Leadership is knowing what can’t be overlooked
by Paula Morand
Good leaders know that when they have a dedicated and hard-working team, there are occasionally times when incidents or miscalculations or problems happen and they just have to be overlooked.
However, it takes a great leader to know what just can’t be overlooked.
“Endless excuses” lead the list of things that just can’t be overlooked. In the demanding work environment of the digital age, it is the leader’s job to ensure their team delivers results. If you accept so many excuses from your team that you miss delivering the results you were hired to provide, you will not survive.
Each time a team member fails to meet your expectations and has an excuse, weigh the validity of it. Is it valid? Did it happen because of carelessness or short-sightedness? Could it have been avoided if earlier action had been taken? What steps is the team member proposing to ensure this excuse is never used again?
Dependability is the golden rule
If you cannot depend fully on your team members, you are not a leader, you are a title-holder in an organization.
Great leaders cannot tolerate indifference to dependability. It is the foundation of all of your successes. Even the most creative of your team members has to know when they must show up and deliver the goods.
Tolerating unreliability will undermine your leadership strength and topple you faster than the person you allowed to be unreliable.
Continual development is more than just an example to set
Leaders know it is important to enforce expected standards by setting a good example on their own. The area where this is most important is in fostering a climate on continual development and improvement of yourself as a leader.
By all means provide excellent development opportunities for your team members, but remember to constantly upgrade your own skills and knowledge base.
Life-long learning is not a goal or an option; it is essential to today’s leader in a rapidly changing world.
Teaching is more important than doing
Big screen movies place great emphasis on the leader who can roll up his or her shirtsleeves and get down in the trenches with their team to bring a project to fruition. There is respect for the leader who is also a doer.
But leaders who focus more on doing than on teaching are doing their team members no favour.
A primary role for leaders in the age of information is to be a great teacher. Foster growth in your team members and they will stay with you much longer than if all you do is delegate.
Especially for millennial workers, money and promotions are important, but equally important is the chance to keep learning.
Build a culture of learning and you will be able to sustain your leadership.
Paula Morand is a leadership building, revenue boosting, strategy expanding keynote speaker, author and visionary. This dreaming big and being bold leadership expert and brand strategist brings her vibrant energy, humor and wisdom to ignite individuals, organizations and communities to lead change, growth and impact in a more bold fashion.
24 years, 27,000 clients, 34 countries, 15 books, former radio personality, 11x award winning entrepreneur and humorous emcee.
Named to the Top 200 Most Influential Authors Worldwide *Richtopia
Check out Paula’s bestselling books on Amazon: “Bold Courage: How Owning Your Awesome Changes Everything”, “Dreaming BIG and Being BOLD: Inspiring stories from Trailblazers, Visionaries and Change Makers” book series; and her newest release“Bold Vision: A Leader’s Playbook for Managing Growth”.
For speaking inquiries email bookings@paulamorand.com or call toll-free 1-888-502-6317.