Can Anyone Be a Leader? (The answer may surprise you).

The answer to the question depends largely on how you define leadership.

What Leadership Is

Merriam-Webster, the popular online dictionary, provides us with two possible definitions, one only a little more useful than the other:

— The state or position of being a leader
(well, duh); and/or

— The action of leading a group of people or an organization

A simple web search yields equally unhelpful generalizations about leaders and leadership, even from some of the more revered practitioners of the leadership arts:

— ‘someone who has followers’ – Peter Drucker (a personal hero of mine)
— ‘someone who has influence’ – John Maxwell
— ‘those who empower others’ – Bill Gates
— ‘the capacity to translate vision into reality’--Warren Bennis

All very broad. And frankly unhelpful.

Here’s my take – one which I’ve honed from 25 years of working with formal and informal leaders at every level and from engaging in occasional acts of leadership myself.

Leadership is helping any group of two or more people achieve their common goals.

Not very complicated, I admit, but it’s a robust definition and one based on real world experience.

Let’s break it down a little and consider the implications of defining leadership this way.

Leadership shows up in groups or teams
It’s a given that leadership implies follower-ship (you aren’t leading if no one follows). So leadership isn’t a self- contained, individual act – it only has validity when others are involved.

Those groups or teams can be very small
At a minimum, you need only be one of a ‘group’ of two people to lead. Leadership, therefore, happens not just in large organizations, but also in the smallest of groups: in relationships, with friends, even in what may seem like the most informal and transient of water-cooler interactions.

Leadership can happen in an instant
While many acts of leadership are the result of considerable thought and planning, there’s no knowing when an act of leadership can or will occur. If you’re with one other person (or five, or 20, or 1,000) and you do or say something that helps that group move closer to a common goal, that’s an act of leadership. A spur-of-the- moment decision made on the fly stands equally as an act of leadership with an agonizing decision made only after sleepless nights and much soul-searching.

Leadership isn’t a permanent state
In a group or team, I might do something that is an act of leadership in one moment, and you might follow it with another. Joan over there might contribute another act of leadership later on. It’s important to see that even when a group or team has formally designated ‘leaders’ (a project management team, say, or an executive board), those ‘recognized’ leaders don’t have a monopoly over acts of leadership. In fact, the mindset that only formally accepted leaders can or should lead – is highly dysfunctional and produces poor-quality teams.)

Leadership happens both formally and informally 
Leadership doesn’t only occur in formal situations like board meetings, on the sports field or in a war room. Groups of two or more people can coalesce in an instant around short- or medium-term objectives. Showing leadership is equally possible whether you’re at a three- day strategic retreat fighting for the survival of your business, or chatting in the cafeteria with a colleague about how to ship a sample product to South Korea.

In my experience, anyone can be a leader. It doesn’t require at title. It’s a way of being. It’s about inspiring all of those around you to realize their gifts for personal greatness. It’s about taking responsibility for every dimension of your life (Versus blaming others for what’s not working). It’s about devoting yourself to excellence in every pursuit and making things better---not matter how good they already are.

Leadership is also about connecting to people. Deeply. Genuinely. Passionately. Because business and life are really all about people.

Any person who wants to lead—and live—a remarkable life can. Teachers can lead. Entrepreneurs can lead. Artists can lead. Students can lead. As Mark Twain once wrote, "if everybody was satisfied with himself there would be no heroes.”

If you'd like to learn about developing a shared leadership approach in your team or organization consider enrolling in our "Sharing Leadership" program where participants will learn to:

• Identify shared leadership behaviors for their team(s).
• Exercise their own unique leadership.
• Make plans for further sharing their leadership, and expanding your own repertoire of leader behaviors.

The amazing benefits of developing leaders at every level in a company is highlighted in our blog post entitled: Leveraging the Power of Leader's Math to Multiply Results

Also, check out an article by Reid Hoffman: How to Find and Engage Authentic Informal Leaders. AIL's can be a powerful lever for your culture strengthening initiative.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how to develop your organization's culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, financial services, real estate services, call centers, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

5 Critical Ways that Leader's Slip Up

Companies rise and fall on leadership. Period. And there are five areas that top senior leaders tend to focus their attention. It’s no surprise that these same areas are where unsuccessful senior leaders make critical mistakes.

These are the most critical mistakes, because by the time the leader or other senior managers can understand what has happened, there is massive momentum heading towards a discouraging future.

The Research

Robert S. Hartman, a Nobel Prize Nominee, devotes his efforts to helping people maximize their leadership potential, understand their thinking and prioritize team dynamics. Through his study of The Science of Axiology (a scientific approach to how people make value judgments in leadership situations), Hartman has developed a valuable assessment tool.

Throughout his research, he noted that high-performance leaders selectively place importance on some information while neglecting other information. The result is criteria for decision-making. After surveying and assessing over 1000 top leaders worldwide, he found a pattern of consistent attention and regular lack of attention to vital areas of leadership.

What follows are The Five Most Common Mistakes Of High Performance Leaders, inspired from the research of Robert Hartman, and from decades of my consulting, coaching and leadership training of high performing leaders.

Five Critical Mistakes that Thwart High-Performance Leaders

1. Lack Of Consistency And Conformity

Although most senior leaders will profess that consistency and conformity are top priorities for the growth and scaling of their company, in practice many leaders demonstrate and/or embody a different message. Conformity is usually a paradox in growing corporations, where thinking outside the box is heavily encouraged. And consistency could even be a joke – depending on how much rapid growth is occurring at an organization – it is not uncommon for a trend of “fire fighting” to take hold as the company culture.

To avoid this mistake: Messaging how important systems and procedures are to your team, even in rapid growth, is essential. Systems and procedures maintain brand, product, customer service and other departmental consistency to the customer. Internal attention to having growth spurts be individual stages that get gelled back into the corporate structure will pay huge dividends.

2. Lack Of “Strategy Follow Through” Discipline

It is tough to choose a strategic direction, see less then favorable results, and stay the course. The innate human instinct is to jump ship quickly before the ship goes down!

However, more often than not that the problem is not the strategy, but the tactical execution of it. Top leaders often look for the “right” strategy, and although there are likely stratospheres of probability for strategic outcomes, world class leaders focus on execution and course-correction of a strategic direction before abandoning ship. Having the discipline to continue the course-correction process, particularly through the ability to ask probing questions, results in solutions. This is how we solve problems that are real versus solving problems that are an extrapolation of a probable outcome.

To avoid this mistake: Consider the best case, worst case and possible unexpected forks in the road ahead of time. Work with your team to create the expectation of long-term commitment to a strategy – even through tough times. Focus on the execution of a strategy chosen and avoid the temptation to keep returning to the drawing board!

3. Lack Of Mission, Vision, Values

There are very few companies where one could walk into a random office, ask team members to recite the Mission, Vision, Values of the company, and have them actually recall something even similar to the document prominently displayed in the lobby. Yet, this offers the most compelling barometer for all decision-making and emotional engagement of your team. The No. 1 reason the team is not related to the company Mission, Vision, Values is because the leader is not connected to it.

When a leader is disconnected from, not embodying or not presenting the Mission, Vision, Values of the company frequently – in meetings, emails and at corporate events – the entire culture begins to slide. Team cohesion and focus wane, perhaps not all together but surely from the optimum state, and you end up with disengagement and dissatisfaction in the company.

To avoid this mistake: Create a daily habit that connects you with the Mission, Vision and Values of the company. As the leading beacon for the company, this is the leader primary driver, and should be consistently present in both physical and psychological form all day long. If you find that your documented Mission, Vision and Values no longer ring true, make it a priority to update them to ones that you and your entire company can get behind.

4. Lack Of Instilling Responsibility And Integrity

There are two common mistakes that thwart the interest in increasing self-ownership and high accountability in companies.

The first is “Leadership by Friendship.” We all know that a leader who interacts with their team by being the “best buddy” or friend will often fail to make good judgments, hard decisions and key shifts at important inflection points. Most Senior Leaders ask themselves, “How can I get my team to take higher levels of Self Ownership and Accountability?” but often sacrifice what they want most in an attempt to avoid upsetting the “culture.” Once the leader has allowed accountability to drift and get sloppy, the rest of management follows and results inevitably suffer.

The second common mistake that thwarts instilling responsibility and integrity is “Leadership by Fear.” Commonly taking the form of passive-aggressive or simply aggressive interaction, communication and actions, this model requires constant attention and energy by the leader. This model primarily inputs scarcity into the culture – leading to a “good enough to not get your head bitten off” model. The carrot and the stick are only part of the equation that causes self-ownership and high accountability:

Clear Expectation + Owner Agreement + Rewards & Consequences = Ownership And High Accountability

To avoid this mistake: Setting an example of clear, actionable expectations, soliciting agreement from your team and having a published and clear set of Rewards & Consequences will instill responsibility.

5. Little Fostering Of Innovation, Innovative Thinking And Change

How does this jive with Mistake No. 1? Well, along with the need for systems, procedures, conformity and consistency, a company will also need a high level of innovation, innovative thinkers and a drive for constant change.

From a politically correct standpoint, every leader will tell you that they encourage out of the box thinking, or innovative thinking. In practice, many company cultures instill a sense of fear for stepping too far out, really being a true innovator, or creating change. Even if some innovation is allowed, the leader must decide how far down the chain of command there is willingness for innovation and change.

To avoid this mistake: Top companies and leaders have designed systems that support innovation and for employees and key execs to have the experience of their input actually impacting the company (and possibly strategic decisions). A top leader can avoid a stagnant company by fostering innovation from every person at the company and openly rewarding those that contribute.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how to develop your organization's culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

The Secret To Developing Team Members When The Clock Is Racing (A Must-Read for Retailers and Restaurants)

Retailers and restaurants move fast. Long before open and well after close, the clock is always racing and every second represents revenue lost or gained. How efficiently and quickly an operation can prepare itself to serve customers on an hour-by-hour basis defines its sales -- and, ultimately, its success.

In these service industry organizations, speed equals revenue. But it creates a costly management problem: There's little time to conduct the kind of coaching conversations that engage and develop Team Members. Employee engagement and development correlate with profitability, productivity and retention -- but they take time.

This time crunch focuses managers on the very immediate, and it's usually what a team member did wrong: how they screwed up an order, forgot to upsell the customer on the warranty, mishandled food or made an angry customer angrier. It's an understandable managerial reaction, but it's also punitive and negative. Eventually, that kind of management can lead to an unwelcoming customer experience -- and research shows that it can create a disengaging employee experience too.

Disengaged team members either stay and do a bad job, which increases costs and decreases customer engagement, or they quit and require replacing. So managers get stuck running an operation with either too many rookies or too many low-engaged Team Members, losing money in the process and with little time for the coaching that employees need to learn and grow -- and to produce the kind of customer experience that generates profit and earns loyalty and boosts NPS scores.

According to Gallup research, food service has an average annual turnover rate of 103% to 150% (and an average 3% to 5% profit margin). Customer-facing retail's turnover is over 60%.

It seems like an intractable problem in fast-paced industries. It is not. It's a profit-sucking cultural problem related to perspective, not pace. And it can be fixed.

Why a Grow With the (Work) Flow Approach Is A Great Solution

A Grow With the (Work) Flow strategy is vital when there's little time for lengthy development and coaching conversations. Of course, managers can do a deep dive into theory and data, but it's not necessary for a working knowledge of how to lead, how to be heard, and how to best connect with their teams and guests.

The most powerful and valuable development experiences involve hands-on, in-the-moment learning. There’s no substitute for being confronted by and having to address real business challenges. And, given the number of challenges we face in business, the opportunity to leverage them is limited only by the imagination.

However, development activity is only that—activity—until it is properly unpacked to reveal its lessons. In fact, many Team Members become so engrossed in the experience that they don’t take the time to reflect on how they’ve benefited from it. Yet again, conversation becomes the key to genuine growth. And simple questions help you launch the dialogue.

Call it what you will: In the moment. On the spot. Context sensitive. Instant. Bite-size. On the fly. Impromptu. Nano-coaching. Stealth development. It works!

Growing with the flow means development isn’t limited to scheduled meetings and is less burdensome in many ways. It can be quick—as short as one or two minutes. It can be casual—right on the sales floor or hanging over a cubicle wall. It can be completely unplanned—no notes or agendas to contend with. Hardly sounds like work, right?

But in life, there are always trade-offs. When you grow with the flow, you save time and there is less planning involved. But you’ve got to be willing to give something as well. And that something in this case is a little more of your attention. When you help team members grow and progress you elevate their mental and emotional engagement. And engaged team members will engage customers. In order to do this effectively managers need to form new habits and increase their social and conversational intelligence.

According to Gallup research, fully engaged customers represent a 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue and relationship growth over the average customer. Fully engaged casual-dining customers make 56% more visits per month to their favored restaurant than actively disengaged customers do. Fully engaged fast-food customers make 28% more visits.

These higher engagement levels result from the emotional impact that employees invent fresh for every customer. That impact springs from engagement -- the disengaged won't bother -- and authentic talent. Talent can't be faked. Not well, and not for long.
Developing employees improves the team's profits and earns their loyalty. 

Grow with the flow based development also improves the brand's employee value proposition. That's what attracts and retains team members who exceed expectations and provide consistently excellent performance.

And when the clock is racing and every second represents revenue, those employees make all the difference. They decide what kind of experience their guests or customers will have. Coaching Team Members to know a to create an engaging customer experience is an extremely effective use of managers' time -- especially when they have no time to waste. 

Learn how Smart Development can equip restaurant and retail managers to coach employees to deliver an exceptional guest/customer experience with a Grow With the (Work) Flow development strategy.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how Smart Development can equip your store and restaurant managers to help their team members Grow with the (Work) Flow. We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other organizations create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

The Perfect Sales Close (Well, almost perfect)

Truth be told. Nothings perfect. But there's a sales close that comes pretty close.

The "Perfect" Close method developed by James Muir is nearly always successful (in the 95% range), is zero pressure for you and your client, and involves just two questions It’s true. 

It doesn’t require that you change your personality or become someone you’re not, and it’s flexible enough to use on every kind of sale at every given stage.

It eliminates all of the stress and tension that some professionals feel when it comes to asking for commitments, and because it’s facilitative, it completely eliminates the negative connotation many people associate with sales.

It makes clients feel more educated, in control, and causes them to see you as a facilitator and consultant.

Here's how it works with the Perfect Close questions:

Initial Question to the customer/client/colleague: “Does it make sense for us to X so that Y?“

"John, does it make sense for us to schedule a meeting with your team so we can get their input on what would be most beneficial for them?”

Follow-Up Question: “[OK,] What is a good next step [then]?”

We are asking if the timing is right to do something. In fact, asking with those terms is a perfectly acceptable variation of the technique. "You know Bob, is the timing right for us to talk about scheduling a site visit for you and your team?"

They will expect these concessions regardless of when they close, whether it is in your desired time frame or not. Said another way, once you offer a concession, your client is expecting that concession regardless of all other factors.

Telegraphing a concession means giving that concession.
When a client answers “no “to question one, they are simply saying that the timing is not yet right for that step.

Example:
Salesperson: “Well Jeff, now that you’ve seen a full demonstration it’s pretty common to want to see it humming in a live environment at a client site. Does it make sense for us to talk about scheduling a site visit for you?

Potential client/customer: “No, I don’t think we need that yet.”

Salesperson: “Gotcha. Well, what do you think would make a good next step then?”
Softening statements like “gotcha” acknowledge that you heard them, that you understand them, and it sets up question two, “What is a good next step then?”

Variations of The Perfect Close

The Suggestion:

“Other clients or customers at this stage typically take X as the next step in their evaluation.” 

“At this stage others typically do X. Does it make sense to X? ”

The Fall Back:

Question One: “Does it makes sense to do X?“

Question Two: (if question one fails): “Clients at this stage typically do X. Does it make sense to do X?“

Question Three (if question two fails): “What’s a good next step then?”

The Add-On: once you achieve success with your ideal advance you continue on to suggest one of the additional alternate advances you have prepared.

Question One: “Does it makes sense to do X? 

“Question Two (after question one succeeds): 

“Clients/customers at this stage very often also do X. Does it make sense to do X?”

“Are there any other logical steps we should be taking right now?”

The Reverse Order

Question One: “What would you say is a good next step? “Question Two (if the client is stumped): “Does it make sense for us to X?”

A client-suggested advance does not necessarily mean it will be the best advance for them or for you. On the flip side, because the suggestion is theirs, the client will feel like they are more in control with this variation than any of the other variations

You and your prospect will get a lot of value from mapping all of the common steps at once.

End-of-quarter discounts are essentially trading margin for timing. Instead, offer the more abstract ‘Something Special.’

“Does it make sense for me to see if we can do Something Special for you if we can get everything wrapped up by the end of the quarter?”

Something Special is really just a standard "Perfect" Close question that reveals the client’s timing without telegraphing a concession.

Naturally, you adapt the time frame to suit your situation. Otherwise, I recommend you use it verbatim.

If the buyer says that it “IS possible to wrap things up “within your time frame, then you have a couple of options:

1. Ask what they would find most valuable. Not guaranteeing anything until you first talk with others inside your organization. 

2. Tell them you will go see what you can do and that you will report back. Then go discuss your options with your organization or supervisor.

Something Special accomplishes three important things: 1. It doesn’t telegraph any kind of concession or the size of that concession. 2. It reveals if the client/customer is able to do something within your suggested time frame. 3. It positions you as an advocate for the client. You are doing all this on their behalf.

The benefit of perfect close is that it accelerates the entire process and maintains the momentum of the sale. You will cover more steps in less time, and spend less time between steps.

Start practicing the "Perfect" Close on your next series of calla and watch your sales grow.

Super Dad Gum Duper Selling!

Peter C. Mclees, Sales Leadership Coach and Trainer
Smart Development
Email: petercmclees@gmail.com
Mobile: 323-854-1713

We help sales reps and sales organizations accelerate their sales. 

How to Navigate Difficult Conversations

A Difficult Conversation: is a discussion between two or more people where (1) conflict exists or may arise, (2) viewpoints differ, and (3) emotions are charged.

As leaders, we have an obligation to our people, our colleagues, our organization, our customers, our owners and any other stakeholders to do all that we can to assure our company’s positive and productive working environment. This means addressing problems on a timely basis – and that invariably means stepping up and having a difficult conversation(s) with those who may be the root of the problem.

When we step up to the problem and the challenges it may involve, we are sending an important message to our people, that we care about them and our organizational culture. In my opinion, if a manager isn’t willing to lead difficult conversations, they really don’t deserve their jobs (I know, it’s a tough message. I wrote it because I want you, your team and organization to grow and prosper.) 

Giving tough feedback is a difficult conversation. Confronting a top performer who "doesn't play well with others" and is prone to defensiveness is a difficult conversation. Asking a colleague whose a friend at work to refrain from interrupting you with the latest gossip is a difficult conversation. Having to fire someone is a difficult conversation. Requesting that your boss do less micromanaging and more delegating is a difficult conversation. Finding a way to tell a coworker that their breath is reminiscent of a wildebeest with questionable dietary habits is a difficult conversation.  

Regardless of the topic, difficult conversations share two traits: they’re hard and they suck. Yet, if you really want to be a leader (and it’s okay if you decide you don’t), leading difficult conversations with care and candor is not something you can neglect, even if you’re convinced you can work around them or they’re not that important given you’re long to-do list.

The skill of leading difficult conversations comes with practice (Question to self: “When was the last time I practiced having a difficult conversation before I had the conversation?" Assuming you had one. 😉). And lots of awkward attempts and outright failures. I could cite in my own life and with the people I've known and coached story after story of failures so terrible and haunting you’d never even consider stepping up to the responsibility. That’s not the point. The point is any difficult leadership skill requires a gym and muscle building analogy, so here you go. If you want biceps (And I do), there’s no shortcut—you’ve got to do the reps.

You must practice, role-play (I know, ugh!), and rehearse these conversations repeatedly. You’ll get better over time, and it won’t be so awful. But here’s the part you probably didn’t expect: there’s a strong possibility (Depending on your “relationship bank balance.”) you’ll provide someone the kind of insight nobody has offered them before. Think about that for a moment. You, as a leader can help break lifelong habits, shine a light on blind spots, and help someone change their personal brand for the better. Unlike countless other leaders who are well-intentioned but never exercise the courage to be honest while allowing the person to hold onto their dignity as a human being, you can change the entire trajectory of someone’s life. Now that’s leadership in action.

If you’re willing to allow for such a possibility, I guarantee it will change the way you think about leading difficult conversations. There’s an art to delivering feedback and facilitating insight that unequivocally makes the necessary points AND keeps a colleague’s self-esteem and self-confidence intact. Any jacked-up jerk can deliver harsh and demeaning feedback. It takes diplomacy, empathy and thoughtfulness to ensure that the difficult conversation keeps the receiver’s self-esteem strongly intact, while giving them hope and a path forward on how to improve.

What’s the “secret?” Let me suggest three things: 

1. Good intent (See balancing care and candor below);
2. Practice (With a friend or accountability partner) and learning from experts;
3. Engage a leadership coach. 

Check out these posts for more information about coaching.

COACHING WORKS: HERE's WHY

SMART COACHING WORKS: HERE's PROOF

Balancing Care and Candor

Here is how care and candor work together in leadership:

Caring Values the Person While Candor Values The Person’s Potential. To lead successfully, it is important for you to value people. That is foundational to solid relationships. Caring for others demonstrates that you value them. However, if you want to help them get better, you must be honest about where they need to improve. That shows that you value the person’s potential and requires candor.

If you’re candid with someone but with their benefit in mind, it doesn’t have to be harmful. It can be like the work of a surgeon.  It may hurt, but it shouldn’t harm. As a leader, you must be willing and able to do that. If not, you won’t be able to help your people grow and change.

Caring Establishes the Relationship While Candor Expands The Relationship. The things that usually help to establish a relationship are common ground and care. But those things usually aren’t enough to make a relationship grow. To expand a relationship, candor and open communication are required. Many leaders have a difficult conversation that they know they need to have but are avoiding. Usually they are reluctant for one of two reasons: either they don’t like confrontation, or they fear that they will hurt the person they need to talk to.

Caring Defines the Relationship While Candor Directs The Relationship. Solid relationships are defined by how people care about one another. But just because people care about one another doesn’t mean that they are going anywhere together.  Getting the team moving together to accomplish a goal is the responsibility of the leader, and that often requires candor.

Therefore, leaders give up the right to cater to an individual if it hurts the team or the organization.” If you want to lead people well, you need to be willing to direct them candidly.

Caring Should Never Suppress Candor While Candor Should Never Displace Caring. The bottom line, which has already become very clear, is that good leaders must embrace both care and candor. You can’t ignore either. So, to help you strive to keep the balance between the two, here’s a candor checklist for working with people. Before having a difficult conversation, make sure that you can answer yes to the following questions:

• Have I invested in the relationship enough to be candid with them?
• Do I truly value them as people?
• Am I sure this is their issue and not mine?
• Am I sure I’m not speaking up because I feel threatened?
• Is the issue more important than the relationship?
• Does this conversation clearly serve their interests and not just mine?
• Am I willing to invest time and energy to help them change?
• Am I willing to show them how to do something, not just say what’s wrong?
• Am I willing and able to set clear, specific expectations?

As leaders, we must have courage to come out from behind ourselves. We cannot ignore a problem by our seeing reality as we would like it to be. No, we must accept the true reality and do our best to resolve a problem. This is our responsibility. 

Want to know how good you are at this leadership essential? Here are five simple statements: see if they are true of you (if you find it difficult to step back and be objective about the answers, ask a colleague who knows you to help you out).

• I don’t avoid difficult, painful or negative issues and address them when they arise.
• I’m direct, but graceful and diplomatic when addressing such issues.
• I don’t fudge things—I’m clear and unambiguous when discussing a difficult issue.
• When discussing difficult or negative issues with people, I work hard to ensure there are no ‘hidden agendas’—on my part or others.
• I’m open and non-defensive when dealing with difficult or negative issues.

Having difficult conversations is an art, and if we are going to be an effective leader, we must practice in order to develop these skills. (Coach Knight remarked, "Everyone wants to be on a championship team but nobody wants to come to practice.")

Click here to learn how to lead a difficult conversation with an employee whose not being a team player.

Also, there are helpful books, numerous articles, TED talks and YouTube videos which will help prepare us to address rather than avoid conflict. I particularly value the book Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most. It's a gem!

To your greater success and fulfillment!
Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how to develop your organization's culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Three Proven Ways To Elevate Your Leadership Impact In 2020

Personal growth and by extension, leadership growth, does not happen automatically because managers are working long hours or because they have a lot of interactions with others. Leadership development must be planned, deliberate and consistent. 

There are three primary ways to develop leadership capability.

The first way is to study leadership and apply the lessons learned. In addition to Smart leadership workshops there are plenty of great podcasts and videocasts, webinars, blogs, meet-up groups to supplement your company-sponsored formal leadership education.

The second is to learn deeply from your experience at work. For example, ask to be assigned to a challenging project that will provide you an opportunity to exercise your leadership. Remember that leadership is about influencing positive change. Also, stay alert. Observe situations from different perspectives. Watch how different people handle leadership challenges. Have a teachable spirit and ask for feedback and be open to criticisms about your performance. And above all don’t be afraid to fail. You’ll learn more from failing once or twice than from succeeding all the time.

The third is to engage a professional leadership coach (Smart Coaching Works: Here's Proof.) A professional leadership coach can help you by providing much needed support and strategies for not only surviving but thriving under challenging circumstances. It is a personalized process that provides clarity on what success would look like, understanding the obstacles and barriers that get in the way of achieving it, and specific action steps to take that will lead to a positive outcome. Through active listening and powerful questioning, a coach will help the coachee maximize their potential and move toward a preferred future. 

In addition to these three ways, we’ve identified and documented 28 Leadership Challenges that present the greatest opportunities for our coaching clients to elevate their impact as leaders and drive business results.

We invite you and your team of leaders to take our leadership Development Assessment by:

1) Clicking on the following link:  Leadership Development Assessment

2) Downloading the file to your computer.

3) Completing the assessment (Which is a fillable PDF file.).

4) Reviewing the results with your one-up manager, a trusted adviser or colleague.

The assessment is really an inventory of best practices that will make you and your team better leaders. We encourage you to take each of them to heart. How you choose to implement these is up to you—pick one a day if you’re feeling up to, or one a week. Whatever your cadence, do your best to take the challenges off the pages of the assessment and into your real-world leadership roles.

Check out these related posts:

The Most Powerful Lessons a Leader Should Learn

Great Leaders Like Great Athletes Never Stop Practicing the Fundamentals

Remember, everything rises and falls on leadership. And leadership rises and falls on character and conversational intelligence.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how to develop your organization's culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.