Business management is in transition as we work in a different economy and business model. Leadership styles are evolving. We’re moving from a leadership concept that places responsibility and accountability in the hands of individuals to a group leadership concept.
Paul Spiegelman, contributor to Inc. says, “The old days of command-and-control leadership are fading in favor of what might be better termed a trust-and-track method, where people are not just told what to do, but why they are doing it.”
He says we’re moving from a transactional - or managerial - leadership, to transformative leadership, or a leader focused on followers, motivating them to high levels of performance, and developing their leadership potential.
He recently wrote a post about what leadership practices to stop today. Following is his list of “old school” practices to get rid of and “new school” practices to advocate instead.
Instead, give your employees some control. Delegate and leverage your team so you can spend more time on the issues and activities that add the greatest value.
Not everyone works in an office setting. Remote teams are increasingly popular and we’ve talked here about how to effectively manage a remote team. Leadership where you watch, listen, engage in conversation, implement the ideas presented to you, and distribute the results is what is in says Spiegelman.
You don’t have all the answers, you aren’t Google. Instead, trust your leadership team members. You chose them because they have the right skills and fit the culture, so let them do their job and get out of their way.
Everyone makes mistakes. Even you do. Instead admit when you are wrong, and learn from your mistakes.
The balance sheet summarizes a company’s assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity at a specific point. People drive business. They are the ones who interact with customers, boost customer loyalty, and increase profits.
You’ll probably survive if you do the job asked, but don’t you want someone on your team who will go the extra mile? While working in the “new normal,” employees are wearing multiple hats, so just doing the job asked isn’t enough anymore. As business leaders, we want to see someone who goes the extra mile. It’s better to invest in people who will help drive sales and help your businesses grow.
Just because you pay your team more doesn’t mean they’ll do more. Being valued means more to most people, so instead of giving your employees an incentive to get a project done, reward them once it is done and they’ve done an excellent job on it. Point them out for a job well done in front of your entire team. It means more than monetary incentives.
Business and society are changing, so it’s only natural leadership styles change too. Leading is a challenge, but simple changes can influence the results you get. Now is the perfect time to try something new.
Are you using any of these out-of-date practices?
After a long recession, worker engagement is low. Engagement is making a shift from HR leaders to the agenda of top managers.
Ryan Estis, author of Passion on Purpose, and Dan MacPherson of Modern Survey examined the future of work and the opportunity HR professionals have to drive business performance through employee engagement. They used a current data set from Modern Survey research.
Estis also provided immediate actions leaders can take to improve employee engagement.
Let your employees know what is expected of them, what the company values and vision are, and how the company defines success. Employees can’t be productive if they don’t know the part they play in the overall success of the company.
Estis says, “More effective communication from the top drives alignment, minimizes confusion, mitigates apathy, and elevates confidence.”
Get to know your employees and celebrate their accomplishments and efforts to give them a boost. “Appreciation and feedback matter,” says Estis. Know their goals, stressors, what excites them, and how they define success. Show an interest in their well-being and, when appropriate, do what it takes to help them feel more fulfilled and better balanced.
Estis suggests leaders be proactive and innitiate career path and future-directed conversations.
Employees are looking to their current employers for job enrichment opportunities. Career opportunities are an important driver to them.
Some ideas for leaders if there aren’t current growth opportunities include lateral moves, special assignments, and cross-functional training.
Corporate giving and responsibility programs can help motivate and engage employees.
In this CNN article, Kellie McElhaney, director at the Center for Responsible Business, Haas School of Business, University of Berkeley said, “For today's 'millennials' entering the workforce engagement in sustainability is a must-have, not a nice-to-have. They don't want to be told what the company is doing. They want to do it."
Employees are human beings and today’s leaders must make it a priority to get to know them so they can provide whatever is needed to keep them fully engaged. Employees are a company’s greatest asset. Their ideas, feedback, and enthusiasm for what they do helps your business grow and succeed.
What initiatives have you seen that have kept employees engaged?
Leadership is not something that happens overnight. It takes time and practice to develop the skills needed to be successful.
There are many skills that make someone a leader let alone a great leader. Inc. shares the top five skills every leader must have.
If you can’t focus you can’t get work done. We are inundated with information every day. There’s the urge to text, tweet, or check email and it is all very difficult to ignore. Great leaders know how to manage distractions and can focus on the important things that affect the bottom line of their businesses.
Great leaders question assumptions, claims, and viewpoints. They know when to make a decision and when to proceed with caution. They accept responsibility for their decisions, both good and bad, even if it means they go down with the ship.
Authentic leaders have integrity and lead their team with compassion. They truly care about their employees. They are honest and don’t sugarcoat the truth.
The Inc. article says, “Communication has always been the means by which great leaders achieve great things. But these days, communication occurs in sound bites, status updates, text messages, and tweets of 140 characters or less.”
Great leaders don’t just bark orders. They listen to their team, customers, peers, and competitors. They know it is the best way to understand a situation so they can make the best decision.
The most successful leaders get their team to work towards a common goal, satisfy their customers, and deliver on their promises.
Great leaders put others first and find ways to help people grow. To become a great leader, you need to develop the skills necessary to lead, motivate, and influence people in good and bad times.
What other traits do you look for in leaders?
Procrastination is a phenomenon familiar to everyone. A reason people procrastinate is because they believe they can easily complete something in a short amount of time, when it’s closer to the deadline. It’s a result of having very little motivation for a boring or unpleasant activity.
Joseph R. Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University in Chicago, has studied procrastination throughout his professional life.
He says about 20 percent of the population are procrastinators. Not everyone is a habitual procrastinator. Some of us just engage in occasional delaying tactics, lateness, or putting off things we know we need to get done today until tomorrow.
Vivian Giang, contributor for Business Insider, collected insights from Psychology Today, WebMD, and LifeHack on how to kick procrastination to the curb.
Email can be a huge distraction especially when it’s constantly bombarding you so don’t open an email if you don’t have time to read it.
Instead, try setting aside some time to check your email, whether it’s at the beginning, middle, and end of the day or every hour. If something comes through needing a response, then respond. If it can wait, then let it.
If a social network is distracting you, sign out and close the browser window. Try scheduling yourself 30 minutes a day to unwind and check your social networks.
Ferrari suggests finding out who your most productive colleagues are and teaming up with them. Surround yourself with non-procrastinators and try to model yourself after the people that get a lot done.
If you return from a meeting or lunch with a full inbox of new assignments, finish what you’ve already started and need to get done. Deal with all the new assignments after you’ve completed what you’re already working on.
If your deadline is far off, it becomes a generality. Planning in smaller time increments will less likely lead to putting off a project until the last minute.
Create a schedule with clear due dates for each task, and use visual cues as reminders such as setting reminders in your calendar or putting post-it notes on your computer screen.
Use one calendar to keep track of all the deadlines you need to meet. Giang says if your task today affects your task tomorrow, you will experience an urgency to act.
Ask a colleague to review your work. Knowing they are expecting it can help get you started.
Stop looking at yourself as a procrastinator. Instead see yourself as someone who gets things done.
Switch up your work environment, take a walk and come back reinvigorated to get back to work.
Hard work should be rewarded whether it’s after work drinks with some friends, or a meal at your favorite restaurant. If you spend too much time on something, you may start to resent it.
The best piece of advice we came across: Stop waiting for the perfect time and just do it. It’s never too late to break the cycle of putting off important tasks. Create a reasonable, workable schedule and make an effort to stick with it.
What ways do you kick procrastination to the curb?
Nothing makes people bristle more quickly than unfair or unsolicited criticism. In a perfect world, leaders would not have a need to criticize employees. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone has room to improve.
When constructive criticism is required, there are a number of techniques that inspire employees to improve their work, rather than making them feel inadequate.
Geoffrey James, contributor to Inc., offers six tips to effectively criticize employees.
The word criticism carries a negative connotation while feedback implies participation of two parties. “A two-way give and take where both people learn and grow,” says James. You learn when you give and receive feedback. When you provide feedback instead of criticism, you and your employee will feel relaxed and receptive.
Criticism needs to be delivered in a way that is clear, direct, and timely. Don’t delay until an employee’s annual performance review.
“Reviews are about salaries; criticism is about developing the employee,” says James. When you pay attention to an employee’s behavior and appreciate their experience, it will help them get into a learning mode.
If you wait for the right moment to bring up problems to an employee, they most likely will be overwhelmed. Don’t delay criticism; it is best given in real time or immediately after a problem occurs.
Don’t try to persuade employees to do things the way you do them. Everyone works in different ways, and your way may not work for them. Instead, ask questions to uncover any potential misunderstandings or miscommunication.
James suggests you ask questions such as:
If you ask these questions, they will help your employees discover their own solutions.
James says, “When you listen to an employee and acknowledge what he or she has to say, you learn about the world from that employee’s point of view.”
Often when you listen to someone’s responses to questions, you have at least one “Aha!” moment which improves your own understanding. This allows you to provide much more constructive feedback.
When you provide feedback or criticize employees, remember you are addressing a certain behavior that needs improvement, not the employee. If an employee is late, identify that as a behavior they must work to change.
James says to never say “You’re unreliable! You’ve been late three times this week!” Instead address the behavior like so: “You’re usually punctual, but this week you have been late three times. What’s up?” You will never be able to change a personality, but you can affect the outside behaviors that result from it.
It’s never comfortable when you have to communicate to an employee on how to improve their performance, but it is important. Even as an experienced leader, you might find it difficult to let employees know where they need improvement. However, there are times when constructive feedback is essential to maintain excellence and strong relationships. When criticism is handled with finesse, it can promote growth and improvement.
What other tips would you add?
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It’s impossible to become a great leader without being a good communicator. It’s not just about getting your message out; it’s about having a two way conversation, not a one way message.
In an Inc. article, Jason Fried talked about how he’s taking lessons in Ruby on Rails, a programming framework that powers tens of thousands of websites worldwide, so he can communicate better with the programmers who work for him.
He’s an expert in design and doesn’t speak the same language as the programmers. So he decided it would be smart to learn enough about what they do to communicate with them.
He said, “Learning how to program has taught me I need to explain things more clearly--and not only to machines. I used to assume a lot and rush through things, but now, when I describe something new to someone, I find myself slowing down, breaking the idea down in my mind and explaining it piece by piece. I'd rather be asked to speed up than risk going too fast and skipping over the fundamentals that really matter.”
Most people have to work to develop their skills and strengths. You don’t need to go back to school to learn how to be a better communicator. PR Daily offers some tips to help you hone your skills.
Whether the news is positive or negative, it’s best to be forthright, honest, and timely. People appreciate transparency and truth.
Have a clear vision and direction you want your communication to head. Set expectations on what you’re going to say and state your intention or what you want to accomplish to keep your communication relevant and on topic. Be prepared to be challenged though, not everyone will agree with what you have to say.
Shake people’s hands, look them in the eye, and listen to what they have to say. Find some common ground with your audience whether it’s weather, sports, news, or hobbies. A sense of connection leads to a more receptive listener.
To communicate effectively, listen to your audience. What are their concerns? What nonverbal cues have they given you? Know when it’s time to listen and when to talk. Don’t assume your audience knows what you know. When you describe something new to someone, break it down and explain it piece by piece. Fried says if you assume nothing, you have a better shot at making a clear and deep connection.
The best communicators are great listeners and are perceptive in their observations. They are skilled at reading people by sensing their moods, attitudes, values, and concerns.
What other tips would you add?
Maintaining staff motivation is important to your company’s success.
We've talked about how to motivate your team, but as a good leader you need to be able to identify the factors that cause a lack of motivation in the workplace.
A drop in motivation can become contagious if the cause isn't identified and addressed. If you become familiar with the factors that degrade staff motivation, you can design plans to combat it.
Business Insider contributor Vivian Giang provides four signs to look for when employees are losing motivation.
There are a number of things you can do as a leader once you recognize the signs.
Giang suggests managers do the following:
In addition Giang’s list, here are three more tips we came up with after listening to her interview with LocalJobNetwork.com’s host Tim Muma.
Diagnose the problem and deal with it immediately. Problems that don’t get addressed kill team morale quickly. Not only are they distracting, but they negatively affect employee motivation and enthusiasm. “These problems need to be dealt with immediately before they grow into bigger, more complicated issues,” says Giang.
Lead. Employees are motivated by strong direction from management balanced with the chance to work on their own. Provide direction when needed, listen to employees’ needs, and don’t be afraid to help out when things get tough.
Incorporate fun. Try to add some fun things to improve team morale, raise energy levels, reduce stress, spark creativity, and increase social interactions. Something as simple as holiday decorations or lunchtime games such as wiffle ball or bocce do a lot to raise engagement levels and boost motivation.
Besides having a great product or service, most businesses success is connected to motivated employees.
Look for and recognize the signs your employees are losing their motivation and whatever methods you come up to re-motivate them will result in excited, loyal, and productive employees.
Can you do more to keep employees engaged and productive?
A company’s strategy is the game plan business owners and management use to position their organization in its chosen market area, to compete successfully, satisfy customers, and achieve good business performance.
Business leaders have to pay attention to the developments in the world because they are intertwined with market forces that affect consumers and demand. They have to adapt their business strategy to a constantly shifting environment.
Changes in strategy should be done when it’s clear achieving a strategic goal is either impossible or no longer desirable, says Geoffrey James, columnist for Inc.com.
He offers some characteristics every strategy should include.
People often get a strategy mixed up with a tactic. “Strategies define goals to be achieved while tactics define the actions you’ll take to achieve those goals,” says James.
For example, a strategy would be to double sales in a specific territory. A tactic would be to hire more salespeople in that territory to achieve their goal.
If your goals are vague, you won’t know if you are achieving them. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” says James.
When you set goals, also set ways you will measure them to be certain they are successful.
Goals such as achieving thought leadership won’t translate to solid numbers. However if your goal is to double sales revenue in a specific region, you will have data to back up whether it was a success or a failure.
Strategic goals are achievable through tactics. They are not dependent on forces you can’t control.
James says an actionable goal would be to double sales revenue versus increasing your publicly held stock price by 50 percent. Increasing your stock-price is contingent on the market.
Employees should understand exactly what their organization’s strategy is to achieve it successfully. A strategy requires continuous and clear communication. It should guide their decisions and actions.
“A strategy is just hot air unless there’s a tactical plan for achieving each strategic goal,” says James.
For example, if you want to increase sales by 50 percent in a specific region, your plan could include anything from investing in better lead generation methods to retraining employees to hiring new ones.
Strategies evolve as businesses evolve, but it’s important to know what does and doesn’t work. Once you know that, you can adjust your tactics and try new approaches.
A business strategy is an ongoing process, not something to set and forget. Strategic planning is key to looking to the future and creating direction to for a business to be successful. The key is to do what works best rather than trying to do everything.
What other characteristics do you think are critical in a business strategy?
Learning from failure is a necessity, whether in your business or personal life. Leaders need to think about failure as a process we go through rather than an event to avoid.
I came across two articles on how to fail well from Henna Inam of SmartBlog on Leadership and Erika Andersen, contributor to Forbes.
“Every person – no matter how accomplished, successful, smart, or focused – fails at some point(s) in his or her life,” says Andersen.
She goes on to say, they may be small failures or big ones, and people either learn and grow from them or are devastated.
Inam and Andersen share some valuable lessons on how to fail well.
When failure happens, we tend to look for someone to blame. Think deeply about how it went wrong and write it down. Is there someone else to blame? Or do you have yourself to blame?
If you feel up to it, share what you wrote with others. Sharing can be cathartic and can also generate some valuable feedback for your future endeavors. You can get useful information which will help you move forward.
“If we get stuck in the emotions of blaming others or ourselves, we really don’t learn the lessons from our failures,” says Inam.
“It’s human nature, when we mess up, to want to avoid thinking about or looking at what we did,” says Andersen.
The most useful thing you can do is learn from your mistakes and to do that, you need to reflect on it.
To do this, Andersen gets in what she likes to call ‘fair witness’ mode. She imagines someone else is observing her behavior. She asks three questions: What did this person do? Why didn’t it work? What could he or she do differently next time?
An apology acknowledges your error, the reality of the situation, and you no longer have to defend yourself but you can begin to move to repair the mistake. When you own up to your mistakes, you come off as strong and confident, not weak.
Once you understand what happened and how to do it differently, try again.
“If you decide not to try that particular thing again, make sure it’s because you've honestly determined that it’s not something you want to do, or that it’s something at which you’re unlikely to be successful – rather than because you’re terrified that you’ll fail again,” says Andersen.
Take failure as a valuable learning experience you can take with you for the rest of your career. As leaders our job is to learn from our failures and move forward.
What lessons have you learned from your failures?
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