answers – Leadership Simplified

answers, Goals, Humility, Leadership, micromanager, Team Building, teams, Uncategorized

Being a Go Getter!

I will admit it I like taking those quizzes that tell you if you are an influencer or empath or whatever! I took one today that showed what type of influencer you are and it said I am a ‘Go Getter’ in other words I get s*** done! However I tend to overlook the why, I am so focused on fixing the problem that I forget people want to know the issue first.

And wow was this true!! I mean I seriously just heard this from my boss last week! I made a mistake and felt really bad about it, his issue was not that I had made an error but that I didn’t apologize and let him know the mistake had been made. I was so busy fixing it that I failed to acknowledge it had happened!

So as leaders, we have to sometimes take a step back and stop trying to solve the problem but identify and then maybe have our team solve it.

Interesting for those of us who are fixers and don’t want to deal with the why lol!!

What ways have you been a fixer and what can you do to solve it??

answers, Goals, Humility, Investing, Leadership, Potential, Team Building, teams, Uncategorized

Why words don’t always work

words

It’s not a secret that I thrive on words of affirmation! It is totally my love language and I really need them! It’s like a high when you tell me I am doing a good job and you see value in what I am doing!

What happens when those words are delivered without sincerity? When they are delivered without true meaning behind them? I recently started a book called Sync or Swim (it’s amazing go read it!) You can get it on Amazon! It’s amazing (and no I don’t get anything for that)!!

The book is a fable and tells a story of a person who takes over a large organization and immediately throws a party to give awards to the team. But the awards aren’t given with any insight to the team, the team feels these are empty awards.

Today I was listening to a friend talk about some rough days at work recently. Her director isn’t the best, and it appears her director doesn’t really understand my friend because at the end of 3 12 hour days (My friend is a nurse) she got a text saying “thank for all you do”. My friend laughed because she knows her boss isn’t being sincere, but I would guess if you asked her boss if she meant it she’d say YES! She would probably even ask you why you are questioning her because in her head she’s being a great boss! Wouldn’t see be surprised if someone told her she wasn’t!

As leaders it is our job to understand our team and what make each individual tick! What motivates them and how can we make them feel valued at their job!!

This might mean words of affirmation but it also might mean coming along side someone or giving them a day off.

Taking some time to understand our team and what their concerns are means that we lead better!!

On my team recently, we were asked to help with special projects. The teams concern is that if they do the special projects they will lose billable hours. Billable hours have been a concern for the team as this has been the push for several years. Now with new leadership the objectives have changed but the team hasn’t been given a chance to adjust.

Giving our teams a chance to adjust to new leaders and gaining understanding of what makes them tick, will make us all better leaders!

Happy Leading

answers, Goals, Humility, Investing, micromanager, Potential, Team Building, Uncategorized

Strong Leadership

Well I am 3 weeks into my new gig and to say I love it would be a complete understatement! I made the move to follow a leader I have always admired but in the end I got 2 more amazing leaders and a company that truly leads from the top!

I am a huge promoter of good leadership, I feel so strongly about it I started a blog! I feel that as leaders and followers we must have strong leaders to help us get where we are going. This can be hard for new leaders who feel ill-equipped to lead or who feel threatened by those around them.

Leaders, LISTEN! STOP! It’s OK to admit you have weaknesses it’s OK to say I am not sure , HOWEVER it is NOT OK to hire people you feel are below you simply to make you look better! Putting people down to make yourself feel superior is not OK.

Now before you tell me you don’t do that, stop for a second because we all do! We all get nervous and try to make ourselves look better than we are! I did it today, I answered an email and instead of apologizing I skirted the issue by saying , yea we didn’t do that right. Instead of saying, I made an error let me fix that!

Think about your week was there a time you maybe didn’t step up and lead but instead pushed the buck? Now that you’ve identified this let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again!!

answers, Goals, Humility, Investing, Leadership, micromanager, Team Building, teams, Uncategorized

Leaving bad managers

We’ve all heard the saying that people don’t leave company’s they leave bad managers! And we probably agree that this is true but what if WE are the bad managers? Take a moment and think about that…..

Ok so your gut probably says that you aren’t the bad manager, you can’t possibly be that! I mean you are here reading this blog about being a good leader so therefore you must be good right? What if I said no? I mean I don’t know you so I can’t really say you aren’t but what if I could?

What if I told you we are ALL bad managers! We think we are good, we think we are doing the right thing and bam someone leaves and we realize we aren’t! Well here’s the deal – are you ready? Not everyone will want you to be their leader! You see we all have styles that don’t mesh with others, this doesn’t make us good!

I recently started a new position working for my old leader. I loved working her, she’s tough, sound, has great ideas and is amazing at getting stuff done. However a good friend of mine seriously disliked her. Couldn’t stand working for her because they didn’t mesh!

How could my (what I will call one of my favorite leaders of all time) done differently? Probably nothing! You see by trying to get this particular worker on board she could of alienated the rest of the team! Sometimes the best thing you can do is to show that person that there maybe a better option for them. Either in a different organization or even company.

As leaders we aren’t going to be the popular ones, but we need to make sure our team feels heard and feels connected. When we have someone on our team who is undermining our authority or making it harder for the team to work it might be best if they were encouraged to go elsewhere.

As a leader you are responsible for the overall health of your team and not everyone is going to fit! The leader’s job is to help them see where they fit on the team and how they can help get there but if they aren’t willing then you might have to help them look elsewhere.

There is a book out there called the Energy Bus and it talks about how we as individuals have a job to understand what our role is on the bus! I would highly recommend this book for everyone on the team! Because it talks about how YOU (as the person) drive the team towards it’s goals. It’s not about what your leader is doing or what anyone else is doing but about what you are doing!

Today think about the person on your team who feels as if they just don’t fit, and then see if you can help them fit, but don’t do it so that the entire team fails but help them see how they make a difference on the team!

answers, Goals, horses, Humility, Leadership, micromanager, Potential, Team Building, teams, Uncategorized

Looking for a fight….

How many times have we gone into a meeting or conversation or even email just knowing it’s going to be a fight to get something done! zora fight

Yesterday was one of those days where I regret horse ownership all the way! Zora decided she was taking herself for a walk because why not and then decided that she didn’t like her little brother who we had just moved over. I was frazzled to say the least and annoyed with her, worried about the other horse getting hurt and being cold and all sorts of new things and frankly was just about done!

So I asked my amazing trainer for a quick lesson because I just knew that the horse was at fault, I mean she was causing me stress so it had to be all her right?? (OK wrong) As leaders we often decide way before anything that things aren’t going to go well. And frankly I am sure non-leaders do the same thing! We assume our clients are going to be upset before we even give them a chance! to be upset! We go in looking for the fight.

So yesterday I saddled up my horse, again knowing it was going to be a fight because I am the human and she is only the horse! The first words my trainer said to me “you can’t start off assuming there is going to be a fight”… huh? What? You mean she might just be OK? NO that can’t possibly be right! She’s been a brat the entire day…so of course that is going to continue..

Except it didn’t, once I let go of the idea of a fight she was amazing. Doing everything I asked and in a great way! Now my trainer did offer some insight in case she did give me a fight, but she didn’t.

You see as leaders, when we expect the fight we often get one, so instead of thinking that this is going to be a battle expect it to go well and prepare for the fight. For example, are you delivering something later than expected, maybe it got away from you and you didn’t tell the client it was coming late. Can you change the time? No you can’t but you can apologize and let it go. If your client comes back with guns blazing then you can react in the way you thought through.

So often we get ourselves ready for the fight and when it doesn’t come we create it! We decide on our own that there is going to be a fight and we push buttons either intentionally or not but they get pushed. Our team and our clients come back swinging and we feel validated that we were ready for the fight!

Instead what if we waited, took that deep breath and decided that there wasn’t going to be a fight. We can have a battle plan ready but not have to use it! (Interesting concept huh)

This week, take a moment and ask yourself, are you preparing for the battle or are you gearing up for the fight! Once you realize that you are gearing up for the fight you can start preparing for battle instead!