Integrity
The battle for our personal character is won or lost based on our integrity. This means that there can be no hypocrisy between what we say we believe is important and what we actually are doing on a daily basis. It is more than simply walking your talk becasue your talk is based on truth and core values that add value to others.
It is the keeping of promises and commitments to ourselves and then to others. When you have it people can trust you because they know you are genuine, real and authentic.
Integrity is demonstrated in personal relationships with other people in two critical ways. One is that we maintain confidentiality when dealing with others in matters where discretion is important. Instead of using other people’s failures to get what we want we help them to get what they need. In essence we never use their acknowledged weakness to hold it over them to get them to act in a certain way and we would never betray their trust by talking to other people.
We also make sure that we never fall into the trap of saying negative things about other people publicly that we have not first talked with them about privately. When people hear you saying bad things about people who are not in the room, they know one day they will not be in the room either. Being critical of other people in public never helps them and it creates a culture of positioning people in conflict with each other.
If something is not important enough to say to another person privately then it is certainly not important enough to criticize them openly in front of other people.
Weaknesses
All of us have them but the real question from a personal and professional leadership standpoint is what should we do about them? In the old days of positional leadership everyone was encouraged to work on improvement in every area so they could be the best overall leader possible.
Of course if our weaknesses are in the character area we must do whatever it takes to eliminate the wrong attitudes and negative behavior. Beyond that spending a major amount of time trying to gain some small advantage in any area where you have no skills or passion is basically a waste of time.
Regardless of the time invested and the seminars attended if you are not creatively wired then you probably never will be. If you are not gifted at project management then just working at it harder and longer will not produce significant results.
For the maximum amount of return and to make the largest impact you must prioritize working in the areas of your strengths. This is where you are naturally strong and your passion fuels what you do every day and not your job description.
There are many different types and styles of effective leaders. What you must determine is what do I uniquely bring to the table for the leadership assignment I have been given that sets me apart for this specific role.
You may be a nine or ten in only one particular aspect of leadership but if you know what that is and you primarily stay in your strength zone then your ultimate impact will be incredible. Most people are not willing to pay the price to be a ten at anything they had rather spend their time working on their weaknesses.
Situational Leadership
The one word that best describes the leadership model of the last century is positional. Most of the major decisions were made at the top and the role of the team was to merely execute the plan.
When you move to the new models of leadership today the one word that best describes these styles is participative. This simply means the team is involved in helping form the priorities and strategies in addition to execution.
When hiring a leader for the old model you found the best person that fit the job description. Then the team would adjust to the style of the new leader.
Today situation leadership is the key model in these highly participative team dynamics. It is now the responsibility of the leader to shift his or her style to the needs of each team member and the chemistry of the team as a whole.
The needs of the team members and the team as a whole will shift based on their competency and commitment levels. These levels will always change depending upon the task or project at hand and that is the whole point of validating the need for situational leadership.
If a person has very low competency based on lack of experience then a more hands on directive approach is needed. On the other hand if there is high commitment and high competency then the leader should shift to delegation.
The poor communication that is produced by misalignment between leaders and followers is the major factor in decreased productivity within our organizations.
Leaving Legacy
Filed under: Core Values, Family Ministry, Life Balance, Marriage, Personal Development
The real question is not will you leave a legacy but what kind will it be? An even more important question is what do you want it to be?
It is amazing how proficient we have become in establishing clear and attainable goals in the business sector. We can break down our plans into daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, and beyond to ensure that we accomplish what we have determined is important.
I am convinced the reason we do not give the same amount of passion and excellence to our private lives is that we have never taken the time to define what is really important. This lack of prioritization leads to a hope it all works out mentality that would not last for one week in the hit your numbers or else corporate sector.
Most people I have talked with over the years will tell you that in the end the personal part of their life that includes family and friends is really more important to them than the public part. If so, then why this huge disconnect?
It all goes back to understanding Covey’s time matrix in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Almost everything in our public lives fits into the urgent category. They demand that we respond even though many of the things we do every day are not really important at all.
The people we care about the most fit into an important category that is not urgent. Ball games, piano recitals and dates with your spouse will not scream in your face but they are the things that make up your legacy.
Don’t wait for the heart attack or cancer, have the courage to take a major time out and define in very specific terms what really matters so that in the end you will leave this world a better place than you found it.
Peter Principle
Every leadership expert that I have read in the last five years understands that the most important asset for any organization is the people who are on your team. If you have not transitioned from the industrial age to the information age in how you are leading your people you will not be able to compete in the new global economy.
Good to Great makes the point about getting the right people on your bus and making sure you get the wrong ones off. There is also a priority on verifying that everyone is in the right seat on the bus.
This is where the Peter Principle can create blind spots within your organization. Just because someone has been a very effective employee in the past does not mean they can continue to be effective in the future.
The natural tendency is when someone does a good job they eventually assume even greater responsibility. They were the best customer service representative you had when your company started and there were less than one hundred accounts.
When the company reaches three hundred accounts then other customer service representatives are brought on board and now your best practices representative just became a manager of other people. After all they deserve the job because they have tenure, expertise and loyalty to organization.
There is only one major problem; they are not gifted or passionate about managing a customer service department that one day will grow to over one hundred employees. These once great team members who are no longer effective have been promoted beyond their capabilities and that is why they are failing.
Never assume that because someone is great in one discipline they can naturally transition to leading others in the same area. If you do not watch this one very carefully you run the risk of a dysfunctional customer service department and tragically loosing a once great employee in the process.