Too many so-called leaders spend their days looking for mistakes. How much fun can that be?
Try catching people doing great things and then recognize them. It’s more fun and will help you create an organization of hi-performance contagious leaders.
Practice catching your folks doing great things for 21 days and let us know the results. You’ll be amazed!
The greatest breakthroughs happen after major breakdowns.
Leadership bench strength will be a huge factor in the coming recovery. Those organizations that build strong benches will win. Every other organization will either lose of barely hold on. Allowing your leaders to take risks, try, and even fail on occasion will build strength from real experience. Micro-managing will build weakness.
How’s your bench strength?
Gives us your comments so we can all benefit and build strong teams.
Despite reports to the contrary, Teamwork is alive and well and living comfortably in organizations run by Contagious Leaders. The notion of TEAM– Together Everyone Achieves More, is more important today than ever.
Is your team full of Multipliers or Subtractors?
Tells us what you think, your comments make this post more valuable for everyone.
Bev and I recently spoke for an association meeting attended by Presidents and CEO’s of companies ranging in size from $100 Million to over $5 Billion.
We began by asking “What Does Leadership Mean to You?”
They shouted out words like: Vision, Listening, Winning, Making Tough Decisions, Motivating, Change, Achieving Results,
Their comments were effortless and with conviction. It was fun. The next question was:
“What Does Leadership in Your Organization Mean to Your Employees?”
The silence was deafening. We could actually hear the uneasiness in the room. The words were more controlled, less spontaneous. There was less certainty in their suggestions.
They really were not sure what leadership meant to their employees. We spent some time discussing the importance of knowing. Not guessing, not assuming. This is not without risk. We mentioned an experience we had with well known and fast growing high tech company. During a 4 hour leadership workshop we asked the same two questions. The answer to the first was similar to our association executives. However, the answers to the second question, was quite different. It was fast, clear, and strong. And, it was not necessarily positive.
Our technology client astutely noted the differences and has worked on them, going deeper and developing strategies to unify the company’s leadership vision.
The message to our association executives was that they needed to know and know NOW. They can’t delegate the investigation of these questions. Hearing first hand has great power. The message is much clearer and the employees get a strong sense that the company meant something by asking the questions in the first place. We suggested a four step process:
1. Ask
These executives need to return to their organizations and as soon as possible ask questions 1 & 2 to both the executive leadership team and all the employees. Ask in person, if possible, the employees will love it. at least some of the employee questions should be asked directly in small (10-15 person) groups. If there is any doubt that employees would be candid then engage an outside facilitator to conduct these live meetings. 2. Respond
Within 48 hours of obtaining the answers to the questions let the entire organization know the answers — good, bad or indifferent. If there is a gap between what the executive team and the employee answers, and there probably will be, acknowledge the gap. 3. Narrow the Gap
Identify what or who is causing the gap and develop strategies for narrowing it. This is not to lay blame but to improve. The solution may be as simple as implementing a more comprehensive communication strategy. 4. Initiate an on-going leadership conversation
Leadership is not a one-off conversation. You simply cannot achieve focus on leadership issues or understand what
leadership means in an organization by discussing it only for an hour or so at a once a year, or even once a quarter,
at a company get together. It has to be ongoing.
every employee
every department
every meeting
The Leadership Vision Gap, as we call it, destroys many organizations ability to fully take advantage of opportunities and build a strong leadership team. Employees simply do not know what the standards are, what is expected of leaders, at all levels and without regard to position and title. The top leaders in your organizations need create a clear vision of what leadership is and then become Unbending Leadership Visionary. Then watch leadership become contagious.
What do you think?
Have you asked the questions?
Did you find a Gap?
What suggestions do you have for narrowing the Gap?
Thanks for your comments. The more you comment, the better our ongoing leadership conversation will be.
Bev Belury, Co-Founder, The Contagious Leaders Coaching Club
1.) Vibrantly communicate to everyone that accountability and commitment are important!
2.) Align every job description to your company’s strategy and goals for the coming year. Ask everyone to commit to a shared unobstructed vision of results.
3.) Make accountabilities clear for everyone by using the benchmark for their job to start a discussion about how their individual contributions matter. Everyone impacts many.
4.) When you onboard new employees, have job-related professional development planning already in place to help them reach their full potential. The first 90 days are crucial to a new hire’s success. This is where the Contagious Leaders Coaching Club will accelerate their success.
5.) Build accountability into your company culture using “what & by when” goal and task planning. Project management can be very sophisticated, but the bottom line is “who, what, and by when?” Use a formal decision model as seen in the Contagious Leaders Coaching Club.
6.) Offer ways for employees to communicate obstacles and request the help or resources they need to achieve their goals. When you listen to them, recognize that what you’re listening to is someone who is committed to producing results. Support strength!
7.) Involve employees in an ongoing dialogue about how they can identify process improvements or otherwise increase the quality of their work and the team’s productivity.
8.) Use small “course corrections” on a monthly or as-needed basis to guide employees toward behaviors and practices that are effective for meeting goals. Don’t wait for the annual performance review. You wouldn’t wait until arrival at a destination to notice a wrong turn along the way, would you? Brush up on permission mentoring and use it.
9.) “Catch” people doing something right: Give frequent, honest and positive feedback. Contagious Leaders call it involved recognition. As a general rule of thumb, a ratio of five positive interactions to one critical interaction will help managers build an open communication channel with direct reports.
10.) Identify ways to recognize and acknowledge employees company-wide when their actions exemplify an “above and beyond” commitment to company objectives. Success breeds success!
If you’re serious about achieving spectacular results this year, get everyone involved. Email me ASAP for a free leadership development experience: info@contagiousleaders.com
“The world belongs to the focused few
who achieve great things
in the face of mounting distractions.”
John Hersey
Among other useful things, social media is a huge distraction. So is the internet for that matter.
We can spend hours crafting, sending, reading and replying to the most inane Tweets, Facebook posts and LinkedIn connection requests. We go online to do a simple Google Search about an important prospective new client and the next thing we know an hour has passed and we find ourselves mindlessly flipping through the pages of BassProShops.com not knowing quite how we got there or why.
For some time now Beverly and I have been speaking out on the need to embrace change by bringing ourselves up-to-date on technology in general and social media in particular. Recently something was said by a top sales person at a client’s annual sales conference for which I had just delivered the opening keynote speech. Basically, he said the company had implemented a few worthy initiatives during the past year. As important as these initiatives were by themselves, each took time to understand, embrace and engage in; time that was taken away from executing equally worthy, and agreed upon, goals and objectives. At the end of the day, these initiatives, albeit important for the future, were a huge collective drain on the companies short term resources that were needed to execute short term plans.
What a wonderful and much needed insight.
Everything we do, including social media activities, has to be measured against its contribution to achieving our desired outcome, short term and long term. We are all pressed for time. Layering initiatives on to an already time-pressured culture must be measured against the very same standards. We have worked with many clients where “mission critical programs” were imposed on people by layer after layer of leadership? And each layer seemed to impose these “important projects” without much thought for either their contribution to the overall strategic plan or the distraction the project would actually cause. People would fulfill the requirements of these projects while losing sight of the actual vision, the plan itself.
How many companies with brilliantly thought through and documented strategic plans failed miserably for lack of focus?
Way too many!
Sometimes there is so much to do that we attempt to do it all, none of it very well, and still we miss the mark. The reason is we lose sight of the mark. There is still a compelling need to learn new things. The tactics and strategies that used to work no longer work at all or as well. We need to constantly update our perspective, learn new things, take on new strategies and tactics and adopt new tools (social media). But as our clients top sales person said, we need to do so with an eye toward their contribution toward achieving the agreed upon plan. In other words, we need to focus on focus.
I witnessed something remarkable recently. After delivering the opening keynote speech for First American Equipment Leasing’s annual sales kick-off meeting, the Chairman and co-founder, delivered his state of the company address.
I have seen and heard these hundreds of times. The Chairman/CEO runs through the results from the previous year, acknowledges a few folks, talks about how important the upcoming year is and tells the audience they are the “best team in the league” and “together we deliver a huge years this year”.
That was only part of what the Chairman of First American did. After the review and the projections for the year he came down from the platform, among the people. Then, he asked if they could have a candid conversation. He went back to 2008 and reviewed 6-8 goals that had been outlined for the next 3 years. He asked the group for their candid opinion on what had been done well, which areas they had missed the mark on and which were not worth pursuing at all.
As the opinions and comments began to come forward he did not try to defend, convince or persuade. He actually listened. He noted what was being said, asking others if they agreed. An actual dialogue ensued the likes I have rarely seen. As the outsider in the room I was totally impressed while at the same time being somewhat envious. I had always wanted to work for or with a company like this.
The Chairman admitted that neither he nor the executive leadership team had all the answers and that the company was only as good as the great people in the room. As I looked around the room I could not help but notice a confidence, a belief, a commitment, an attitude of pride and determination. Each person, in their way, seemed focused on what they could do to help the company take on its mission for 2011. This is a company with a goal to revolutionize an industry. Now, that’s a big goal! Creating ownership in that vision is the first step to making it happen. The Chairman accomplished both, in my mind, in a 30 minute session. It was a pleasure to watch a revolution in the making.
It all started when he did not presume to know it all.
Several weeks ago we spoke to a group of realtors about using Social Media to build their business. We shot a video using a Flip Video Camera, uploaded it to YouTube and to a Landing Page on our website and sent an email to prospects inviting them (the realtors) to view the video and attend our meeting. We expected them to show up with great excitement.
They showed up.
During our talk the look on their faces was more “deer in the headlights” than “excitement.” In a world that is demanding that we change at an ever increasing pace or simply die a very slow and painful death, these folks were choosing death. Most of them appeared to want change as long as everything remained the same.
Following the meeting one of the realtors told us about an agent who was criticized by his broker for “fiddle fooling around with his computer on all this social media stuff.” “Fiddle fooling around?” C’mon. So, what did the guy do? He left the company and is now killing his business through social media connections. “Fiddle fooling around!” Now, there is an enlightened broker who needs to update his internal conversation.
Speaking of updating the conversation, who among us doesn’t need a reboot now and then. So, here is our suggestion. Conduct your very own WIDA Test (pronounced “wee-dah”) Test. It stands for “What I DO Audit.” It’s simple.
1. Sit down and make a list of all the things you do during the course of a day.
2. Pick three of the activities that need updating
3. Narrow your WIDA list to one
4. Give yourself 30 days to update the activity.
a. This may include getting rid of the activity completely. Or, like the “enlightened broker” it may mean selecting one of the social media and getting started with it and posting everyday for 30 days.
b. It could also mean changing the way you currently do that activity. Sometimes we get so emotionally invested in what we do and the way we do those things that change becomes an excruciating experience. So, make a little change for 30 days.
Take it from someone who has been highly resistant to change. You can change, you can change with more frequency, and you can change with less angst. It just takes practice. In the end, it’s better than dying.
Leaders normally learn leadership development, communication, and sales rules, principles, and techniques during training or while reading a few leadership books.
There are as many rules as people to declare them, and under this scenario, I wonder… which of all the rules are the best? Well, probably none, so you do yourself a great favor and ignore them.
Yes, the truth is that everything is a lot simpler than you think.
I am a leadership speaker and coach, and have discovered through personal experience, how simple selling is when you forget about the rules.
The reality is that every leader is in sales. We leaders are trying to sell something to someone every single day, all day long. To our kids, we sell the idea of doing well at school; to our colleagues, we sell projects that are meaningful to us.
Through a lot of the observation and coaching experience, I have discovered that the traditional sales process only gets people to wish they could yell, “Pleeeeaseeee! Stop selling to me and let me buy!!!!”
Their faces say it all, because no one likes to be sold, no one. So, let’s stop selling!
Yep, you read right, we have to stop selling, because when it comes to leadership, communication and selling, we have been completely deceived.
Our general notion is that we have to convince and persuade. We have been deceived.
We have been told that great sales people follow certain rules, that there are crucial principles and techniques we must learn, and we have even been given scripts to follow.
According to the rules, we have to take control early on in every sales conversation; we must qualify every prospect, isolate objections, close, isolate, and close again. We have been deceived.
The truth is that to be a great leader in sales you must be a great communicator, and to be one, you must stop selling. Why? Well, simply because PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO BE SOLD.
Analyze the difference between these two activities:
- When people buy, THEY are in control. Being in control feels great; THEY have the power.
- When we sell, people are pushed to agree to being sold something. People don’t like being pushed; it is uncomfortable and they feel vulnerable.
In view of this, the best way to sell something is not selling it; it is slowing down so that you can listen to what people have to say about what THEY want, and after listening, repeat what they said back to them so that they know you heard them.
If you consider that almost no one listens to others nowadays, when someone does, people feel special, and the barriers for great communication come down.
We have been deceived about leadership, communication and sales. The secret is to simply begin with someone other than ourselves in mind… Instead of selling, help people buy.
A GIFT FOR YOU-
Beverly and I are about ready to re-launch our eBook More Sales, Less Selling with updated information on using social media. The book is an entertaining, easy read with practical, proven and effective techniques. To get 2 FREE chapters just complete the form below and submit.
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