It’s time to take some chances on the people around you. Too many leaders constrain and contain, but the very best leaders provide opportunities for their team members to achieve things that these individuals might never have believed they were capable of achieving.
Resistance shows up in many forms in our daily lives. It’s what keeps us from eating properly, working out regularly, taking that leap into a new job that we’ve been dreaming about for years, and pushes off to some unknown point in the future, the writing of the book that nearly everyone says that they have in them. If none of those examples fit, think of something in your life that you know you should do, but haven’t found the time or had the discipline to do it. That’s resistance. Resistance shows up in leadership settings and in the workplace in many forms:
Note from Art: this one’s with a little help from my friends. I’ve been working a great deal with first-time leaders recently (my favorite groups!) and I posted a tweet to the extremely talented group of great people that I follow on Twitter asking what they wish someone would have told them when they started out in their leadership careers. Here are a few of their insightful thoughts with attribution, commingled with thoughts of my own.
I chatted with a valued colleague the other day that indicated that she is finding it increasingly difficult and even awkward in the face of financial pressures and employee strain to keep a cheerleader’s positive demeanor in the workplace. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard from a leader struggling either to smile or simply maintain a positive outlook in the face of occasionally overwhelming obstacles.
My biggest mistakes as a leader occurred as a result of spending way too much time attempting to change two people. I was young, new to the formal leadership scene and convinced that with my help and guidance, these two talented individuals would certainly shed their dysfunctional and toxic behaviors. Wow, was I wrong!
The best leaders in my opinion are guided by a strong sense of duty and responsibility. The individuals that succeed in motivating, inspiring and even changing the lives and careers of others operate with an underlying philosophical foundation that they draw upon to remain focused and steadfast in pursuing their daily activities. Everyone else sort of wanders through the leadership woods, reacting more on instinct than acting as if they are being guided by a stronger sense of purpose and duty.
One of the challenge that many leaders face in their seemingly endless string of days of teaching, leading, motivating, supporting, challenging and guiding their colleagues is how to refresh and recharge. It's an important topic and one that is under-represented (in my opinion) in the leadership literature, including my own. It’s difficult to be “on” all of the time, and for leaders, the stress fractures show through usually in the form of snapping or growling at someone. While never good form, the momentary break from behavior is indicative of the need to take a few deep breaths or to even look towards tomorrow as a chance to start over and get things right. Sometimes what’s needed is a good Power-Washing for the leader’s attitude and soul.
The best learning opportunities in the workplace occur when individuals or teams come face to face with a vexing problem. These situations provide outstanding growth opportunities and a great chance to generate and implement innovative and creative solutions. Of course, the manager has to play by the rules. Unfortunately, there are still a few managers and leaders out there that insist on spoiling these ripe learning opportunities by requiring you to follow a specific approach or steps in solving a problem.
Followers of this blog know that we celebrated a milestone in our home this past week as our youngest son graduated from high school. It’s an exciting and frightening experience for the child as he reaches the end of a long road with good friends and looks forward to a new and uncharted path through college. What he doesn’t perhaps know is that is only the first of many likely experiences of becoming part of something and then moving on and leaving good colleagues behind.
Much of what passes for leadership conversation in the workplace is filled with unnecessary and meaningless jargon that gets in the way of the true message. It’s time to de-clutter our conversations and choose words that are meaningful and actionable to our team members.
