a contagious leadership lunch with the CEO.
>Create a ‘Contagious Leadership Wall of Fame’, showing pictures of all these leaders doing what they do best and with a legend explaining why each one of them is being honored in such a way.
There are endless ways to celebrate success. A good leadership speaker can guide you in the process of discovering what works best for your company; nevertheless, it is just a matter of envisioning your organization and getting creative; it is all about having lots of fun and becoming highly productive.
One of the easiest ways to promote a contagious leadership culture in your company is to be constantly aware of the obstacles that hinder it.
Intelligent leaders work on eradicating the conducts and actions that discourage the behaviors of contagious leaders in order to make the good arise by itself.
Here are 4 wise and simple strategies to stop energizing the contained and to start turning your company’s ways into contagious leadership ones:
Stop praising erroneous behaviors.
True contagious leaders are congruent; constantly, in every decision they make.
Let’s say a director whose style emulates that of a tyrant, who cares only about the bottom line, who is three-times divorced because work is his religion and expects it to be everyone else’s, gets promoted to vice-president. What do you think is being praised here?
Make it right to be a contagious leader.
In order to develop contagious leaders you have to commit to doing it.
Just decide that contagious leadership is the right way to go, decide that it is ok to be a leader instead of just a manager, and embody that decision every single day and in every single thing you do.
Before you know it, your behavior will become… contagious.
Get personally involved in the process.
Developing a contagious leadership culture project cannot be delegated; you have to be deeply involved in the process if success is your goal, even though this may not be your only role.
In order for such an initiative to work, you must be a contagious leader yourself, you have to honor and reward contagious leadership behaviors and examples, and you should teach others to become such powerful leaders.
This is basic, because the contagious leadership approach implies a big cultural change for the majority of companies, and it doesn’t work hands-off, as management does.
Select a CLO- Contagious Leadership Officer
Give a hand-picked someone¾as advised by in the lines of a leadership speaker and advisor¾ a meaningful title, a big office, a lot of money, and unlimited authority to put into action, measure, and honor success all the way through your organization.
Contagious Leaders know that they have to help their teams find passion, energy and excitement for the vision. People get excited by people who are excited. So, find ways to get excited and you’ll see the excitement around you change. It really is that simple.
Passion Counts, it sells, it inspires and people respond to passion. So, if you are not naturally passionate how does an aspiring leader get passionate. The 3 E’s of a Passionate Leader are:
It was one of those typically spectacular sunny March afternoons in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Tops were down on many cars and the golf courses were buzzing with activity. It seemed as though everyone was outside. Everyone, that is with the exception of seventeen business leaders engaged in an enthusiastic leadership conversation at the home of Bob Ditta, former President of Dental Services Group.
George Obst and Bob Ditta, former Chairman and President of Dental Services Group
George Obst, DSG former Chairman, and Ditta were there to contribute to The Leaders Institute, a collaboration between the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce and John Hersey International. It’s mission is to provide business leaders with an opportunity to tune into a high level leadership conversation by exposing them to a variety of businesses and business leaders. The opportunity today was for these local leaders to learn from two leaders that led their team to purchase the Dental Services Group business and then grow that business, in a highly competitive category of 14,000 Dental Labs serving 118,000 Dentist, to double it’s size in fourteen years, without acquisition.
When Obst and Ditta, along with two other DSG executives, purchased the business through a leveraged buyout, it consisted of 34 Dental Labs across the United States doing approximately $30 Million in annual revenue. When the group sold DSG in 2005 it’s revenue’s were in the $60 million range.
This Livingroom Leadership session covered topics like:
the 4 original partners are as different, behaviorally speaking, as different could be. How were they able to allow those differences and still run a successful company. George Obst offered that the solution was a clear delineation of responsibilities, largely tied to the individuals strengths. Ditta added that there was a remarkable consistency in values. Each of the partners was committed to growing the business through employee relations and development. Unlike many of their competitors, DSG took on training, at all levels, like no other company. The strategy was to help the employees learn more and achieve higher levels of knowledge and competence in their jobs. The belief was that it would actually lead to significantly lower turnover levels, more loyalty and thereby increased customer support and service. It worked!
Creating Your Own ceremonies. Each year DSG spent gobs of money to put on it’s annual leadership meeting in Scottsdale (where else?). The teams would arrive with great expectation, primarily for the awards dinner. A pretty extravagant affair for nearly 300, the recognition awards always stole the show. Obst and Ditta agree that “recognition has always and will always be the key to motivation and employee loyalty.” Obstencouraged all the Leaders Institute participants to create ceremonies, even if they were solo-preneurs.
Performance accountability and reviews. Everyone at DSG, from the person working on a bench crafting, grinding and polishing the caps ordered by our dentists, to the Chairman and President, had annual goals. And, the leadership team, some 65 strong were trained to manage to those goals. Every employee had an annual review and the subject of goals was always discussed. As Bob Ditta put it, “Goals don’t lie. You either achieved the goal or you didn’t. If you didn’t, the why is relatively unimportant. How we can do better next quarter or next year is the key.”
Educational goals. Everyone in the company had to have an educational goal. What were they going to do to get better at their job? DSG was willing to invest in these classes and seminars because, in keeping with the values of the 4 partners, training and development would pay dividends way beyond the cost.
Listening. Listen to your customer, listen to your prospects, lost customers and employees. Then have a system in place where what you have heard can be acted upon. This is the bullet to excel, be the best. You will hear and observe everything you need to dramatically improve on a regular basis.
Dental Services Group implemented strategies that were way ahead of the competition, at the time. We look at these strategies as sound, basic leadership habits that work every time. Well, I don’t know about every time, but these sure did work for George and Bob and Dental Services Group.
Working harder and longer and demanding more of our people is not always effective leadership. Sometimes Contagious Leaders know to practice doing less to achieve more.
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