Your Leader Journey

Leaders aren’t perfect superhuman beings. So why is it so difficult for some leaders to acknowledge when they screw up and apologize? Often this is rooted in fear. ?? Fear of being seen as weak. ?? Fear of unrecoverable failure. ?? Fear of not having all the answers. ?? Fear of being seen as the average, ordinary human they really are. But here’s the thing… Your ability to recognize when you screw up, own it, and make amends for it is actually a strength. This is especially true for someone in a leadership role. What many leaders fail to recognize is that their flaws are on public display 24/7. No matter how much we try to hide weaknesses or mess-ups, our people see them. And when that happens, people watch carefully to see what the leader will do next. Will he acknowledge, own, and apologize for it? Or will he sweep it under the rug, never talk about it again, and try to hush any discussion of his failure? One of these paths leads to accountability, increased credibility, and trust. The other leads to the evaporation of trust, the destruction of the leader’s credibility, and a constant second-guessing of the leader’s decisions and motives in the future. Therefore, a leader’s capacity to acknowledge mistakes or missteps, to take ownership for them, and to say?I’m sorry?is one of, if not the most important skills that a leader can have when it comes to building and maintaining trust with their team.

One of my longtime mentors is a horse trainer in Wyoming. I was talking with him recently about my teenage kids and how difficult it has been to get them to respond to our coaching and guidance in certain areas. “You need to think about raising kids like I think about training horses. It’s all about pressure and release. Pressure and release,”?he said. “You put pressure on them when you want them to go in a different direction. But as soon as they begin to move in the direction you want, you reward them by releasing that pressure.” With teenagers it’s not perfect (nothing ever is, right?), but this principle has worked much more effectively than the?“because I said so”?principle. I can tell you that with 100% certainty. :) I think the same is true when you lead teams in the workplace. Here are seven things you can do to apply the pressure & release principle in the workplace with your teams. ?? Increase the frequency of your coaching? ?? Connect behaviors to vision, mission, and goals ?? Allow for the consequences of inertia? ?? Provide positive reinforcement? ?? Help them attack the problem in small bites? ?? Create structure ?? Remind them what success looks like

We used to think that being a good leader meant that you were someone who exemplified characteristics like: ? Having a take-charge personality ? Being the foremost expert in the room ? Always having the answers ? Having great charisma ? Being strong and directive ? Keeping people in the dark so they must rely on you There are many people who still today believe that this is what leadership looks like. I’ve even worked in companies and for people who posture and behave in line with those characteristics. Maybe you have too. Those are actually some of the unhealthiest characteristics of someone in a leadership role, and they often lead to serious organizational damage when they aren’t effectively mitigated. Instead, let me share with you what I believe are the six essential qualities of a high impact leader today: ?? Integrity?- They can be taken at their word. They live honestly and speak with candor and clarity. ?? Humility?- They consider others needs before their own and seek to amplify others instead of focusing on self-promotion. ?? Courage?- They are willing to stand for what they believe and what is right, even when they might have to stand alone. ?? Forgiveness?- They keep short accounts and don’t hold grudges against others. ?? Encouragement?- They understand that motivating people requires giving them hope and inspiring them by celebrating their past success and their future potential. ?? Perseverance?- They keep moving forward, even when faced with the most difficult of circumstances. They embrace realism but espouse hope for the future.