The Good, Bad & Outright Ugly

Hi,

As a leader, you get credit where it’s due but you also are often held responsible for failures and poor decision-making. This is true whether you run your own business or you’re managing a team for someone else.

Good decisions and bad ones are ultimately your responsibility because you’re either making the decisions yourself or you were the person who decided to make the decisions for the company.  

This means that you need to be careful with every decision you make but more importantly, you also need to be willing to openly discuss options with your team so that you’re gaining different perspectives and considering all possibilities. 

While you’ll ultimately make the final decision, by being open-minded and engaging with your team you’ll be able to minimize mistakes and increase the chances that the decisions you make are sound ones.

Open communication is an integral part of ensuring your team is engaged and willing to participate in discussions.  

Be approachable at all times, even when projects aren’t going as planned or you’re feeling overwhelmed.  

Allow your team members to discuss anything they feel is important and never make someone feel as though their idea or concern isn’t valid (even if you don’t agree!).  A strong leader is always open to listening to their team members because ultimately, they power the process and keep things moving along. It’s your job to unify your team and to encourage a spirit of open discussion and ongoing collaboration. 

It’s just as important as recognizing achievements. 

Until then,

Lincoln

P.S Next an Adaptable Leader, Let's talk about it.