Integrity: The Supreme Quality of Real Leaders

 

Integrity is the ante into the game of real leadership. Integrity is easy to put on a company poster, coffee mug, tee shirt or PowerPoint slide. It's harder to put into practice.  

Integrity acts as a moral compass. Just as a ships’ crew used the Sextant to navigate the high seas, leaders use integrity to guide their conduct with others. Integrity is vital for forming and sustaining healthy and profitable professional and personal relationships.

Integrity reflects a person’s true character and is their best friend. The esteemed nineteenth-century American playwright Nathaniel Hawthorne offered this insight: “No man can for any considerable time wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one.”

Anytime you compromise your integrity, you do yourself an incredible amount of damage. That’s because integrity really is your best friend. It will never betray you or put you in a compromising position. It keeps your priorities right. When you’re tempted to take shortcuts, it helps you stay on the right course. When others criticize you unfairly, it helps you keep going and take the high road of not striking back. And when others’ criticism is valid, integrity helps you accept what they say, learn from it and keep growing.

When people around you know that you’re a leader with integrity, they know that you want to influence them because of the opportunity to add value to their lives. They don’t have to worry about your motives.

One of the reasons people struggle with integrity issues is that they tend to look outside themselves to explain any deficiencies in character. But developing and sustaining integrity is an inside job. Psychologist Sheldon Koop asserts, “All the significant battles are waged within self.” Integrity is not determined by circumstances and it is not based on credentials, it is governed by the choices we make. And the choices we make—make us.  

Wendell Phillips said, “The price of integrity is everlasting vigilance.”  

The following questions can help assess and elevate your level of integrity:

1. Do I consistently treat people that work for me with respect even when I am under pressure?
2. Am I the same person when I’m in the spotlight as I am when I’m alone?
3. Do I tell half-truths because the whole truth is uncomfortable?
4. How well do I treat people from whom I can gain nothing?
5. Do I quickly admit wrongdoing without being pressed to do so?
6. When I have something difficult to say about people, do I talk to them or about them?
7. Do I act consistently in what I say and do?
8. Do I have an unchanging standard for ethical/moral decisions, or do circumstances determine my choices?
9. Do I make difficult decisions, even when they have a personal cost attached to them?
10. Do I seek personal gain above shared gain?

The bottom line when it comes to integrity is that it inspires trust in you. And without trust, you have nothing. Trust is the single most important factor in any relationship. It is the glue that holds people together. And it is the key to being a leader that exerts positive influence on those around them. When you earn people’s trust, you begin to earn their confidence, and that is one of the keys to influence. 

President Dwight D. Eisenhower expressed his opinion on the subject this way: “In order to be a leader, a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible.”  

When people trust you, your level of influence increases. And that’s when you will be able to start impacting their lives. But it’s also the time to be careful because power can be a dangerous thing. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test the man’s character, give him power.”

C.S. Lewis remarked, "Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching." Click here to read a short story related to Lewis' quote called "Catch of a Lifetime."

Check out a related post: Why Should Anyone Trust You to Lead?

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 leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? 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, wealth management services, real estate services, 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.

This is the Secret of Sales

    
 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine if there was a secret to successful selling.

Imagine if there was one concept, one rule you could learn and follow, and if you learned and applied this rule, then you would successfully be able to sell any product or service you chose to.

And not only would you be able to sell these products or services, but—if you learned and applied this secret—you would sell more than anyone in your company or in your industry.

In addition, you would also be able to sell more with less stress, less rejection, and sales would actually become, dare I say it?—easy.

As you know, selling and easy rather occur in the same sentence, but by learning and applying this secret, they will.

And here is the secret:

Sales is nothing more than a set of recurring selling situations that you encounter over and over again.

You get the same brush offs when prospecting, the same objections when closing, the same ghosting when following up.

Let me prove it to you: regardless of your product, service, or industry, do any of these selling situations sound familiar?

When prospecting, has a decision maker or influencer or office manager ever told you:

    “Just email me or drop off some information.”
    “We’re happy with who we’re using.”
    “We aren’t interested.”
    “I’ll have to check with my boss.”

And when closing a sale or presenting your product or service, how many times do you run into:

    “That’s a bit more than we want to spend.”
    “It’s just not the right time for us.”
    “Let me think about it and get back to you.”
    “I’m going to need to talk to the committee/boss/my partner, etc.”
    “Can you email me more information?”

Now, I’ve haven't spoken with you recently, but I’ll bet these cover 80% of the objections you get, right?

And that’s because selling is a set of recurring situations that contain the same objections, stalls, and you get them over and over again.

And therein lies the secret to successful selling:

Learn exactly what to say—in advance—of getting these recurring objections.

Now this may sound like a “duh!” moment but let me share another secret with you: 90% of sales reps don’t do this. Instead, they ad-lib, make things up, and use poor responses over and over again.

Poor responses that don’t work!

The answer?

• Script out—in advance—two or three “best practice” responses to the recurring selling situations you get into all the time.
• Practice, drill, rehearse these responses until they become your automatic way of responding.
• Doing this will change your sales results, your day-to-day experience in selling, and ultimately your career and your life.
•  Your choice really comes down to: Struggle and underperform, or sell easily, confidently, and make more money than 90% of your competition.

Poor responses that don’t work!

All the success,

Peter C. Mclees, Principal

email: petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

We help sales managers and sales organizations accelerate their sales.

 

“CATCH OF A LIFETIME” By James P. Lenfetsy

 

"CATCH OF A LIFETIME” By James P. Lenfetsy  

He was eleven years old, and went fishing every chance he got from the dock at this family’s cabin on an island in the middle if a New Hampshire lake.

On the day before the bass season opened, he and his father were fishing early in the evening, catching sunfish, perch and worms. Then he tied on a small silver lure and practiced casting. The lure struck the water and caused colored ripples in the sunset, then silver ripples as the moon rose over the lake.

When his pole doubled over, he knew something huge was on the other end. His father watched with admiration as the boy skillfully worked the fish alongside the dock.

Finally he very gingerly lifted the exhausted fish from the water. It was the largest one he had ever seen, but it was a bass. The boy and the father looked at the handsome fish in the moonlight. The father lit a match and looked at his watch. 

It was 10:00 PM—two hours before the season opened. He looked at the fish, then at the boy.
“You’ll have to put it back   son,” he said.
“Dad!” cried the boy.
“There will be other fish,” said the father.
“Not as big as this one,” cried the boy.”

He looked around the lake. No other fisherman or boats were anywhere around in the moonlight. He looked again at his father.

Even though no one had seen them, nor would anyone ever know what time he caught the fish, the boy could tell by the clarity of his dad’s voice that the decision was not negotiable. He slowly worked the hook out of the lip of the huge bass, and lowered it back into the black water. The creature swished its powerful body and disappeared. The boy suspected that he would never see such as great fish 

That was thirty-four years ago. Today, the boy is a successful architect in New York City. His dad’s cabin is still is still there on the island in the middle of the lake. He takes his own son and daughters fishing from the same dock. And he was right. He has never again caught such a magnificent fish as the one he landed that long night ago. But he does see the same fish—again and again—every time he come up against a question of ethics. 

For, as his father taught him ethics are simple matters of right and wrong. It is only the practice of ethics that is difficult. The decision to do right lives fresh in our memory. Not about how we had a chance to beat the system and took it, but how we did the right thing and were forever strengthened.

Why It’s Vital for Leaders to Cultivate Mindful Moments During the Daily "Whirlwind"

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little. " --Jon Kabat-Zinn

Most of us think we are too busy. Probably we are, but also the way we think about the topic matters. When I was in third grade, the minute hand on the large round clock moved incredibly slowly as I awaited the two o’clock dismissal bell. 

Summer vacations seemed to last forever. Now time flies by, and vacations never seem long enough. What happened? There are still the same twenty-four hours in every workday, which means the feeling of “not having enough time” doesn’t align with my objective reality.

What happens is that I am caught in a time-driven, scarcity mentality or tumbling unconsciously from one moment to the next, I become a prisoner of my thoughts. I get trapped in a jail of my own construction. And I don’t even realize that the cell door is not locked. I have only to choose to open it.

Cultivating mindful moments isn’t about adding another task to your already too-long to-do list. It’s a choice—a choice to be alert, to bring your attention to this moment. Multitasking is a myth that only serves to seize our attention and exhaust us. At the end of the day, it is neither enjoyable nor productive. Let’s face it: none of us have that superpower; we can only live one moment at a time.

As a result, we end up addicted to busyness. We confuse slowing down to be mindful with non-productivity and laziness. “No time to waste!” we chide ourselves as we race from one activity to the next. Yet we do it all in a continuous state of partial attention, imagining we’re accomplishing more, when in reality we are living less.

The smartphone, our most constant companion, is a shining example of this mentality. A recent survey of Houston residents found that on any given day, most people interact more with their devices more than they do with other human beings. Half of the people surveyed admitted to using their phones to escape social interaction, and nearly a third said they felt anxious when they didn’t have access to their phones.

Remember when computers were sold to us based on the idea that they would create more leisure and greater human connectivity? I want my money back.

There is a common phenomenon among people newly diagnosed with cancer. Ange Stephens, a longtime therapist to people with life-threatening illness, calls it “a secret gratitude.” After the initial shock subsides, many of her clients quietly express relief. “Now I can say ‘no’ whereas I always felt obliged to say ‘yes,’” they tell her. “Now I can finally rest.”

Do we need to die before we can rest in peace?

Well-being is found when we are present instead of letting our minds wander aimlessly through the hallways of fear, worry and anxiousness. Peace of mind comes when we don’t let the things that matter most get crowded out by the things that matter least.

Cultivating mindful moments is not an indulgence or a vice so much as it is indispensable. Nearly all plants go dormant in winter. Certain mammals hibernate, slowing their metabolism dramatically. All are guided by inner clocks to emerge again in the fullness of time, when conditions are right. This period of rest is crucial to their survival.

We, too, need to heed our instincts and cultivate mindful moments. Living out of touch with the primal rhythms of life takes it toll on us.

Everything we do can be used in the cultivation of mindfulness: driving to work, eating lunch with a coworker, taking a walk, raising our children, being with our beloveds. We can learn to integrate it into every aspect of our everyday lives. But like anything else worthwhile; it takes deliberate practice.

Check out these related posts:  

Busy is A Four-Letter Word

How to Say No When You Can't Say No

How Mindful Listening Can Expand Your Influence As a Leader

Be here now.

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

email: petercmclees@gmail.com

Phone: 323-854-1713

What Leaders Can Learn from A Safe Driving Program

 

 

 

 

Recently, I was reminded of the Smith System – a safe driving methodology designed to reduce the chance of major accidents. I was taught this system before I received my company car, and I still remember the five key ideas. In reviewing that list – from memory – 25+ years later, I realized those same points could help us be better leaders. What if we had a leadership system that helped guide us to better results?

Here are the five ideas from the Smith System applied to our role as leaders.

Aim high

The first rule of the Smith System is to aim high.  Since our eyes are designed for walking, not driving speeds, we need to look further ahead to anticipate and react to hazards.  Just like drivers shouldn’t look at the end of their hoods, leaders must be looking into the future.  By keeping your eyes on your vision and desired destination you are better able to stay focused on that destination, while noticing obstacles that lie between you and that destination that might cause problems or delays.  Make sure you aim high and stay focused on your destination.

Look at the big picture

While you are looking 15 seconds ahead, the Smith System says you should be scanning around you and behind you as well – checking at least one of your mirrors every 5-8 seconds.  As a leader you must be consistently aware of what is going on around you as you lead towards your desired destination. Make sure you are doing what you must to be aware of your organizational culture, economic conditions, the situations of your internal and external customers and more. Desire and focus alone won’t get you to your destination.  A keen sense of your surroundings and environment are needed for you to help our team navigate to your desired success.

Keep your eyes moving

Focus is good, until it isn’t. the Smith System teaches that staring at any object for too long creates a trance-like state. The best leaders know their destination and see the big picture, but don’t develop tunnel vision. While the desired destination may not change, the route to get their may need to.  By keeping your eyes moving you remain alert to unexpected situations and opportunities.  After all, too much focus on one approach blinds you to new options and alternatives.

Leave yourself an out

A cushion of space around your car allows you to better adjust and avoid a hazard.  Imagine leading like a driver who is always on the rear bumper of the car in front of them.  Their sense of urgency, translated to leadership might be admirable, but the approach can be disastrous.  “Leaving yourself an out” gives you flexibility and the chance to adjust while moving forward.  As a leader creating a team that is agile and flexible will allow for greater adaptability and maintain speed of execution.

Make sure they see you

The final principle of the Smith System is to make sure other drivers see you. As you might expect this involves trying to make eye contact as well as using your blinkers and horn.  As a leader you must be visible. Leadership isn’t about making yourself the center of attention, but being available, supportive, and willing to help.  Accessibility and visibility are important traits for leaders to develop if they want their teams to reach their desired destinations safely and efficiently.

Having a a safe driving system can help you get to your destination more consistently and safely.  As a leader we want those same things – to predictably reach our desired destinations with our team intact, safe, and ready for the next leg of their work journey.  Hopefully, these ideas can help you build a leadership system that will help you lead more effectively every day.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how leadership coaching and training can help you create a high performance culture and drive results? 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, title companies, wealth management firms, third-party maintenance providers, 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 Mistakes that Derail Leaders

 

 

 

 

 

 

Companies rise and fall on leadership. Period. And there are five areas that the best 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 performance consulting, coaching and leadership training.

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's 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, title companies, wealth management firms, third-party maintenance companies, 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.

Ten of the Biggest Ways Leaders Break Trust

 

 

“Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work."                                                             

                                                                     – Warren Bennis

Trust is a word everyone understands but few can accurately define or measure. It seems at once essential but fluffy, complex yet simple. According to the Human Capital Institute, trust can be defined as “the willingness to put oneself at risk based on another individual’s actions.”

What does that mean in a business context? And how can trust be measured in economic terms like risk, speed, and cost? Research has shown that high-trust organizations have a total return to shareholders that is 286 percent higher than low-trust organizations (Say what!). The top 25% of retail stores that rank high on trust achieve 7% above budget annual sales and 14% sales productivity gains. The impact of trust on productivity and efficiency is clear.

Surprisingly, the simplicity of trust lies in the economics: as trust increases, so does speed. Speed goes up in high-trust cultures because costs and risks go down. In organizations where trust is low, costs and risks go up, resulting in a trust tax that slows down work across the organization.

So, it follows that as companies grow, trust often erodes because it becomes increasingly difficult to develop relationships, resulting in layers upon layers of bureaucracy that act as a poor substitute for trust. In fast-paced business environments where companies must evolve quickly to keep up with the speed of technology, building and maintaining trust at scale is more important than ever.

The complexity of trust is that it can be difficult to build, yet easy to break. While trust can take a long time to build, it is also delicate enough to be destroyed through a single action or misconception. Yet the benefits of investing time into building trust can lead to exponential results.

I believe most people strive to be honorable and trustworthy in their leadership roles. There aren’t too many people who wake up in the morning and on their way into the office exclaim to themselves, “I think today is a fabulous day to break someone’s trust!” Most leaders unintentionally erode trust through what I like to call “trust busting” behaviors. Despite our best intentions, we sometimes get in our own way and bust trust without even realizing it.

I did a little crowd-sourcing with my peers in the leadership development field and asked them to send me a list of the most common trust-busting behaviors they’ve experienced from leaders in their career. The wisdom of the crowd was incredible. The behaviors on their lists were eerily similar.

In classic David Letterman style, here’s the list of the Top 10 Ways Leaders Break Trust:

10. Spinning the truth – Leaders break trust when they try to shape or color the truth to their liking rather than being transparent and authentic in their communication. Spinning the truth is a form of deception, just in a more socially acceptable manner, but it’s deception nonetheless. Save spin for the gym, not the workplace.

9. Not being available – If your schedule has you constantly booked in meetings and unavailable to the questions or concerns of your team members, you are sending the message that you don’t care about them. That may not be how you really feel, but it’s the message that’s being sent. Your schedule is a reflection of your values and priorities, so be sure to build in time for regular 1:1 meetings with your team members or just blocks of time where people can drop in (Virtually or in person) for quick questions.

8. Not soliciting or listening to feedback – Believe it or not, your team members probably have pretty good ideas about how to improve your business if you’ll only ask. And if you do ask, make sure you do something with their feedback. Asking for feedback and then disregarding it undermines trust more than not asking for it at all.

7. Withholding information – Why do leaders withhold information? It’s because information is power and power is control. Most people think distrust is the opposite of trust. It’s not. Control is the opposite of trust. If you’re withholding information it’s likely because you’re trying to control your environment and the people around you. People without information cannot act responsibly, but people with information are compelled to act responsibly.

6. Taking credit for other people’s work – Leaders can easily fall into the habit of taking credit for work of their team members. Because it is work produced by their team, the leader rationalizes that it’s OK to take credit for it personally. Trustworthy leaders do the opposite. They call out the good performance of team members and credit those individuals for doing the work. Taking credit for the work of others is another form of plagiarizing. It sends the message to your team members that you don’t value their work and it’s more important for your ego to get credit than giving it to someone else.

5. Not keeping confidences – Integrity is the hallmark of trustworthy leaders. If someone tells you something in confidence then it should never be shared with someone else. Gossip, hallway or slack conversations, or speaking “manager to manager” about something told to you in confidence should not happen. Above all, you should protect your integrity as a leader. At the end of the day it’s the only thing you have.

4. Playing favorites – Want to corrode trust and divide your team from within? Then play favorites and watch your team burn. It’s a recipe for disaster. Now, treating people fairly doesn’t mean you have to treat everyone the same. Most leaders resort to this leadership tactic because it’s the easiest thing to do. In reality, it can be the most unfair thing you do. Aristotle said, “There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.” They key to fairness is treating people equitably and ethically given their unique situation.

3. Inconsistency – A key element of being trustworthy is reliability and predictability. Trustworthy leaders behave consistently from setting to setting. They don’t have wild swings of behavior, exhibit temperamental outbursts, or say one thing and do another. Inconsistent leaders keep their team members on edge because they never know who is going to show up. It’s hard to trust someone when you can’t rely on the consistency of their character.

2. Micromanage – As mentioned in regards to not sharing information (point #7), micromanagement is about control. Micro-managers often rationalize their behavior by saying they’re trying to ensure high quality, or they have the most knowledge and expertise, or they are protecting their team members from failure. That’s BS. Hire smart people, train and coach them properly, and then let them do their jobs. Trust requires risk and leaders need to be the first to take a risk, extend trust to team members, and let them succeed or fail on their own.

And the #1 way leaders break trust…

1. Not keeping their commitments – Most leaders have every intention to follow through on their promises, but the problem lies in our eagerness to make the promise without having a clear idea on what it will take to deliver. Leaders tend to be problem-solvers and when a problem presents itself, leaders spring into action to marshal the resources, develop an action plan, and get the problem solved. It’s important to carefully chose your language when you make commitments with other people because although you may not use the word “promise,” others may interpret your agreement to take the next action step as a promise to accomplish the goal. Be clear in your communications and set the proper expectations for what you are and aren’t committing to do.'

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 leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement? 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, wealth management services, facilities management, real estate services, 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.