A Good Place to Start

The world is full of managers and supervisors, good leaders are much rarer.

Good leaders must be built and developed, crafted, honed, and although some good leadership skills are intuitive, some are learned by experience both good experiences and bad ones, and some can be taught in a classroom; however, perhaps the best way to learn leadership skills is through mentoring. 

Becoming a good leader means embarking on a path that never ends.  People, organizations, and the leader themselves will evolve, change, and adapt in response to their changing world. 

In my growth as a leader, I have learned many lessons, some the hard way, but perhaps the most effective lessons, I learned while being mentored by some incredible people.  Three of those lessons helped to shape my entire philosophy of leadership, “Humility, Consideration, and Determination.”   

The Importance of Humility – Success is more than just you.

Sometimes when you are successful, it is easy to believe that you are the reason, the only reason.  Achieving success is almost always due to the efforts of many people and the work that is easily missed.  For example, in hockey, everyone remembers the goal scorer; however, the goalie who fed the puck to the defense, who in turn rushed the puck out of their zone and passed it up, and that person who battled past the defenders and who fed the shooter, were all just important.  Unfortunately, the glory and big contracts go to the scorer.  It is worth remembering in any field, this analogy has parallels. 

I have seen owners and managers tell their people that their success is due to “luck.”  Luck always plays a role; however, if an organization is doing well, effective leaders praise their people.  People working in successful organizations take pride in their accomplishments.  Telling people the organization’s success is just “luck” destroys morale and makes the owner or manager seem completely ungrateful for the hard work and sacrifices made by their people.

Successful leaders encourage contrary opinions and use “Red Teams.”  Having a mechanism to allow your people to contribute ideas and criticisms is an important way to build morale, and trust, and strengthen your organization.   Effective leaders want their people to give them honest feedback and what they are thinking.   You don’t necessarily have to implement every idea they suggest, but you should encourage your associates to share ideas and give them every consideration to contribute.  

Owners and managers who believe they are the only ones with good ideas will always have their organization’s growth limited by this incorrect assumption.  It doesn’t take long for associates to stop making suggestions if they are constantly shut down by their leaders.  Some owners and managers will compound these errors by taking obvious punitive action against anyone who disagrees with their ideas of management.  Effective leaders know they do not have a monopoly on good ideas.

One of the best mentors I worked with taught me to “Never assume that I was smarter than my people.”  He taught me to actively seek out people who were better than I was and that my role was to facilitate and help build collaboration while keeping everyone moving toward our short/medium/and long-term goals. 

Jim Collins wrote extensively about luck, anyone makes “good luck” work for them, but what Jim Collins wrote most interestingly about was “maximizing your return on bad luck.”  My mentors stressed to me to learn from everyone and every situation.  Effective leaders listen, watch, and ask questions, particularly when visiting other organizations and competitors.  Even re-examine failed concepts and reapproach with a different perspective. 

Many managers and supervisors believe that they are infallible, effective leaders know they make mistakes and openly admit when they do.  In my experience, leaders who admit to making mistakes and who take ownership of them are trusted and respected more by their people. 

Effective leaders will not hesitate to accept any job in the organization.  If a nasty unexpected situation occurs, such as a toilet backing up, rolling up your sleeves, and fixing the issue yourself can show your people that you are there when they need help.  No job in the organization is beneath you.  I have seen many managers and supervisors refuse to do a job because they perceive that job is beneath them as a top associate or manager.  This unwillingness can drive a “wedge” into your relationship with your people and can be difficult to overcome.   

Consideration for your people – Your success depends on them 

For organizations that have been successful in the past, it can be easy to forget how precarious success can be. 

What assumptions does your organization make about its people, clients, and customers?   Always assume that to grow you will have to become better.  Historical growth is not an indicator of future growth.  Loyalty only exists as long as what you do is better than everyone else. 

Hire good people, train them well, and then trust them to do their jobs.  I have seen too many weak managers and supervisors micro-manage their people because they have failed to provide effective leadership on one of those three fundaments.  Micro-managing good people leads to resentment and in many cases eventually to them leaving.  Effective leaders know sustained success only follows when you give your people the tools, instruction, and space to do their jobs. 

Effective leaders always set a good example.  Morale can plummet in any organization when a manager or supervisor doesn’t follow the same rules in place for the staff.  For example, taking excessively long lunch breaks or always leaving early leads to resentment and lack of respect.    

Weak or ineffective managers and supervisors can become too focused on small “little picture” irritants and significantly destroy “big picture” achievements.  I have seen staff morale destroyed because a “pet” project isn’t working despite overwhelming evidence that the organization is doing extremely well.  As a result, people are sidetracked on secondary goals and the primary goals suffer. 

Effective leaders always give their “A” game each day.  Consistency is the key to high performance.  Too many managers and supervisors think they can just “coast” and then “turn on the jets” anytime that is required.  This self-justification can contribute to the downfall of the individual and the organization because that thinking eventually spreads throughout the organization.  

For any organization, knowledge is constantly changing, and the need for knowledge is only increasing.  Preparing yourself and your people is vital.  Effective leaders create an environment where learning never ends both formally and informally, individually and for the group.

Effective leaders challenge their people to find and eliminate systems or processes that punish their clients or customers.  By constantly looking for better processes, effective leaders are able to meet or exceed expectations while constantly challenging ineffective or obsolete thinking.

The person in front of you, on the telephone, a person addressing a meeting, or communicating with you online is your number one priority.  Giving people your undivided attention is incredibly important.  “Signing cheques while listening to a presentation isn’t multi-tasking it is demonstrating a complete lack of respect for the speaker.”

Your people have questions, and your most important job is to be available when they need you.  If you are not available, ensure they always have someone designated that can help them.  Having an “open door” policy means, your door must always be open, especially when your people are under stress. 

Determination and Tenacity – Not forgetting “People have choices”

As an effective leader, constant interruptions and dealing with unexpected problems is your job. 

Earlier we mentioned that loyalty only exists when your organization is better than the alternative.  Organizations that allow customer service to slide because of costs risk losing their edge.  Even in the charitable sector, organizations that allow quality service to slip can see their fund-raising and donations fall substantially.  Effective leaders always remember the “pointy end of the spear.”

Similar to the previous point, effective leaders never willingly surrender their competitive advantages.  Poor managers and supervisors sometimes fail to value the things that make your organization different than their competition.  Effective leaders are always thinking, “Why would someone want my products or services?”  

Effective leaders always look for ways to improve engagement between their people and the people the organization serves.  Greeting, building rapport, qualification, and education are more than just the first four steps of selling, they are tools that effective leaders use to make and build connectivity for any type of organization.  (Steps for greeting and building rapport)

Effective leaders work longer hours than most of their people.   Work/life balance is important, but effective leaders know that does work with a 40-hour work week.  Effective leaders are usually consistently early for work, they may work through their lunch if necessary or stay late.  Effective leaders do what is necessary. 

Effective leaders provide feedback to their people.  They try to learn about and speak to everyone they are responsible for on a daily basis.  Effective leaders use evolving and living performance conversations to connect and develop their people.  (Performance Conversations)

It is important for effective leaders to ask the question of their customers and clients, “How do you feel when you have interacted with our people?”  Effective leaders understand that “People have choices.”  People who feel good about their experiences will be back, if they don’t they won’t.  This axiom extended to how effective leaders treat their people at all times. 

If you want to be an effective leader of people, these three attributes are a good place to begin.

Humility is perhaps one of the greatest leadership skills to have.  Regardless of their position in an organization, people with humility know that success is a team achievement, not an individual one.

Consideration for your people, their self-image, their goals and desires, the issues they face, and even their challenges outside of your organization can help you transcend the gap between being a good manager and supervisor to becoming an effective leader.

Finally, being determined.  Determined people make effective leaders because they don’t like to do difficult things any more than anyone else.  They realize though, that difficult situations and circumstances are “part of the job,” and they “earn their money” not when everything is running smoothly, but rather when things are “flying apart,” they set the example and execute what needs to be done. 

There are many more attributes of effective leadership; however, humility, consideration, and determination are three of the most important when looking for a place to start, because success is never just about luck.

Good luck,

Paul