LEARN A LITTLE:
Twenty-Three Leadership Thoughts to Help You Start the New Year – 2023
I was talking with a colleague recently who teaches Executive Leadership at a nearby college. We were exchanging ideas and insights that flow from the cardinal idea that leadership is primarily about influencing others. I agreed to send him some thoughts that I have had, value or collected over the years.
After some thought, I decided to bundle them in a package of 23, so here they are shared without elaboration. I trust you will find them interesting and useful. They are not in any order of priority.
1. Teams will not surpass the competency or working capacity of their leader.
2. Effective leaders are always aware of the gap between what is and what should be.
3. Optimistic leaders encourage and strengthen their employees.
4. The most important source of power for leaders is love.
5. Compassionate leaders address the question with their followers: How do we want to be together?
6. Meaningful relationships are based on trusting and genuine connections.
7. Leaders are not energy neutral.
8. Leaders striving to be successful focus on what they want, not what they don’t want.
9. Leaders prioritize their time by focusing on what matters most.
10. Leaders know that saying something isn’t the same as doing something.
11. Leaders always ask two questions: How are you? What can I do to help?
12. Leadership is all about people, it is how you will spend most of your time.
13. Exceptional leaders see before, see faster, and see more.
14. Leaders have a choice of mind sets “as soon as” or “just start now.”
15. You may not be able to start over, but you can have a better ending.
16. Astute leaders are always ready to do the next best thing.
17. Successful leaders do not mistake rules and regulations for relationships.
18. “No problem leaves you where it finds you.”
19. Leadership is a matter of heart.
20. Three important elements of leadership are: knowing yourself, knowing your boss, knowing your employees.
21. Three givens of leadership: not to give up, give in, or give out.
22. Leaders are never off the job.
23. Leadership insight regarding followers: “If I work hard, they will see it. If they work hard, you will see it.”
LAUGH A LITTLE:
REFLECT A LITTLE:
Proverbs 1:5 (ISV)
Let the wise listen and increase their learning;
let the person of understanding receive guidance.
READ A LITTLE:
I Love It Here
Clint Pulver (Page Two Books, 2021)
The origins of this month’s book to read intrigued me, so I purchased it and, no, I was not disappointed. I Love It Here is a book written by Clive Pulver, the founder and CEO of Undercover Millennial. The company’s purpose is to go undercover in businesses and conduct employee interviews (privately and anonymously) to determine the thoughts, attitudes and engagement of the organization’s employees.
The pointed question they ask is, “Do you like working here?”
Their extensive research across health, hospitality and retail as well as other business enterprises found that “over 75% of all organizational turnover can be traced back to poor management.” This finding certainly reflects the work of other researchers-employees don’t quit companies; they quit bosses.
Here’s a second sobering research finding across corporations and organizations: “We have found that roughly 60% of the employees we interview are looking for new employment.” It is also their premise that most of the reasons employees give for their dissatisfaction are preventable or fixable.
One last statement that may gain your attention. The 2020 Retention Report published by the Work Institute reveals that “there has been an 88% increase in worker turnover since 2010 and by 2023, more than one in three employees will voluntarily quit. Yes, that reads “2023.”
After laying out the problems in the earlier chapters, Pulver lays out strategies and ideas for retaining corporate employees. Like other authors before him, he describes the vital importance of who you hire, the basis for the successful management of people, and the need for a positive organizational culture.
What follows are a number of helpful insights.
- The manager you want is one who combines high expectations with high levels of connection—the ability to truly relate to employees. These people are identified as Mentor Managers.
- Every one of your employees is thinking, “Let me know when it gets to the part about me.” Providing these moments in which you show someone their potential and their worth is not about fulfilling some sense of entitlement—it’s just good business.
- Of all of the practices I have seen implemented by exceptional bosses, one of the greatest is constant effort to keep things simple.
- Two questions that deserve attention: “When I come into work, how do my employees experience me? How do they experience themselves when they are with me?”
- Take employee ‘vital signs.’ Know how employees are doing before it’s too late. And don’t forget to ask what they need or what you can do for them. Pulver calls these times a Status Interview.
I would offer one last distillment of a theme throughout the book—talking about problems without talking about solutions creates demoralization.
Until next time,
Art Dykstra
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