It's Time to Lead

Much of the work that I do is focused on helping businesses go from where they are to where they want to be.  I always work hard to make sure that the changes I help businesses make are sustainable, meaning that the leaders in the business are the ones to drive the change.   Though every organization is different, most of the challenges that businesses and leaders face involve creating a fully engaged, capable team of people that can execute the mission of the business better than the competition while adapting to the changing market conditions.  While that's a daunting task, I help these businesses make that change happen and often these are three of the critical steps.

If you want change, you have to lead it.

Clarify Where “There” Is

Many of the leaders I work with recognize that they are not where they need to be, but they have not yet clarified what the new destination looks like.  They see that they are not getting the growth the business needs, their employees are not fully engaged, and there is not enough accountability amongst the people in the organization.  It is easier to see what is not working, but it is more important to define that future state.  Every leader should be able to describe this “destination” in detail to themselves and to their employees.  Only when this is crystal clear, can you begin to move towards that new, better version of the business.

Examine Your Culture

People in charge of businesses or teams often think about changes that need to be made to the structure, talent and strategy.  Unfortunately, those things will not transform a business unless you change the culture as well.  Culture doesn’t just happen, it is a result of many controllable things—like how leaders operate within a business and how they interact with their employees.  Culture can be changed, and it must be changed if a business is going to accomplish more tomorrow than it does today.  Many leaders don’t even consider culture, because they are unsure of how to change it.  It seems much easier to focus on things that are easily measured, even if those things are far less responsible for the success of the business.

Focus on Leadership Inputs

If you want more engaged employees and more ownership and accountability throughout the organization, what should you do differently as a leader?  This is a question many managers and leaders struggle with.  How do you begin to think about your leadership as an input and the behavior of your team as an output?  Revenue and profit are end results that are driven by the way people in the business operate and the actions they take.  Employee behavior is directly influenced by the way leaders in the business think and act.  It's a simple truth that if you change the way you lead, people will respond differently.

Changing the way people think and act in a business is tough but it can be done.  I have worked with leaders that have completely transformed their leadership behaviors, their culture and the success of their business by focusing on these critical components.  I can add speed and increase the likelihood of success.  But anyone dedicated to making these kinds of changes can make it happen.

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I often get to work with people who have recently been promoted into management positions for the first time and it’s some of the most rewarding work that I do. There is no handbook on leadership and many of us struggle tremendously at first. An organization grants us some authority and all of the sudden we are accountable for not just what we do but for what others on our team do as well. Here are 5 things that I wish I knew as a new manager and that I share with those beginning their management career.

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Adult humans aren’t very good at taking risks. I say adult humans because kids are fantastic at it. At one of my kids’ baseball games recently I was watching the players who hit what should have been triples almost refuse to stop at third base. A triple wasn’t their definition of success, a home run was. Even when the coach was telling them to hold up at third, about half of them pretended not to hear and headed for home. Now granted, these are 7 or 8 year olds and so the chances of getting thrown out at home are slim but the complete comfort with the risk is still fun to watch.

Treating everyone the same in your business is just not fair.

I often get the question when working with groups of managers or leaders about how important it is to treat everyone fairly in a work environment. The first question I ask is do you mean fair, or do you mean the same? These are two very different things. Fairness is a subjective term and is based largely on perception of the individual. The first thing kids say when they aren’t getting what they want is “that’s not fair”. It may or may not be fair, it’s just different than what they want.

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Leaders create a better future for their business by looking forward and focusing on the inputs.

Some of the best educated, most experienced business leaders I know still drive their business by looking in the rear view mirror. They look at last month or last quarter or last year and try direct the future of their business based largely on that information. That might have actually worked when we were dealing with slow moving technology, local instead of global markets and a simpler economic situation with far fewer variables. We don’t live there anymore. If you want to know if your business will be successful in the future, ask these three questions.

Are you communicating in a way that increases commitment, or just expecting it to happen in spite of you?

Sometimes, we forget how much influence leaders have. And as leaders, we often leave much of that influence completely unused. It’s easy to get so focused on the outcome we want, that we miss the opportunity to help someone actually make a change that’s best for the business and also for them.

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Without engaged employees, mediocrity might be your best hope.

Employee engagement is one of the terms you hear a lot these days and I’ve certainly used those words a great deal in the work that I do. Most everyone agrees that if you want to grow a successful business you need employees that are engaged. It’s important, though, to ask the question why. Engagement for engagement’s sake doesn’t drive growth, profits or sustainability but the actions you get from an engaged team of people, do.

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