Leadership Lessons: Protect Your People

As you may know I became President of the ICF Los Angeles chapter this year. While I had not planned to lead an organization during a time of collective trauma I did know how and what my leadership style would be modeled after. I share with you an excerpt from that story:

This is an excerpt from The Way Maker: Lessons in Leadership from the Outback.

...Then he explained something that would change my life and my leadership style forever: he could tell that the energy she was bringing with her was not going to make this an enjoyable experience for everyone else in the group and he couldn’t have it, especially not today.

BOOM.?

There it was.?

He chose not to bring her to protect the group experience. I didn’t know that was an option. I don’t know that had I been in his shoes I would have known it to be one of the choices I could have made.?

We continued on in silence.?

I don’t know what the consequences were of him making such a decision, but what I do know is that at our first rest stop a helicopter descended nearby, kicking up the red dirt, and out popped a bunch of people including that woman that was removed from our van. She was getting her money’s worth by going on the tour, but it wasn’t with our group, and she was still talking all the way from the landing zone to one of the other vehicles!?

Shocked as I was, one thing I did recognize is that he made the right call... by recognizing the energy variation.? As I heard her make her way around the rest area it was clear to me her vibe didn’t match ours and I think that made a difference.?

Coaching Question:

What is important to protect about your team?

PRO TIP: If your team sees that you have their back they are more likely to have yours.

Your partner in change,

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