The Ultimate Payback

My payback was eight direct reports from various cities across the United States standing in my kitchen.??More on this later.

Determining our success as a leader can be difficult because the final decision isn’t fully in our hands. The measure of good leadership is largely dependent on the willingness of others to follow us.??How do we inspire, teach, correct, and support growth (and mistakes)???Like parenting, not an easy task, but very rewarding if done well.

“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” – John C Maxwell.

This story begins when I consciously changed my leadership style after my mom passed in 2003.??My mother always instilled a “help others” philosophy in her kids.???She was selfless – always trying to make others look better … be better.??She was a behind the scenes type. If there is one single thing all three of her kids (me and my siblings) have carried on – it is our passion for helping others.??Up until her death, I was honestly only focused on my own productivity and my own success - building my career.??When she left us (too early), it really impacted me and my approach to life. And it really influenced my leadership style. I needed to stop being selfish and give more to others.??Step back and enjoy building the success of others. Make a difference, make an impact, make mom proud.

Leading others, or serving others???How do we get to greatness???This was what Robert Greenleaf wrote about in the seventies.??A retired AT&T executive who coined the term servant-leader. It begins with the feeling that one wants to serve. Many of us also aspire to lead. When you combine both of those – a new leader emerges.??Fifty years later the concept of servant leadership is increasingly viewed as an ideal leadership form to which untold numbers of leaders and organizations aspire.?

We are a servant leader when we?focus on the needs of others before we consider our own. It's a longer-term approach to leadership, rather than a technique that we can adopt in specific situations.??It requires more focus, more empathy, more time, but offers greater rewards.

There are four main principles of servant leadership which include encouraging diversity of thought, creating a culture of trust, having an unselfish mindset, and fostering leadership in others.

For many of us, it takes a while before we are comfortable working with others who do not operate or think like we do.??Once we cross the hurdle, our entire teams take off with much more creativity, innovation and ultimately success.??Creating a culture of trust in the conspiracy driven, false information, "everything on the internet must be true" society is a difficult task, but not impossible.??Being your true self, doing what you say, being candid and open with all feedback … and letting others be their true self are the building blocks for building trust.??In my experience, to get the most from your team, you need to be unselfish.??As we shift our view on success from our own personal success to celebrating the success of our teams, we make a giant step in our ability to lead.??Finally, our true role is to teach, coach and lead by example for our team to enable them to become stronger leaders.??

In my years of leadership, I have found that the following characteristics have really helped me to become a better leader: better listening, having empathy, managing (repairing) relationships, self-awareness, using influence vs power, having vision and foresight, and finally unwavering ethics and a sense of community.

These characteristics of my view on servant leadership are by no means exhaustive. However, they do serve to communicate the power and promise this concept offers to those who are open to its challenge.??It has led me to building stronger teams, more productive teams, more successful teams, and a better sense of collective goals for everyone.

So back to my kitchen.??I left my company in January.??We really built a great global team that worked well together, worked toward common goals, and supported each other.??We truly were “we”.??Maybe the most cohesive team I have been a part of.

As a leader, our team’s performance is a direct reflection of our success. In addition to company-level metrics, there are several indicators we can look for in our team that will let you know whether our leadership style is effective. If we are noticing low productivity and high turnover rates, we may need to make some changes in the way we lead. This team was in it to win it.??High productivity and no turnover.??And a lot of laughs along the way.

As a leader, we need to do a good job of communicating the company’s mission and aligning that mission with what our employees’ needs are to ensure they are feeling listened to, happy and motivated.??There are speed bumps along the way.??In the end, if we support our team through mistakes, listen when it is a tough day, push them to greater heights and do this with their best interests in mind – we will achieve success.??And sometimes our leadership is rewarded in ways that even words cannot capture.??

When I left the company, I left quietly.??Apparently, my staff had other ideas.??Unbeknownst to me, my team was in cahoots with my wife.??So … one Saturday (weeks later) as I am out running errands with Nikki, we return to our house and EVERY ONE of my directs is standing in my house (including a few other team members I was close with) – a fully decorated house, a big spread of food and drink … and even custom Hawaiian shirts everyone was wearing with my face on it (that part was a bit disturbing though - to be honest).??Surprised, elated, humbled, emotional – I cannot find the right words.??My heart grew three sizes that day.??

This was all on their own dime - airfare, hotel, party decorations, food, etc.??To say this was unexpected was an understatement.??Maybe the greatest day of my working career.??As leaders, we have tough days, tough weeks, even tough years.??Don’t give up, people are watching us … and sometimes they are rooting for us.??All the work we put into trying to be a great leader – like parenting – does not always feel like it is noticed (or even cared about).??But on this one day, with this one team, at this one company – they let me know how much I meant to them.??The ultimate payback.??Mom was right.??I am still smiling as I write this.

“The goal of many leaders is to get people to think more highly of the leader. The goal of a great leader is to help people to think more highly of themselves.” -?J. Carla Nortcutt

Keep caring, keep pushing, keep laughing.??Make your team be their best selves.

Together.???We.???Win.