This year, we are taking a deep dive into the 7 principles that must be strong for your culture to thrive. This month we are making our first stop and talking about LEADERSHIP.
A search on Amazon reveals that there are over 60,000 books on leadership, indicating the extensive availability of publications. This number underscores the significant time many are spending trying to develop their leadership prowess. Instead of defining leadership, I want to spend some time underscoring the aspects of leadership that are important for a person to exhibit as well as give some examples of ways to support the leaders beside and behind you.
“Leadership is the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations.” — Kouzes & Posner
Leadership is an art and mobilizing others is difficult and challenging. There are 7 things every leader must sharpen to be great at the mobilizing effort of leadership:
1. Communicating Vision and Purpose: A leader must know where they are going and why they are asking the team to join them on this adventure. It’s important to be able to communicate this clearly and help the team connect their individual roles to the big picture.
- Example: I suggest to leaders to communicate vision and purpose at every meeting. People want and need an overview of how this meeting aligns with the purpose and vision of the company.
2. Great Communicator: Effective leaders actively listen and articulate ideas clearly. They have a pulse of what is happening within their organization and create time and space to meet each individual on their team or inside their organization.
- Example: Walk the halls of your organization each morning greeting people as humans and ask about their family and weekend plans.
3. Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Leaders with high EQ can empathize, manage emotions, and navigate interpersonal dynamics effectively.
- Example: Work in Quadrant 1 (scroll down and refer to “The 4 Quadrants of Relational Nutrients”) when first encountering a problem with an employee. Empathize by showing containment, attunement, identification, compassion, and presence. Be careful jumping to solve the problem or give feedback before sitting for a moment in quadrant 1.
4. Integrity and Accountability: A leader must act ethically, take responsibility for their actions, and hold others accountable.
- Example: Admit mistakes openly and set an example by following company values.
5. Decision Making: Leaders need to make informed, timely, and confident decisions, even under uncertainty.
- Example: Use a balance of data analysis and include people with different decision-making tendencies before finalizing a decision. Consider creating a decision matrix (scroll down for example) and sharing with the team so that you can begin to help others make balanced decisions as well.
6. Ability to Pivot: Every leader must have the adaptability necessary to flex and move based on rapidly changing circumstances.
- Example: Consider creating a culture of change and talk about change being embraced rather than avoided.
7. Empowerment: Great leaders empower their team by delegating authority and trusting them to perform.
- Example: Make sure all the team has their CliftonStrengths results and memorize the strong areas of each individual. Assign projects based on Strengths rather than guess work.
There is an art to Leadership and part of being a great leader is a growth mindset, always wanting to learn and grow in your leadership capabilities. The best leaders I have ever met have a thirst for being aware, awake, and attuned and the 7 examples above will help in this process.
Please let us know if you want help in sharpening any of these principles. We have individual Executive Coaching opportunities! Contact us today to learn more.
Here are two great resources for culture transformation through leadership: 4 Quadrants of Relational Nutrients from the book People Fuel by John Townsend and a great example of a decision matrix.
