Here’s a few lessons learned from working in some incredible companies with amazing leadership… and some really shitty ones with “leadership teams” that couldn’t be trusted to throw a birthday party.
This is what leaderships isn’t.
It took Harland & Wolff Heavy Industries about 26 months to build the RMS Titanic. It took 160 minutes for it to sink after hitting an iceberg.
What’s the point?
You can have the best intentions in the world with your leadership team, but if you’ve chosen the wrong people to surround yourself with, everything you’ve built and accomplished can come crashing down quickly.
One of the best lessons I’ve learned in business, and in life, is that you can’t prop people up forever. They’ve either got to learn how to do it themselves, or they need to be given the freedom to fail. That’s not being callous, it’s being realistic.
A person can be a rock star sales person and a horrible manager; one of the best managers of all time and a terrible critical thinker. You’ve got to see your leadership for what it is, not what you hope it is.
It’s a tough world, and leadership isn’t for everyone.
Folks who do nothing but agree with the boss, or you, aren’t good for the future of your business. While it may be a wonderful stroke to your ego, it can set you up for failure for not providing honest feedback on potentially costly ideas.
You can find them in every office at every level of the company, people who honestly believe that the only way of getting ahead is to keep their thoughts to themselves and nod approvingly at every utterance from the CEO. That is called survival. Not leadership.
Find people who will give you honest feedback, opinions and most importantly, strategy, for the bumps in the road both seen and unseen.
Find those people who can challenge you and your company, but can also chip in and help do the dirty work.
Because a “yes” person will tell you what a great job you’ve done… after you’ve sent the car over a cliff.
Plain and simple: Leaders need to be decisive.
Indecision can destroy a company from within, causing a company to become reactive instead of proactive.
President Franklin Roosevelt is considered one of the greatest leaders of the modern era in the United States, so when he launched his New Deal policies to combat the fallout of mass unemployment, drought, and wide spread bank failures, his political enemies fought him vigorously on the “what if” scenarios. What if this policy doesn’t work? What if this policy causes more damage?
FDR knew, though, that the government needed to do something.
“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” ~ FDR
Not every program worked perfectly and some only helped in the short-term.
But doing nothing would have been even more catastrophic for the nation.
Leadership isn’t all blood and sweat.
Tough decisions require equally tough people. Sometimes those decisions come at the expense of people or resources or both. Being sensitive to the morale of your front office and your company is equally as important but still requires a strong fortitude.
Leadership isn’t for the weak.
President Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of a bloody civil war, kept outspoken critic and habitual line-stepper Salmon Chase in his Presidential Cabinet because Chase was the best person for his post. Lincoln knew more was at stake than hurt feelings.
Leaders press through the pain in order to accomplish the overall mission.
Effective leaders rally the troops to win the battles that win the war.
When the smoke has cleared and the day won, they pass around the victory spoils. Promotions, raises, tickets to Nickelback (or is that a punishment?). We’ve all had great leaders in our time that have made each team member believe they were vital to the success of the overall goal. They can get average workers to become good workers and great workers to become rock stars.
At the end of the day, we know it was their courage under fire that helped us secure the client or land the big account. But they don’t necessarily care about the praise. They’re happy for their team.
And when the shit hits the fan?
Those same leaders are the first ones to raise their hand and take the flak for screwing up. Yes, it wasn’t their fault that marketing missed its deadline or that accounting screwed up the numbers… but it still happened on their watch so they aren’t about to let this fall on any one person.
Effective leaders will, again and again, take more of the responsibility and less of the praise.
No one has to tell them. It’s just what they do.
Does your leadership team reflect the values here? If you were to give an honest assessment about your own leadership qualities, would you match 5 out of 5? More importantly, what can you do today to get yourself back on the path to effective leadership?