COMMUNICATION: How to Become a Powerful Leader?

What is a leader? As defined by Websters Dictionary it is "a person who has commanding authority or influence." Three key skill sets that are essential to building a leader's powerful commanding authority and influence are Empathy, Motivation and Performance. Empathy & Motivation factor into how you influence your employees. How are you connecting with those whom you lead? Do you know your employees stories? Are your employees inspired by what you and they are creating? Are are you involving them in the creative process? Next skillset is Performance. Performance is the foundation of your commanding authority. Your commanding authority is directly linked to your effectiveness at Performing. Are you managing and taking effective actions to execute on your measurable results for your organization? Are you reaching your results consistently? In this article we will discuss how to create powerful empathy, how to motivate the individuals in your organization, how to create a foundation for performance and how to create consistent performance.

Creating Powerful Empathy in Your Organization

People are moved and inspired when someone sincerely listens to their concerns, desires and aspirations. You are empathizing with them and getting into their mindset when you understand what matters to them. It's powerful when your employees say "you got it", "yeah that's the issue", "you're great at listening" or "exactly." When your employees experience your sincere and focused listening to what they are saying, they will experience you stepping into their problems, ideas and aspirations. That's incredibly powerful. It's so powerful because their experience of life is that most people do not listen to them. Why? Most people are so concerned with their lives that they never actually care about others lives. Of course, they say they do, yet behind the curtain they are stressed about "X", worried about "Y", or focused on "Z."  Listening is the foundation of empathy.

The power of empathy is your ability to connect with the individuals you lead. Why so much focus on empathy? Because your employees' actions are driven by their thoughts.  As a powerful leader your ability to be aware of their thoughts is essential. You're not a mind reader so your consistent engagement with them through conversation is key. Conversation is not text messages and email. Conversation is talking on the phone or in person. In person conversations, are the most effective as you can see body language and facial expressions. Here is a quick hypothetical story on the importance of empathy in your organization. You have 10 employees that work for you. Each of these employees has their own thoughts & reasons for behaving and acting the way they do in your business. You are working on a project to gain 10,000 new followers across your social media platforms. If some of your employees think “that's not possible,” their thinking will reduce your ability to reach your measurable results. It's your responsibility as a leader to support them in overcoming these thoughts. Why? You are ultimately responsible for the results. To support the team, in transforming their mindset you could possibly share a story about how you overcame a similar obstacle in the past. Through your share they discover that their thoughts were limiting and they recommit to going for those 10,000 new followers. For an organization to be successful, it requires that the thoughts of its members concerning the business or the project are aligned in order to meet your measurable results. If some of the team members’ thoughts are not aligned, it will create breakdowns in your execution of your measurable results.

So how do you create powerful empathy with your employees? You start connecting with them. You get to know them by engaging them in conversation. What do you love to do? What inspires you? What are you creating?  To further explain this point, I have a personal story I would like to share with you. We recently purchased an investment property in Wyoming. I was responsible for the construction management of the project. Throughout the process I had many conversations with the general contractor and the property's maintenance manager. I asked them about their family and their interests. I learned about them as individuals. Some time during the process the maintenance manager said to me "It's rare that owners get to know us and take our input. They usually show up, bark some orders, and then leave. You guys are a breathe of fresh air." If you are sincerely interested in your team's stories they will be sincerely interested in what you are building. If you are committed to motivating your employees then that commitment starts with you getting to know them. Connecting with them isn't a one time event like a great concert. If you are committed to building phenomenal relationships, connection is a consistent action like watering your plants. If you are committed to growing your business, generating new ideas and discovering new opportunities, empathy is the foundation of creating strong relationships which create ideas & opportunities.

How to Motivate Your Employees / Team

Now that you have created strong relationships, the next step is how do you motivate your employees to create phenomenal ideas, products and breakthroughs? It starts with creating an environment where their input is valued.  Everyone wants to be heard. Why do they want to be heard? Because they love contributing and creating. Everyone has phenomenal skill sets to offer and they are excited about utilizing and offering those skill sets to your business. Are you going to foster their skill sets or are you going to lock them away in some drawer? If you create an environment where their skill sets can be harnessed and appreciated you will create phenomenal ideas and products. What's more powerful: your idea alone or your teams' ideas together? A powerful team based on powerful relationships with an environment where they can collaborate and create is intensely powerful. When you harness this type of environment in your business the results are incredible.  Building your relationships with your employees and then fostering those relationships are the most powerful aspect of your business. Nothing else comes close.

When you are planning or initiating a new endeavor, collaboration and speculation are key. Allow people to share their ideas freely. Never shut down any idea no matter how "crazy it seems" (crazy is your interpretation).   Even if you don't use their advice or idea they will appreciate you for listening to them. Heck they may have very creative ideas which you can use in the future. Are you committed to creating projects with only your ideas or multiple ideas of the group? Creation based on multiple ideas is much more powerful than your ideas alone. Motivation is created when everyone experiences they had input into the creation of a new project or idea. When I was working on my construction project in Wyoming, I continually asked my general contractor, maintenance manager and property manager for their inputs. I remember one particular event when we were redesigning the units, I asked the property manager for her advice. She really appreciated that I had taken her input. People are looking for leaders who listen to them and their advice. They love to be heard and acknowledged. If you are committed to motivating other people, listen to what they have to say. Take into account everyone's input. In the future, you can decide what advice to use in your final plan.

How to Create a Solid Foundation for Performance

So now that you have developed powerful relationships, the next step is to focus on your performance. Performance is executing on a set of measurable results through effective actions within a certain time frame.  Performance brings your visions to life. The Marine Corps taught me how to create a solid foundation for performance. The Marines are known for their ability to perform to a high standard in extreme environments. How do they build their foundation of performance? They start by building it one performance brick at a time. The first performance brick is the individual that comes into the Marine Corps for the first time. How do they build this first brick aka the “individual.” They build this first performance brick in Officer Candidate School (OCS) which is the Officer version of the Marine's Enlisted Boot Camp. Here you are required to meet a certain set of measurable results such as getting up 0430 each morning prepared start the day, meeting certain physical tests, passing academic tests, etc.. They are testing you to determine if you have the ability and desire to meet their physical and mental measurable results. Why? In the future they will give you the opportunity to perform at higher levels by leading bigger teams (more bricks), operate equipment, vehicles or aircraft and oversee millions of dollars of assets. Their goal is to determine whether you can perform as an individual before they will give you more responsibility.

In OCS they also teach you that being a leader is not about you; it's about your enlisted Marine. It's about the Private First Class, Lance Corporal & Corporal. This is an essential component that most leaders miss and it is what makes the Marine Corps one of the most recognized organizations in the world for producing leaders. Your team is only as powerful as your weakest link. The lowest ranking individual is just as important as the higher ranking individuals. Each individual has a role to play in terms of performance.

After OCS, you are sent to The Basic School (TBS), where they improve your performance brick and they add more performance bricks on top of your current brick. In The Basic School, we learned how to further build on our foundation of performance. We were given opportunities to manage a Fire Team (4 Marines) and meet certain performance requirements. Once you were proficient at managing the performance of a Fire Team you were given a Squad then a Platoon and larger units.  Leading each team required a certain level a performance proficiency before you were chosen to lead a larger team at the next performance level. They created this building block approach to performance in order to build your proficiency at each level. If you were ineffective at successfully executing on a set of measurable results at one level then your ineffectiveness would increase at the next level. This is the foundation of performance, mastering each level of performance one level at a time. If you are inefficient at the bottom you will be inefficient at the top. The key to becoming a phenomenal performer is to master performance at each level brick by brick.  

How to Create Consistent Performance

At each level of performance how do you create consistent results within your current team(s). Consistent results comes from taking consistent actions. If your actions are ineffective you learn from those ineffective actions and proceed forward taking more actions to discover the effective actions. How do you set yourself up to take consistent actions? You create a plan with measurable results and promised action items within a certain timeframe. Consistent performance requires daily focus and actions to fulfill on the measurable results in your plan. It also requires checking in with the thoughts of everyone in your team. If you have multiple teams you check in with the leaders of each team. If you notice someone under performing you step in and have a conversation to transform that performance. A pitfall to consistent performance is to solely focus on the numbers and forget about the human component and vice versa. Its a balancing act of conversations and performance to reach your measurable results.

As a leader it's your responsibility to fulfill on the numbers and maintain the motivation and inspiration of your team. At the core of performance is relationships. As a leader you are responsible for everyone's enrollment in the vision of the company and bringing that vision to life through performance. You are the cheerleader who enrolls and inspires to produce results. Your responsibility is to keep the vision and the vibrancy of that vision alive daily. Its a continual and persistent focus. When employee morale goes through a slump or it loses some steam you are the one who enrolls everyone back into the vision. Maintaining this enrollment means staying in touch. Asking your employees how they are doing? What's going on in their lives?  Mental check ins with the leaders of your teams is essential. If one of your leaders is mentally smoked, then his or her team will eventually experience being mentally smoked. An inspiring attitude is just as contagious as a "this sucks" attitude. If your conversations are on point and everyone is enrolled, it will be much easier to overcome obstacles and hit your measurable results.

As a leader you are 100% accountable for everything that occurs in your organization, team, family, business etc.. If you as an individual feel depressed, week or ineffective your whole organization will experience it. Leading starts with yourself. Are you taking care of your mind & body? Are you eating well? Do you have the proper clothing for your role as a leader? Is your car clean, organized, working and in integrity? Is your shelter in order and clean? When your whole life is in order, your mind will be clear. A leader requires a clear mind to be aware of the conversations in his or her organization. Having a clear mind is essential to recognizing & managing these conversations. The management of these conversations is essential to maintaining motivation and enrollment in the business and its projects. Managing your measurable results and the obstacles that come require a clear mind. A great goal as a leader is to require a higher level excellency for yourself. Your employees and co-workers will see how you carry yourself and it will impact their ways of being and their behavior. 

In Conclusion

In Conclusion a Powerful Leader is an Individual who creates Strong Relationships, Inspires, Motivates, manages Powerful Performances & creates Consistent Performance. Your ability to perform is built on the strength of your relationships. One of the primary goals of a powerful leader is to manage conversations that produces exemplary performances that produce incredible results.

We invite you to visit ProGuideBook where we are committed to improving your performance.