Leadership Perspective: To Ride the Wave, or Lead the Wave

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Alexsys Thompson

Chameleon Leadership

Let’s venture into a world where plans constantly change. In this place, nothing goes the way it should. Every potential obstacle becomes a reality, and almost every decision must be made in the moment.

Okay, so, maybe this world isn’t so different from the one you’re in now; however, your reaction to this chaos might be.

A New Attitude

Amidst the constant mania of this world, and in the face of every plan change or obstacle, instead of becoming upset or overwhelmed, you respond with a nonchalant attitude that exudes this mindset:

“We’ll figure it out. No big deal…”

If that reaction confuses or even mystifies you, you probably don’t have the strength theme of Adaptability in your top 5, or even top 10. However, if this makes perfect sense to you and mirrors your attitude in everyday life, you probably have Adaptability in your wheelhouse.

 Just Like the Infamous Chameleon

Being adaptable as you are, you see no issue with plan changes. You respond well to the stresses of the moment despite any interruption they may have caused. Not only do you handle unforeseen modifications adeptly, you consider them inevitable and in some cases embrace them.

Like the chameleon, you can change your colors as you wish without a second thought.

Others should not mistake your Adaptability for carelessness or a lack of planning, you most likely did plan; however, unlike someone strong in Intellection or Deliberative who does not also possess Adaptability may find difficulty going with the flow the way you do.

 Leading Without Blending In

There are obvious perks to being adaptable, and as a leader it’s important to understand how to use this strength in a sophisticated manner.

Obviously, an important mark of a leader is maintaining composure in the face of adversity you do this extremely well!

However, it’s also important that you have a clear and concise opinion, draw a line in the sand, and remain goal oriented. Since you have an inclination to go where the wind takes you, it wouldn’t be hard for team members high in Command or Belief to consider you weak or perceive that you never plan for anything.

It’s critical for people with strong presence themes like these that you aren’t too easily swayed because you can’t blend into the carpet or they will run you over.Team members with Consistency as a theme will also look to you to be fair and consistent across processes and with team members. You can leverage team members with these strengths for feedback, especially when it comes to bumps in the road for projects.

Adaptability can be one of the best attributes a leader possesses when used with sophistication because you act as a bridge among team members. Use this to your advantage and leverage your teams strengths, which can help you recognize when blending in is appropriate, and when it’s dangerous.

Adapting to Leadership

Adaptability as an employee could be exactly what got you to your leadership role, which should come as no surprise. You were willing to tackle any project, and were able to keep your head on straight when the storms came through.

As a leader, know that it’s okay to go against the grain sometimes- the flow doesn’t always get you were you need to go.

Learning to adapt to leadership may be your biggest challenge yet, but one you will surely succeed at!

As a leader with Adaptability, how do you maintain self-awareness concerning just how flexible you are? Have you ever been led by someone strong in Adaptability? What were the pros and cons? I would love to hear your thoughts!

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Alexsys "Lexy" Thompson HCS, SWP
Alexsys “Lexy” Thompson is Managing Partner at Fokal Fusion
She helps building Strong Leaders through Strong People Strategy
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A Leader and a List Lover

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Alexsys Thompson

Working Parts

As human beings, we all have natural strengths, and we all have areas where we lack in skill.

And most of us are even quite terrible at more than a handful of things.

What is important for organizational health is that they have an understanding of this and make sure that they have their people in places that are playing to those strengths and not in roles that are not a good fit.

Michael Jordan the Athlete

Imagine if, instead of rejoining the NBA, Michael Jordan had continued to play for the Birmingham Barons, a minor league baseball team in Alabama.

Instead of the 6 NBA championship titles and record-breaking 72 regular season wins to his name, the final statistics of his athletic career would look more like 114 strike outs to 436 at bats. Though Jordan’s stint in baseball was brief, it’s a great example of what can happen when someone isn’t playing to their strengths.

Sure, he’s a superstar athlete, but his best performance came in one certain sport and not in another.

The same type of performance gap can occur when leaders place people in roles that don’t utilize their strengths. In fact, they may even be in a role that forces them to operate in their weaknesses, which ultimately sets them up for failure.

Working with Kryptonite

You wouldn’t put Superman to work in a Kryptonite mine and expect him to succeed, so why would you do the same to your employees?

This is where Strengths-Based Leadership comes into play.

  • Strengths-based leaders choose to utilize their employees in ways that exploit their strengths.
  • They focus on replicating processes that work and creating best practices rather than forcing a square peg into a round hole.
  • They recognize that their human capital is their most valuable asset, and seek to create an environment that employees are proud of and enjoy being a part of.

Imagine if you were a watch maker and thought that you could use just any part in just any place within the watch. How silly would that approach be? How accurate do you think that watch would be if you didn’t have the right parts working together in the right place with the other components?

It’s probably best to let the gear be a gear and the spring be a spring.

The same goes for the people in your organization.

They need to be in the right place working smoothly with others in order for the trains to run on time.

Strengths-Based Approach

An integral step in becoming a Strengths-based leader is the ability to identify your employees’ strengths, as well as your own. One of the most effective tools used to identify strengths is Clifton StrengthsFinder.

According to Gallup (the company who developed the assessment), StrengthsFinder is based on positive psychology, and presents 177 paired self-descriptors, of which, the tester picks the one that best suits them.

They only allot 20 seconds per pair in order to encourage ‘gut’ responses, and discourage people from over-thinking the assessment.

At the end of it all, the tester is provided with a list of their top 5 strengths out of a total of 34. Though it’s possible to see the ranking of all 34 strengths in the assessment, the top 5 are the strengths that should be focused on, as they are, in fact, their strengths.

Getting it In Gear

So, leaders, now that you know your strengths, how do you leverage them effectively?

The best thing to do is to understand what each of the strengths mean, and how you lead someone using that strength.

Case In Point:

We will start with the first of the 34 strengths, achiever.

Achiever:

“People exceptionally talented in the Achiever theme work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. They take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive.” (As defined by Clifton StrengthsFinder).

Before we go into specifics, it’s important to note that this is the most popular theme! That means that, more likely than not, you will have a few people on your team that also have this strength.

  • If you leverage this strength appropriately, there won’t be a quarter that your team doesn’t meet, and probably exceed, expectations.
  • Achievers are highly productive; they are extremely driven and do well with lists.
  • They like to prioritize their work and get things done quickly and efficiently.

Knowing Yourself

As a leader, it’s vital that you don’t run over your team members who don’t have this as a top strength; they will quickly become dissatisfied and unhappy, which can have an exponentially negative effect on the team as a whole. Be aware of the high intensity you bring to projects, especially if there are other achievers on the team.

Your drive and determination to get things done could be perceived by others as overzealous, intimidating, or pushy.

If you are managing someone with the themes of Deliberative, Context, or Intellection, you need to be conscious of their needs to move through the processes more thoroughly; their goal isn’t to make sure the task gets done immediately, but to make sure they have all of the information and are able to make a solid decision.

Although this can be frustrating for you as an achiever, and as a leader, you can leverage these strengths to your advantage. They’ll be able to give your drive a focus and logical direction, which you can easily lack as an achiever.

Knowing Others

Once you are able to identify your employee’s strengths, set yourself the goal to learn as much as you can about their strengths and how you can utilize them effectively.

Your immense love of lists can also be used to your advantage; you will be able to set action goals for your employees, making it clear and easy for them to identify their role within the group as well as your expectations.

Don’t be afraid to make these lists visible to everyone!

As long as you approach your team with their strengths in mind (and tone down the jokes about ‘Work Saturdays’), you should easily be able to align your strength as an achiever to theirs.

Do you know your own strengths? Your team’s? If not, wouldn’t it be worth finding out? If you’re an achiever, I am sure you are adding it to your list right now.

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———————–
Alexsys "Lexy" Thompson HCS, SWP
Alexsys “Lexy” Thompson is Managing Partner at Fokal Fusion
She helps building Strong Leaders through Strong People Strategy
Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Web 

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3 Great Ways to Scare Off Potential Employees

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Anil Saxena

I Quit

Here are three sure fire ways to not only lose the people you have but also scare off any great potential employees.

 3 Great Ways to Scare Off Potential Employees

1. Use Layoffs as a Way to “Meet the Quarterly Numbers”

Although proven time and time again, somehow organizations STILL use layoffs as a tool.  Layoffs are NOT a good tactic to remedy short term budget crises.

More than anything, layoffs — and the potential for layoffs — causes a sense of panic within the employee base. ~ Mr. Van Gorder, CEO Health Scripps

2. Don’t Allow for Flex-Time, Working from Home, Job-Sharing or Other Alternative Work Arrangements

Somehow during economic programs like flex-time, working at home or alternative work weeks seem to lose their luster.  But why?  Is it because they are less effective?  No.  Most organizations see these types of work arrangements as “perks.” But they are not perks.  They are the new way of work and actually work to INCREASE productivity.

Companies are finding that flextime boosts productivity, and more and more of them, including Kraft Foods, Texas Instruments and First Tennessee Bank are taking advantage of it. When employees manage their own schedules, their stress levels decline and they focus better on their tasks. ~ Emily Schmitt, Forbes

Recently, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announces that employees can no longer work from home and must report to a Yahoo office by June. The stated reason was to create more innovation. The company has been struggling and Mayer thinks that this will help them increase business through innovative creativity.

However, there is a large group of people think that this move will hurt more than help. They simply point to Google.

3. Don’t Focus on Results

There are still too many organizations that operate under the misconception that working longer hours (night, weekends, through holidays, etc.) shows how dedicated an employee is.  Often, employees that don’t put in that “face time” are seen as “not dedicated”.  Unfortunately, there is nothing further than the truth.

Simply put, punching a time clock makes no sense for professionals. Their contribution is not the time they spend on their work but the value they create through their knowledge. – Robert C. Pozen Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School

All three of these facts indicate that employers need to start thinking of how to KEEP their best employees. What are you doing to make sure your best are not thinking of leaving AND you can hire the best when you need them?

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Anil Saxena
Anil Saxena is a Senior Consultant and Business Partner with Coffman Organization
He helps organizations create environments that generate repeatable superior results
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On Love and Leadership

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Andy Uskavitch

Leading in Love

“Love is a many splendored thing.”  “All you need is love.”  “Love me tender.”  “Love to love you baby.”  “Thou shalt love thy neighbor.”

Hmm.  I didn’t see anything about loving your employees.  I’m not saying you have to “love” them.  I’m talking about a simple relationship.  Think of it as love, without the . . . “love.”

Understanding Love

When we’re IN love, we’re in a whole ‘nother mindset.  Leadership is a different mindset also.  Lets take a look at some of the basics.

Love shows kindness . . . and kindness makes you someone who’s likeable.  People see that you’re someone they want to be around.  Someone that will be good to them . . . and in turn good for them.

Here is something the Bible says about love:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 New Living Translation (NLT)

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

On Leadership and Love

As a leader, you need to be there for your employees.  You don’t have to win the “most popular” award every year, but you do need to be liked enough that they’ll be with you and follow you.  They can help you as much as you can help them.

In love, you lose your selfishness.  You become devoted to another.  We’re all selfish in one way or another, but we can get over that.

We’re always trying to get ahead.  Doing so in the wrong ways is being selfish.  Taking the credit for something that belongs to an employee(s) is selfish.  Don’t do it.  If the credit belongs to someone else, give it.  If it can be honestly shared then great.  Want what’s truly best for your staff.

Love is full of thoughtfulness.  It comes with the territory.

When you fall in love, thoughtfulness comes quite easily, right.  Buying flowers, opening doors, doing the dishes or laundry.  It’s a wonderful time.  Then over time it often starts to slow.  Just like in leadership.

Changing to Improve

When we become leaders or get promoted, we try hard from the outset – open-door policies, awards, being an open part of the team.  Then as time goes on, the door closes, the awards get put on the back burner, and you become “the boss.” But just like in love, we have to keep trying, changing, and improving our leadership skills.

When in love, we think the best of our love interest and show appreciation.

This person means the world to us and she/he is the best thing to ever come our way.  We buy flowers, we hold hands, we smile (a lot), we show the world how we feel.

Building Trust

In business we must think of our staff as the best in the business – or at least in the organization.  There’s another word you can use to describe this . . . TRUST.  If we don’t believe in and trust our employees then that’s what they’ll give us right back. It becomes a vicious circle that keeps growing until there’s absolutely no positive relationship at all.

How long do you think a love relationship would last like that?  Even the slightest bit of appreciation is better than none at all.

Love can harbor no jealousy.

If your love has a better job, so what.  If she/he has a bigger network or gets more awards, so what.

Leading With Humility

There’s no one leader in this world who knows everything.  Don’t pretend you do.  You can’t keep yourself surrounded by a bunch of “yes men.” A good leader will have people who have knowledge at ALL levels (even more than you) and have varying ideas.  You can sometimes learn as much from some of your employees as they can from you.

With love comes intimacy.  (And you know what I’m talking about.  Don’t go running to HR!)

In leadership, intimacy just means knowing your people.  Think of Tom Peters’ Managing by Wandering Around (MBWA).  Get out and see your folks.  Talk to them.  Find out about their families, their interests, their hopes for the future.

Find out what they need to do the best job that they can.

Being Faithful

Love generates faithfulness.  Love is a choice, not just a feeling.  It’s not a reaction, it’s an initiated action.

We choose to love someone because we feel a need and a want to be with that person.

Like love, leadership is a choice.  Leadership is not for everyone.  It takes a certain type of person to be really successful.  If you don’t want to do the job to the best of your ability . . . step away.

Effective Communication

And maybe most importantly, love needs communication.  Love needs open communication.  No beating around the bush.  No, “you should know what I’m thinking.”  Pure open communication . . . with discussion.

Leadership is no different.  We have to communicate clearly and concisely with our employees.  You can’t hold someone accountable for their work if they don’t know what they’re supposed to do.  People WANT to do their best.  They can’t do that without all the puzzle pieces.

And remember that even if you don’t have something to share, they still need to know that.  When people feel they’re lacking communication, they start filling in the gaps themselves.

A Work in Progress

People will commonly say, “If you loved me ________ would come naturally.”  That’s so untrue.  Like I discussed earlier, we have to keep trying new things, modifying, and advancing.  Our leadership skills are no different.

They’re both a continuous work in progress!

How is your relationship with your staff?  What can you work on, short-term, to make things better?  What can you work on, long-term, to make things better?

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Andy Uskavitch
Andy Uskavitch is Leadership Development at Florida Blood Services
He develops and facilitates Leadership, Motivation & Teambuilding Seminars
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Leaders: How to Set Expectations For Success

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Denis G. McLaughlin

Dunce

Leaders: People will perform up to your expectations – set your expectations at your team’s full potential, then help them succeed.

Names Effect Enthusiasm

Sports teams select names that are meant to encourage the team to succeed and inspire the fans to cheer.

Some professional teams have names that represent action like:

  • The San Diego Chargers
  • Detroit Tigers
  • Chicago Bulls

Other teams have names that celebrate their towns like:

  • The New England Patriots
  • Phoenix Suns
  • Montreal Canadians

Can you imagine sports teams with a name like: “The Fumblers” or “The Strike-Outs” or “The Penalty Box?” Of course not.

Naming People

Similarly, no person should be named in a way that limits their opportunity to achieve success like: “Advanced as far as they can” or “Not smart enough” or “Not leadership material.”

Maybe that person’s strengths are better used in another role that will free them to shine.

Successful Leaders don’t limit growth, they help people discover and develop their strengths.

German author and politician Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said:

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

The level of enthusiasm of your team, and of you as the leader of the team, will be positively influenced by having a positive image of each member of your team.

Names Influence Effort

Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson performed an experiment in 1966 known as The Pygmalion Effect, which tested the effect of teacher expectations on student performance.  Teachers across 1st through 6th grades were told that certain students were expected to perform at a very high level in the coming year.

Rosenthal and Jacobson then randomly assigned students to randomly selected teachers and gave the names of the students to the teachers.

At the end of the school year, this randomly selected group of students achieved markedly higher gains in IQ scores than the rest of the students.  Why?  Because the teachers expected these students to be successful and worked hard to make sure they were.

People will achieve up to the limit of their expectations.

James Rhem, the executive editor for the online National Teaching and Learning Forum, said:

“When teachers expect students to do well and show intellectual growth, they do; when teachers do not have such expectations, performance and growth are not so encouraged and may in fact be discouraged in a variety of ways.”

Leaders have to expect that each of their team members will succeed, then work hard to make sure that happens.

Names Should Fit The Role

Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish Nation, was once known as “Abram” which means “Exalted Father.”  At that time he had one son, Ishmael, and he was near 100 years old.  God appeared to Abram and told him that his descendants would number more than the stars.  From that point forward he would be called “Abraham” which means “Father of Many Nations.”

Marion Morrison used the stage name John Wayne because he wanted to be a rugged movie star.

What’s In a Name

Theodor Seuss Geisel began signing the name Seuss to his work in his college’s humor magazine.  The correct pronunciation of Seuss is “Soyce” but it was mispronounced “Suss” which sounded like “Goose” as in the nursery rhymes.  That was fine to Theodor who intended to use his pen name for his humorous work anyway and save his real name for a future serious project.

The “Dr.” was added to his first published book in honor of his father who wanted Theodore to be a doctor.

From this day forward, every member of your team should be named “Successful,” in the specific role they have been assigned.  The definition of success may be different in each role.

Your job as the leader is to help define success for each person and assist them in accomplishing up to their new name – Successful.

From the inspirational diary of Anne Frank comes this truth:

“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news.  The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!”

What name have you given to your team, and to each member of your team?  Do you believe that they can be successful?  Have you limited the growth of your team by naming them “Unable to succeed?”  Your expectations of your team will drive their performance.

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Denis McLaughlin
Denis McLaughlin is President of Leadership GPS, Inc.
He is a Leadership Development Expert, Coach, Teacher, Speaker, and Writer
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Avoiding The Top 5 Leadership Communication Blunders

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Melissa Lanier

Communication Breakdown

Communication is the most important predictor of a team’s success.  MIT has the data to prove it.  If you lead a team, this should command your attention.

Communication is Key to a Successful Team

“We’ve found patterns of communication to be the most important predictor of a team’s success. Not only that, but they are as significant as all the other factors—individual intelligence, personality, skill, and the substance of discussions—combined.”

Alex “Sandy” Pentland, leader of  MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory, writes about this research in an HBR article, The New Science of Building Great Teams.

Communication. That’s right, it’s more important that intelligence and skill.  Are you maximizing the success of your team through effective communication?

Maybe not!

Take a look at these five common communication blunders – and how to avoid them.

Avoiding The Top 5 Leadership Communication Blunders

1. You are too focused on yourself

You will not get very far in your communication efforts if you are only focused on what you need out of the interaction.  You must start communication by being genuinely interested in others.  Take a moment and reflect on what all parties need from the dialogue.

Dale Carnegie captured this idea in How To Win Friends and Influence People when he wrote: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

What should you do?

  • Don’t interrupt – People will never be heard if you don’t let them speak.
  • Don’t volunteer others – Let people choose for themselves.  It shows you value their autonomy.
  • Seek common ground – Everyone is self- interested. Look for the intersection as a way to create a win – win.

2. You’re keeping your door closed and the emails (or texts) flying

Face it, we frequently default to impersonal communication like email and text messages.

I see emails fly from people who sit 10 feet apart.

In a joint study, “The Psychology of Effective Business Communications in Geographically Dispersed Teams,” Cisco and PearnKandola found that organizational effectiveness can suffer when e-mails go unanswered and team member (or managers) assume the non-responder is a slacker.

The report also stresses that email takes away critical nonverbal clues that make communication effective.

So what should you do?  Think about the best method of communication for your message.  Many times that will be face-to-face communication.

According to Dr. Pentland’s research at MIT:

“The most valuable form of communication is face-to-face.  The next most valuable is by phone or video conference.” 

The most successful teams had the most live communication.  Think about that before you send your next text message.

3. You talk more than you listen

Dialogue is a two-way street.  There is no dialogue if one person does all the talking.  In addition, great listeners show speakers that they have been heard and understood.

So what should you do?

  • Listen effectively – Focus on the speaker, shutting out external and internal noise.
  • Talk and listen in roughly equal measures to others in the conversation.
  • Make room for others to participate.  Ask questions if notice others are quiet or holding back.
  • Don’t become defensive or change the subject with the conversation becomes sensitive.  That is the time to demonstrate that you are hearing and understanding.

This ability to truly listen is so critical that it appears on the Leadership Action Profile (LPI), a 360º assessment tied to The Leadership Challenge, by Kouzes and Posner.

After 25 years of research their findings indicate that an effective leader “Actively listens to diverse points of view.”

Make sure that you are as well.

4. You ignore body language and facial expressions

Angry Person

Our nonverbal behaviors—the gestures we make, the way we sit,  how loud we talk, how close we stand, how much eye contact we make—send strong messages.

This is a huge part of communication.

If you want to know how your communication is being received you must interpret the non verbal part of the dialogue.

Are you getting the full picture?

You must be fully present in the conversation to notice and respond to nonverbal cues.  Dr. Paul Ekman, an expert on facial expressions, notes that most expressions are on someone’s face for a few seconds.  This is long enough to recognize if you aren’t distracted by your own thoughts.

So what should you do?

  • What does it mean when someone crosses their arms or blinks repeatedly?  Take the time to learn about non-verbal communication.
  • Resist the urge to spend your mental energy planning your next comment. Pay attention to what you see.  Look for signs that the non-verbals are out of synch with the spoken message.
  • Be aware of your own body language.

 5. You communicate primarily with close confidants

Frequent and open dialogue is key successful teams.    This is evident when you look at the research of Drs. Carew, Kandarian, Parisi-Carew and Stoner.  The created the HPO SCORES Model that presents the six elements evident in every high performing organization.

The very first item in their list is Shared Information and Open Communication.

This model is presented in the book Leading at a Higher Level.

“Sharing information and facilitating open communication build trust and encourages people to act like owners of the organization.  Encouraging dialogue lessens the danger of territoriality and keeps the organization health, agile, flexible and fluid.”

And it yields real business results.  Back at MIT, Dr. Pentland recommended to call center management  that they send agents to break at the same time to increase communication.  The average handle time of calls fell by 20% on low performing teams.

The organization is making the change company wide and they project a $15 million per year productivity increase.  So what should you do?

  • Communicate frequently with all members of the team – solicit ideas and ask questions.
  • Don’t wait for staff meeting.  Spend time communicating informally.  A lot of great, effective communication happens at break or over lunch.
  • Draw ideas from outside the core work group and bring those ideas back to the team.  Get a new conversation going.

In the spirit of great communication, I’d love to hear your thoughts!  What are you doing to promote good conversations on your team?  Do you feel that everyone is participating in the dialogue?  Do you think people are both speaking and listening?

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Melissa Lanier

Melissa Lanier leads Global Talent Management for an S&P SmallCap 600 Firm
She is driven to build High Performing Cultures Aligned to Strategy
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Top Five Reasons People Fear Being A Leader – Debunked

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Denis G. McLaughlin

Leadership Quote

Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York City, has a brief, concise, but for many a frightening, definition of Leadership – “I’m responsible.”

The root of all leadership summarized in two words and five syllables.

It really makes you stop and think about what you are getting into if you choose to be a Leader.

Of Facts and Fears

All of us have fears that we’ve developed over the years.  Some are well founded in facts like touching a hot stove, or getting cut on broken glass.

Others are due to a lack of understanding like children being afraid of monsters under their bed.

This is one of the benefits and at the same time detriments to the human condition:  the more experience we have, the more we think there is to fear.

This is a good thing when it protects us from making harmful mistakes; it is a bad thing when it prevents us from achieving success to our full capability:

Accepting the responsibility of leadership is one of those fears that some have developed over their years of experience.  There are five top reasons some fear to be a leader.  Each one can derail a promising leader if they let it stop them from learning and growing and becoming all they can be.

The Top Five Reasons People Fear Being a Leader – Debunked

1) I Am Afraid To Fail

The Fear:

There are many examples in history and in recent times of leaders failing.  It may even be your own boss or the company you work for that failed.  If you are going to be a leader, you want to be successful; but you think the risk of failure is just too great to try.

The Truth:

You won’t succeed every time you try. But like all our modern day sports stars, you are guaranteed to finish last if you never get up to the line of scrimmage, or on the court, or in the batter’s box. To get a chance to win, you have to take the chance to lose.

“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.”

 Let’s look at a few statistics from the world of sports:

  • The greatest football quarterbacks complete only six of ten passes.
  • The best basketball players make only half of their shots.
  • In baseball if you can get a hit more than three out of ten times at bat you’ll be in the hall of fame.

UCLA College Basketball coach John Wooden said:

 “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything.  I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”

 2) I Have Failed Before

 Fear:

You may believe that because you have failed before, you are a failure.  Since you made a mistake, you don’t deserve the chance to try again.

Facts:

If you have failed before, congratulations, you are in good company.  Failure is not the end of the road, it is just a step on the way to success.  The truly successful person believes they are never down; they are either up, or getting up.

 Abraham Lincoln failed at many of his endeavors until he became the President of the United States.  What did Lincoln think of failures?

 “My great concern is not whether you have failed,  but whether you are content with your failure.”

Thomas Edison, the holder of 1,093 United States patents and the inventor of the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb said:

“I have not failed.  I‘ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

 3) I Am Not A Born Leader

Fear:

We all know larger than life leaders.  They are frequently on television, the internet, and newspapers.  We have studied them in the history books.  They are the Presidents, CEOs, Head Coaches, and Generals that command our attention.  If you are not just like these leaders, then you must not be meant to lead.

Facts:

No one is a born leader. But in the same way neither is anyone a born pilot, or farmer, or scientist, or teacher, or anything else for that matter other than a human being.  However, everyone is born with a personality and abilities that can be developed into greatness.  Anyone can be a leader if they know where their natural strengths lie and use them to lead.

“No one is born as a leader, but everyone is born to lead.”

Donald O. Clifton the former board chair of Gallup and author of four books on strength based leadership: Soar with Your Strengths, Now, Discover Your Strengths, StrengthsQuest, and How Full Is your Bucket? said this:

“A leader needs to know his strengths as a carpenter knows his tools, or as a physician knows the instruments at her disposal. What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths — and can call on the right strength at the right time. This explains why there is no definitive list of characteristics that describes all leaders.”

 4) I Don’t Know Enough About Leadership

Fear: 

You have the desire to be a leader, but don’t think you have the knowledge. There is so much you don’t know and it takes so much time to learn everything.  It seems the best leaders have been doing this for many years.  You believe that you can’t step out and be a leader until you know all there is to know.

Facts: 

You don’t have to know everything about leadership to lead. You just have to know a little more than the people you are leading. (Click here to tweet that)

I heard this funny story that demonstrates this point well.  You don’t have to be the fastest person in the world to win races; you only need to run faster than the people behind you in each race.

Two guys were hiking in the deep woods one day. They got a bit off track and wandered into the part of the woods were bears have been known to live. The frightening sound of a bear was heard.  One of the guys bent down and started tightening his shoes. “What are you doing?” the other one asked. “Lacing up my shoes so I don’t trip when I run,” the first one answered. “Everyone knows you can’t out run a bear,” the second one said. To that the first guy replied, “I don’t have to out run the bear, I just have to out run you,” and he sped away.

5) I Don’t Know Everything My Team Does

Fear:

You may believe that you can’t lead a team unless you have a mastery of every aspect of what your team does.

Facts:  

You don’t need to be the best at everything to be a leader; you just need to be the best at leading.

International Leadership Guru John Maxwell says it this way:

“Some people believe that great leaders have all the answers. Not true. Successful leaders don’t know everything. But they know people who do.  If you ask me a question related to one of my organizations and I don’t know the answer, I know which person in the organization does.  If you ask about my profession, I may not know the answer, but with a phone call or two, I can talk to someone who can answer the question.  And if you ask about the details of my life and schedule and I don’t know the answer, I guarantee you there’s someone who does – my assistant.”

**********

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Learn, Grow & Develop Other Leaders™

———————–
Denis McLaughlin
Denis McLaughlin is President of Leadership GPS, Inc.
He is a Leadership Development Expert, Coach, Teacher, Speaker, and Writer
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