Leadership Matters II

I am picking up where we left off last week – 5 more tips on Leadership.

Leadership Matters
By Nancy McGuire, McGuire Consulting, Inc
(Be sure to contact Nancy by clicking above if you need any help with leadership development!)There is no one way to be a perfect leader, but there are many ways to be a great one. If you have leadership responsibility, even simple actions can mean the difference between outstanding and poor results. Here are the first five of 10 of the most basic ways to ensure that you’re being an effective leader:

6. If you love somebody, set them free. When you have terrific people who have great developmental opportunities elsewhere, you need to let them move on. This can be especially hard when they are your top performers. What’s worse, you sometimes have to do this knowing you won’t be able to replace them in the short term. Still, you need to do the right thing and let them move on to their next opportunity. Trap: Some managers will hold on to their best people under the guise of “the needs of the business.” Although in the short term this can appear to be a good justification, it hurts you and your employee in the long term. Your organization will gain a reputation for being a trap; your good people may leave anyway, and the best people from other organizations will be reluctant to join your team. Tip: When you take a short term personnel loss, involve the rest of the team in handling his or her responsibilities until you have the ability to bring in a replacement. You may find a diamond-in-the-rough out there who was overshadowed by this top performer.

7. Take a look at yourself: Do people get you?It is essential that your team members understand you. So, your written word and verbal word must be equally clear. Trap: One of your responsibilities as a leader is to give performance feedback. If your feedback is too general, the recipient has a low probability of getting the message. Tip: Listen more than you talk. [Mary's Note: This is always a tough one for me, but it is so worth doing!]Ask your team members for their impressions of a person’s contributions.

8. Look at your team’s progress: Are they still storming when they should be performing? Teams often remain stuck in formulating plans rather than implementing them. [Another one of my favorites! Decide and DO!] Trap: Teams that continue to argue or follow competing or disconnected objectives are not likely to meet the end game. Look for warning signs such as continually re-visiting old decisions, missed deadlines, and lack of esprit-de-corps. Tip: If the team isn’t moving past the storming phase, consider changing the power structure or leadership within the team.

9. Get out of the way. As the leader, you need to keep an eye on the big picture. If you’re nitpicking small details and “adding value” where none was needed, your team will slow down. Trap: Many leaders think they need to add something. After all, isn’t that why you’re in charge? In fact, unless you need to alter significantly the direction or decision, you’re better off leaving well enough alone. Tip: Ask questions of the team concerning outlook for completion, rather than auditing progress at each individual step.

10.  Say thank you. And mean it. 

I am sure you found some inspiration here for you and your business – Which tips are you using now or will start using in your business today???

Have a great rest of the week!
-Mary