Before we "jump"

How many times have we KNOWN the right answer before we even knew all the facts?

How many times have we gotten upset with someone because we jumped to the result before we heard all the information?

How many times have we jumped in and tried to solve the problem before we even knew if our team member wanted our help?

How many times have we Looked Before Leaping?

If we, as leaders and bosses, are to have any credibility with our team members, we have to stop, listen, and think before we act. Nothing turns our people off more quickly than knee-jerk reactions from us.

Credible leadership is mature and thoughtful leadership. Let's take a minute to think about that.

All Work and No Fun

Don't you love it when a boss makes one of those "encouraging" presentation to the troops? It seems that one of the obligatory bullet points is about having fun: "Work has to be fun!" "One thing we have to be sure we do...is have FUN!" In fact, if workers aren't having fun, they should find another job. Wow, that's such an empty statement. How out of touch or disingenuous are these bosses?

I've never heard one person say "I'm going to fun now" when heading to the office. Work is work and fun is fun. While sometimes they are the same thing (and that's great for those people who feel that way...although one could wonder what the rest of their lives are like if work is the best part of the day), most often they are two very distinct concepts.

While I have trouble with the "work is fun" concept, I do believe we can have fun with our co-workers as well as have rewarding experiences while at the office. I also believe that it's the boss's responsibility to help build an environment where positive events can happen. Two ways I'd like to share are:

1. Do Fun Stuff: I'm not talking about our tasks being fun. You can't count on that. What I am referring to is doing things that will put a smile on the faces of your team:

• Start off your daily huddle, weekly staff meeting, or other event with an activity to get people up and moving. One time, one of our team members made me sing a song because I was called away at the last minute and was "late" for our meeting. I sang "I'm a little teapot" with the motions to go with it. As a boss, you've got to be ready to shed any shred of dignity you have, every once in a while, to show you're human.
• Tell a joke whether it's good or bad (not off-color, though). I used to be known as the Chuck Norris jokester, with a list of really bad jokes that I shared. I can't tell jokes very well and the team heckling me was part of the fun.
• Leave them with a memorable quote. One of my team members always had a quote ready for the end of every meeting. Sometimes they were really memorable and sometimes they weren't, but it was still a positive way to send us back to work.

2. Build on Accomplishments: I always want my team to have a sense of purpose and be proud of what we do. I find it very fulfilling to be part of a team that works hard, meets tough goals, and then gets to see how meeting the goals helps another group or even the entire organization. The key is for the boss to make a big deal about what the team accomplished and let everyone know he or she is proud of them (it's good if you can get your boss to acknowledge the efforts and results, too).

Just like parents telling their kids they love them, bosses can never tell their team members too much that they are winners and that they are proud of them. The key here is to be sincere. If you don't mean it when you praise your people, they'll know.

Am I totally off base about work being fun? What other actions can bosses take to help themselves and their teams have fun at work?

What do you want to be known for?

You've seen it, haven't you? You work with someone who is just naturally talented. Perhaps James is a great speaker and presenter. He can engage a crowd and have them eating out of the palm of his hand. Maybe Tanya is a great writer and thinker. She can churn out emails and documents that leave awe struck with her brain power. Perhaps Joe is a natural leader. His people literally crowd around him because of his magnetism. With all the brains and talent these people have, some of them really struggle with being successful. Why?

Often the reason you see people with such great talent struggle with success is that they're not performing the basics. The examples I mentioned above have so much going for them, yet they fail to:

• Follow up on their commitments
• Arrive at meetings on time...or even at all
• Return phone calls
• Meet deadlines

In a word, they lack credibility. They cannot be counted on. Those around people like this start to say, "wow, that was a great presentation..." and "gosh, that woman's thought process, being able to dig down through all the clutter, is amazing..." Then the people follow up their statements with "...but, he never got back to me on X" or "...but, she failed to follow through on her plans."

You know how to fix it: be disciplined as well as talented. Any number of people can provide you a road map for success. You just need to follow it.

What do you want to be know for? Do you want to be known for your great talent? Do you want to be remembered for your credibility and reliability? Or do you want to be remembered as a "...but, he" or ...but, she"?

It's your choice.

Great Leaders need to be Winners

Maybe I should restate and say that "Great Leaders need to act like Winners". So what is this all about? Well, one can argue that, to be a great leader, you have to have followers...people who want to follow you.

Let's think about this for a minute. I submit that people like to be involved with the best...the best deals, the best meals, the best gadgets, the best doctors, etc. Can you imagine saying "I go to the 2nd best surgeon around!" People don't want to think they have to settle for 2nd or 3rd choice and even if they realize it, they don't want to admit it and often will move to rectify the situation.

That takes me back to the theme of this post: people like to follow winners. Just like I discussed above, team members don't want to brag about being on the 2nd best team or having a 2nd or 3rd rate boss. Even if it's not a completely accurate belief or assumption, your folks want to follow a winner.

Is this a problem? What if you don't always win? Is that OK? Sure it is. You don't have to win every time to be a winner and definitely not to act like a winner.

This might beg the question, what does a winning leader look like or what traits does a winning leader display? Some traits might be:

• Quiet confidence: You act like you know what you're doing (see my post on this).
• A positive attitude: Need I say more?
• Treating team members like winners: People not only like to follow winners, they want to BE winners, too.
• Managing by influence: Instead of with a heavy hand.

If you act like a winner and treat your people like winners...you most probably are a winner and life's a whole lot better when you come at it from that angle.

What traits do you think a winning leader portrays?

"No excuse, sir."

I was taught that, when I screwed up or my people screwed up and my boss wanted to know why, I had only one immediate answer: "no excuse, sir". I was accountable for my actions and those of the people under my supervision. I was acknowledging that accountability and making no excuses. Now, in most cases, unless I was just getting a good hard core butt-chewing where no explanation was wanted, I would be given a chance to explain what happened. There are times for explanations and there are times just for acknowledging accountability. There's never a time for excuses.

My point is this: as leaders, we need to stand up and be counted (this kind of goes along with my earlier post "your people"). We need to be mature and confident enough in our abilities and our values, that we don't hesitate to speak up when accountability is sought. Plus, what good are excuses anyway? They just make us look like we don't have a good handle on the situation or our team. They certainly don't move any initiative forward. Hopefully, we've been communicating often enough with our bosses, and both our and their expectations are properly aligned so we aren't even tempted to make excuses.

Is this too hard core an attitude? Is the "no excuse, sir" answer only applicable in an organization like the Army? Is there ever a good reason to make excuses?

Are Leaders Born or Made? So What?

I was interviewing management candidates to run one of my company's offices in the Southeast. One of the questions I liked to ask was "Do you consider yourself a natural leader?"

That begs the question that's the title of this post: "are leaders born or made?" Maybe it would be better to ask "are most leaders born or made?"

One can argue that very few natural leaders have ever existed in the world, leaders who innately know how to inspire others to follow and hopefully accomplish feats and goals they never believed possible. On the other hand, could we not argue that all parents are natural leaders as soon as their children are born? If the definition of a leader is that others follow, then every parent is a leader for at least a little while. Maybe we should exclude parents from this discussion.

I've personally only known one or two people who I could consider "naturals" as leaders. All the rest had to learn it. For me, I just know that, in the adult, non-parenting world, I am not a natural leader. I think I'm a decent leader (of course, that's open to interpretation depending on who you ask and based on what time period we're talking about). Or rather, I'm a decent leader now and in the recent past. I spent a lot of time being schooled by the Army about how to be both a manager and a leader. That helped. What really helped me was failing at leadership over the years, recognizing my failures (either on my own or with help from others), and then caring enough to try and do better. It reminds me of an outstanding doctor who once told me, "you know why I'm head and shoulders above the other doctors around me? It's because I'm standing on a pile of bodies." Leadership is often like that, too.

Like I said, I was not born a leader. What about you? If you weren't born a leader, are you a decent leader now? How do you learn to be a leader?

I'll leave you with a comment I heard from a sergeant when I was in the Army. The comment was, "I wouldn't follow that man into battle." The meaning was, "I wouldn't trust that man with my life or the lives of my people." That man was the commander and, supposedly, the leader.

Would your people follow you into battle?

Can you trust your people too much?

Wow!?! That's a loaded question. How is it possible to trust someone too much?

I think we might be talking about a couple of different types of trust:

• trust of intention
• trust of work, product, or presentation

I've been blessed to work with a number of individuals whose intentions I'm confident are pure. They constantly do their best for the organization and its customers, for their bosses, and for their teams. I've had no trouble trusting their intentions whatsoever.

The thing is, I have high standards. So do all the groups I mentioned above. The question about trust comes into play when we combine high standards along with imperfect humans. I made the mistake, one time, of trusting the work of a professional on my team. The presentation was due to executives and, because I trusted the intentions of my team member, I also trusted the output. I found out later, from my boss, that the work was substandard. It was very embarrassing. I didn't let this mistake happen again.

My advice would be that you never completely accept your people's work without:

• Thoroughly checking the output until you're confident of what your people produce.
• Periodically check on the people you know will represent you, your boss, and your team well, just to ensure the quality has remained strong. People meet and exceed standards that they are measured against.

Do you think you can trust your people too much? Is there ever a time when checking is no longer necessary, even periodically?

Know Your Audience

As professional people, regardless of our type of organization or our position in the organization, we communicate with numerous people both inside and outside of that organizatiaon. We communicate in a variety of ways, primarily:

• In person.
• Over the telephone.
• Via email.

We must ensure that we exhibit situational awareness regardless of our type of communication because others judge us based on how we reach them (see posts: If you look bad and Email).

For instance, when we communicate, we need to think about our message, what we want to say, and how to express it. Not only do we need to consider the medium (like above), but we have to decide how to convey our points. Do we want to come across in a serious manner? Do we want to be clever or funny? What reaction do we want our audience to display? What do we want them to remember about our message or us after the communication is complete? Do we want to provide some type of take-away or follow-up communication after we are done?

Getting back to the title of this post, who is the audience? Are we communicating with superiors, peers, or subordinates? Are we sharing with a seasoned group or some fairly inexperienced people? Do they have a solid understanding of the setting (history, players, etc.) so they can properly frame what we're sharing?

It never ceases to amaze me how little preparation or follow-up we plan or budget for when we communicate. Often we just begin speaking (no notes) or typing (no outline) and hope (or worse, expect) our audience will miraculously understand our thoughts exactly as we intended.

As leaders, we represent our organization, our supervisors and our team. It would be bad enough if we gave others a poor impression of us, personally, let alone radiating that poor impression so it tainted the audience against those we try so hard to serve and support.

Do you have examples of how knowing your audience can have positive effects, as well as how the failure to take our audience into account can have unwanted consequences?

Make Eye Contact

Are you kidding me? You're blogging about eye contact? Absolutely, I am.

Good eye contact or the lack, thereof, can make a huge impression on those around you. Personally, I like to make eye contact when I'm in a conversation with others. I also like to make eye contact when I'm listening to a speaker in a larger setting.

Good eye contact conveys several possible meanings:

• "I am a confident person...confident enough to look you straight in the eyes."
• "I am interested in what you have to say."
• "I am engaged and listening."

People want to interact more with those who convey meanings like this.

The reverse is true, too, helping provide less than positive perceptions to those around us: disinterest, distrust, disengagement, etc.

As leaders, being and acting confident are key components to success. What other ideas are conveyed by making good eye contact (or poor eye contact)? How can this help leaders be more successful?

The Reluctant Delegator

You're a busy boss or project manager. You've got tons of work on your plate. You don't have enough hours in the day to get all your work done. What will you do?

If you're a boss or in charge of a project, one thing you've probably got going for you is a team and team members. That should mean that there are people who may have similar knowledge as you and can hopefully complete tasks with a level of quality you deem appropriate.

So why don't you delegate? It's amazing, but many bosses out in the work world just don't do it. Some reasons leaders are reluctant to delegate are:

1. You've been burned before and so the only person you trust to get work done and done well is YOU.
2. All your people have work of their own to complete. You feel guilty "dumping" work on others.
3. You're not quite sure how to effectively delegate.

Here are four excellent reasons to delegate:

1. So you don't die from overwork.
2. To showcase your team members.
3. Development for your people.
4. Your team members may actually come up with a better outcome than you would have on your own (and that's OK).

How much should I give out to others? Look at:

1. Your peoples' strengths.
2. Their work load from your perspective (and you may need to ask them, too).
3. The attributes of different team members who you want to develop.

How do I delegate?

1. Let each team member know what you need done (show examples, if needed).
2. Provide the deadline.
3. Set up review or check-in times so you can gauge progress and provide guidance or assistance, as needed.
4. Review the work (don't assume it's the way you want it automatically)

Delegation doesn't have to be painful. It can even be rewarding experience for both you and your team if you use the opportunity to help your people grow and develop. Don't underestimate what others can do. Sometimes, when you let people own a task, they can surprise you with the great results.

If you look bad, you are bad

Actually, this is only 1/2 of the phrase I tell people on my teams or leaders I've trained. The entire saying is "If you look good, you may or may not be good, but if you look bad, you are bad." Sentence structure-wise, it's not that great, but hopefully it conveys my meaning.

Let's expand a little. Perception is huge in life, isn't it? We judge and are judged constantly. We often make snap decisions regarding people by just the smallest thing or things we see. By "thing" I mean, neatness, vocabulary, writing, spelling, dress standards, etc.

In business, our credibility is everything (read more here). Because of that, we have to be aware of the "things" we are showing others. It shouldn't have to be that way, but it is. Perceptions, especially negative ones, are hard to overcome.

Here are a few "if you look bad" examples:

• Misspellings on a letter (especially on a resume or cover letter)
• Grammar and sentence structure issues in emails and documents (professionals really ought to be able to write...and so many cannot)
• Chomping your gum (or even chewing it in certain situations)
• Sloppy dress (unless that's the look you're going for...please say it isn't) and poor grooming
• Poor posture

There are lots of ways to present ourselves poorly, and there are ways to present ourselves positively. In the Army, the saying goes, "If it doesn't work, paint it", meaning at least it will look good and, on the surface, people may have a positive first glance.

Now, I'm not at all advocating fluff over substance, but let's face it. The judgments are real and are happening as I write. You can have the best ideas and best products in the world, but if people have anything less than positive thoughts regarding any of the reasons above or any others you might think of, your credibility will be hurt. Take a look at yourself and ensure your "fluff" matches your substance.

Take-away: Look good and BE good.