Making A Difference

Good leaders make a difference in the lives of the people they serve. I didn't write "good leaders make a difference in the lives of people who serve them". I also didn't write "GREAT". I wrote "good". Most of us are not and never will be great leaders even though we hopefully strive to be great every day.

I have written several other posts on "leaders" in this blog. Some are: Visibility, Leaders are There, Leaders Never Quit, Servant Leadership. This time the post is about how we, as leaders, can make a difference in the lives of our people.

I've been blessed to have several really good bosses over the years. The "hands down" best boss I ever had was Colonel Joseph J. "Jake" Simmons, IV. Why was he the best boss I've ever had?

It's because he:

• invested in me.
• believed in me.
• challenged me.
• helped me grow.
• cared about my well-being.
• patted me on the back and kicked me in the butt.
• helped me believe I was a winner.

Good leaders have the most unique of abilities and opportunities...the ability to make a difference in the lives of the people they serve.

On Veteran's Day, I remember Colonel Simmons and say "thank you, sir" to his service to his God, his country, his people, and to me.

Team Members or Customers...who comes first?

Conventional wisdom in business is that customers come first. Let's face it; if you didn't have customers, you wouldn't have a business, right? Therefore, we make statements like "the customer is always right." I've even told team members that the only "unforgivable" sin, as far as I was concerned...the action that would get them fired immediately, was being rude to a customer.

Lately, I've read that a few organizations out in the business world put their employees ahead of their customers. Now, I have heard about instances in just about any business where really horrible customers were encouraged or invited to find a new store or business to visit. This "putting the employees first" idea is more proactive than letting a customer move on. It sounds like a strategy or basic tenet of that organization.

The justification is that, if you hire properly and have the right culture, along with training, encouraging, challenging, and rewarding your team members, an almost automatic by-product will be an unparalleled customer experience. If companies ensure they have the best teams in the world, then customers will stand in line to do business with them.

That's an interesting thought. I guess I can see that. It's kind of a tangent off what I've always said, "if you take care of your people, then the projects, tasks, and mission take care of themselves."

What do you think? Who comes first: customers or employees?

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?