Enjoy monthly reads, reflections, and thoughts from our wisdom filled team.
The key to unlocking your team’s superpower is showing them what it looks like to take the armor off, share your vulnerabilities, and work together to overcome each other’s blind spots. Telling your teammates they can be vulnerable and showing them what it looks like are two very different things. Your actions are more powerful than any words you can share, and your consistency will build the kind of trust that winning teams are made of.
The statement, “Leaders Are Readers,” as others point out, has become ubiquitous on social media platforms like LinkedIn. Whether or not people who share that sentiment know of President Truman’s quote doesn’t diminish what he meant by saying it. Some people do innately possess powerful leadership attributes and abilities, most do not. Leadership is learned, and anyone, in my experience, can become better leaders through educating themselves.
Leaders are thinkers; they observe, reflect, learn, and apply. Sometimes we learn from reflecting on our experiences and other times we have the opportunity to learn from others through books and other media. In the words of noted philosopher and educator, John Dewey, “We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on our experience.”
The best leaders are willing to get their hands dirty in order to understand what it is like to be on the front line serving customers or working on the shop floor. What’s that? You say you’ve been in the “trenches” before? How long ago? Reflect on how long it has been and admit, even if it is just to yourself, that you may have lost touch with your workforce. Look for new ways to connect with your team and lead from the front, even if it makes you uncomfortable.
As many sectors of the economy were forced to telework or adopt some sort of alternate/hybrid schedule, resumed more in-person work following COVID, many workers were welcoming the return of face-to-face camaraderie and collaboration. Leaders were excited to be physically back with their teams, leaving the Zoom gallery behind. The immediate reaction was a rebound of sorts, striving to make up for lost time with maximum in-person engagement.
Good meetings allow people to be more effective and productive, which provides a good return on the time investment. Bad meetings, on the other hand, are a time suck that disrupt schedules and demotivate teams. After a couple of decades of leading and managing, I’d offer the following tips and perspectives on meetings…
Have you ever wondered what the ‘secret sauce’ is to high performing teams?
Like many leaders, I’ve pondered that very question many, many times. Operating in and having had the honor of leading high performing teams, I’ve found a few select ingredients to be vital. Such as trust and strong professional relationships. Such as deeply held shared values and a clear and unifying purpose. From what I’ve experienced, these are essential cornerstones of excellence in teams.
However, even the strongest of cornerstones can be eroded by ‘change’. And, as we all know, the only constant IS change. So, what is a team leader seeking long term high performance to do?
Try this. Experience has taught me that ownership and accountability can be outstanding countermeasures to the challenges of change. Ownership embodies initiative and determination to overcome any obstacle. Accountability brings commitment to team and teammates, and that ‘I’ve got this, you can rely on me’ mentality. In my journey, taken together these are powerful catalysts supporting consistent high performance in the face of ‘change’.
This has been a leadership lesson learned for which I owe a huge debt of thanks. As a newly minted team leader in the early years of my career, I learned first-hand the power of ownership and accountability. My executive leader - let’s call him Mike - was extremely wise, experienced, and knowledgeable, a true ‘engineer’s engineer’. He placed a strong emphasis on not only performance but also equally the long-term reliability of our designs. He was data driven, deeply experienced and excelled in asking detailed and challenging questions during our many design reviews.
Our team had deeply studied the designs of not only domestic competitors but also global competitors whose designs sometimes differed from common accepted practices in our North American market. Our challenge, as an engineering team, was to find the best practice for our designs. In our design reviews, Mike drilled deeply into our designs, asking difficult but appropriate questions, seemingly one after another, non-stop. It was extremely rigorous. Our design challenged some of the conventional wisdom of designs in the North American market and was counter to his experience. As an executive leader, Mike had to make a choice – direct us to change the design to be more conventional or trust and empower our design direction given the rigorous engineering reviews he conducted.
In retrospect, it would have been easy for Mike to micromanage and support the more commonly accepted design practice at that time, but he saw opportunity in our design to set a new, better standard and supported our approach. After explaining to our team how he reached his decision, his words still ring true to me to this day, decades later.
Those are the four magic words: ‘I’m counting on you”.
In only one short phrase he empowered us. And in doing so, ownership and accountability immediately followed. We knew our leader challenged us deeply and ultimately believed in and supported us. If you have ever experienced the restrictions of a micromanager, you know firsthand the feeling of freedom when it is truly your call, and you are being trusted to deliver success.
It has been said that the difference between managers and leaders is that managers make sure things are done right, while leaders make sure the right things are done. Mike was a true leader, and his decision was a prime example to us all. Mike trusted us. It was both the ultimate compliment and ultimate incentive at the same time. Now, it was up to us to make it happen.
It wasn’t easy. Long hours, lots of learning and continuous improvement along the way. But knowing we owned it and were accountable for its success, we pushed ourselves willingly. Discretionary time now was also devoted to the cause. We went way past ‘above and beyond’. We were on a mission.
Imagine unleashing that same energy, enthusiasm and determination on any problem or objective your team faces. It is magical to be part of, and thanks to Mike, a leadership lesson forever learned.
So, now it’s your turn. I’m counting on you.
Authored by: Jeff Boyer, Managing Director
“Wow, that could have gone better!”
Have you ever had this inner monologue after a meeting, an engagement or a conversation…or maybe even after a long day? I think most everyone makes a quick assessment or judgement after the many events during their day. The key question: so, what do you do about it?
There are many things in our lives that may serve as the impetus for a renewed “Self-Development Effort,” or what I’ll refer to as an “SDE.” A New Year’s resolution, a promotion, taking on a new professional position, perhaps a significant life change or family transition, just to name a few. Like most, I can reflect on scores, if not a few hundred “SDEs” in my life. What I have learned is…
In a season that encourages us to pause, reflect, and treasure the blessings of others in our lives, make a special point this year to extend that consideration to your professional relationships as well. Through our interactions with others, we learn, grow, and excel in ways that we could never accomplish alone. Yet do we fully appreciate those relationships? Do we purposefully spend the necessary time and energy to nurture those relationships and give back?
Author Stephen Covey once observed “in relationships, the little things are the big things”. Reflect on your experiences. Don’t we know this to be true? Yet often we don’t make the ‘little things’ a priority. Sometimes we recognize the shortfall and attempt to make a grand gesture instead, to make up for the deficit. However well intended, we soon realize we have completely missed the mark.
In my journey, I’ve been most impressed with the leaders that recognized and committed to doing those little things exceptionally well. Here are a few best practices I’ve gleaned from them over the years:
Time is precious. It is the only commodity in our lives we can’t create more of. How we spend it is a direct reflection of who we are and what we stand for. It is also recognized as a true gift by others. To spend a few moments with others, shows you sincerely care and value your relationship with them. In those moments, focus on being truly present, with no distractions from phones, clocks, and other distractions.
Recognize efforts and reward results. Both are important. To recognize and respect diligence, commitment and sacrifice toward important objectives encourages us. Doing so in front of the team is powerful recognition of an individual’s contributions and motivates all.
A colleague of mine, widely recognized for her outstanding leadership, handed out gold star pins to recognize excellence. A simple gesture that rekindles the feeling from our early elementary school days in a lighthearted but meaningful way. ‘Corny’ you might think? But I saw firsthand the pride in her team members in receiving these. It wasn’t the value of the award; it was the recognition that mattered.
Impromptu check-Ins with your team members. Be aware of and ask about key interests in team members’ lives from previous conversations. Showing sincere interest in the things that matter most to us is powerful. It may be as simple as inquiring about a hobby or passion we enjoy in our lives. US President Theodore Roosevelt once remarked “people don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” Experience has shown me that truer words have never been spoken.
Ask others, ‘what do you think’? This simple phrase provides us important perspectives and details we may have lacked when facing decisions. It also conveys a sense of trust and respect in their knowledge or viewpoint. As a rather junior leader, I experienced the power of this firsthand. I’m not sure how helpful my input was, but just being asked had a lasting and powerful impact on the kind of leader I wanted to become.
Listen, period. Too many times, we find ourselves listening to respond, not “seeking first to understand, then be understood”. Intently listening, fully engaged and absent of distraction is too often in very short supply. Looking at people when they speak, with appropriate eye contact and positive body language, conveys respect, appreciation, and sincere interest. It shows we care and appreciate the person with whom we are interacting. There is no greater compliment per unit time than being truly listened to.
Say ‘thank you’ often and in meaningful ways. While technology facilitates many ways to do this, such as emails and texts, I’ve found the time-honored practice of handwritten notes to be the best. Yes, it takes more time. But the recipients understand that the giving of one’s time is a gift as well, which adds to the depth of the recognition. And, if you are like many of us, those handwritten notes are still with us many years later, serving as a proud remembrance.
None of these best practices is complex or difficult. But, if you have personally experienced these from a leader in your professional journey, you immediately recognize the impact and profound effect they have. It truly is all about the ‘little things!’
Authored by: Jeff Boyer, Managing Director
Victory Strategies is a Veteran Owned Business.
