Lean Quote: Leaders Possess Specific Traits For Success

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails."  —  John Maxwell

Successful leaders indeed differ from other people, and possess some common personality traits that make them capable of being effective in a leadership role. These core traits can predict leadership effectiveness, and organizations looking for a leader would do well to check for these characteristics in potential candidates.

Over the years, I have read and saved many lists that detail the characteristics of historically great leaders from business, sports, politics, the military and other areas. Looking back on all these lists, these 10 leadership qualities constantly crop up, in no particular order:

1. Integrity: People want leaders they can trust to act for the greater good and tell the truth. We want leaders who act according to their stated principles, are honest with us and keep their word.

2. Humility: As we shift away from command and control leadership, we gravitate toward leaders who are approachable and don’t hold themselves above others. When leaders show humility and vulnerability, others instinctively want to work with them to achieve their goals.

3: Empowering Others: Great leaders trust the people on their team and coach them to make important decisions without micromanagement. They don’t do everything themselves—instead, they set clear vision and values, and direct others to work according to those guiding principles.

4. Great Communication: Leaders must communicate well, both to move others to action and to ensure their directives are well-understood. It’s no surprise that we often celebrate leaders who deliver historic speeches or impactful quotes. Great leaders also give their teams the information they need to excel.

5. Forward-Thinking: A great leader sets a compelling vision for the future, attracting and convincing others to want to join their movement. These leaders are capable of sharing their vision with clarity and specificity, and they are passionate about the execution of those goals.

6. Empathy: We want our leaders to demonstrate empathy and an ability to relate to those they lead, especially in moments of crisis. A leader cannot effectively lead someone if they fail to understand their fundamental needs, and if they cannot connect others’ fulfillment to their own.

7. Competence: Leaders must be capable of doing the job at hand, and surround themselves with competent people. Competent leaders don’t know how to do everything, but are skilled at identifying people whose abilities complement their own, and bringing them into the fold. They also aren’t afraid to hire people who are smarter than they are.

8. Accountable: Great leaders have a “the buck stops here,” mentality. History is filled with leaders who credit their teams for their successes and accept personal responsibility for the team’s failures. Poor leaders do the opposite, taking credit for their teams’ accomplishments and distancing themselves from accountability.

9. Gratitude: One of the core responsibilities of a leader is to consider the needs of the many. A mindset of gratitude pushes leaders to focus less on themselves and more on how they can value and strengthen others.

10. Self-Awareness: Leaders must be aware of their own strengths and limitations. They have to build a team that magnifies their strengths and limits their weaknesses. Leaders are also open to criticism and willing to do the sometimes-painful work required to improve.

There are many qualities that are essential to being a great leader. Some of them may come naturally to you, and others may not. But the more you can develop these qualities in your own skill set, the more successful you’ll be.

Leadership is a journey of continuous learning. It is an amazing experience that will take you on roads you’ve never traveled before.

10 Bad Leadership Mistakes to Avoid

It isn’t always easy being a leader. You need to manage the different personalities on your team, make difficult choices, and confront issues head on before they grow into major problems. A good leader can spur a team on to greatness, while a bad leader can run it into the ground.

However, to become a successful leader, there are certain qualities you need, some of which must be developed over time.

Being a business leader requires a conscious effort to monitor your behavior and your leadership traits to ensure you haven't developed any bad leadership qualities.

When you're in a leadership role, you're there to provide an example for people to follow. And it can be all too easy to make mistakes.

For managers looking to improve, knowing how to avoid these bad leadership mistakes clearly gives you an advantage in business. If you are aware of the various pitfalls, you will be more likely to recognize these bad habits and adjust your leadership style accordingly.

Serving in leadership roles can be a heavy responsibility and mistakes can be easily made. Having served in various educational leadership roles over the past twenty years, I have made my fair share of mistakes. Learning to grow from these obstacles has helped me in becoming a better leader. It has helped me to serve others better and make considerable progress for organizations.

Here are ten bad leadership mistakes to avoid if you're working in a leadership role:

Lacking Vision
Leaders without vision will fail. Leaders who lack vision cannot inspire teams, motivate performance, or create sustainable value. Poor vision, tunnel vision, vision that is fickle, or a non-existent vision will cause leaders to fail. A leader’s job is to align the organization around a clear and achievable vision. This cannot occur when the blind lead the blind.

Resisting New Ideas
Poor leaders believe change is bad. They will often say, “that’s not the way things used to be done around here.” They cling to old ways and habits and often stand in the way of progress. They generally want to know how things will benefit them and don’t encourage regular feedback from coworkers.

Not “Walking the Talk”
This is one of the classic mistakes of leadership — not leading by example. Leaders who fail in this area expect results, but rarely take the time to help their fellow colleagues. They only delegate and never seem to come down from their high horse to roll up their sleeves and get things done. They generally defend their behavior by saying things like, “That’s not my job” or “I’ve done my time.”

My Way or The Highway
As a boss, there is a delicate balance between staying in command and allowing your employees to express their own creative ability. Although your employees may not always have the right solution, many times they will. When you are in charge you need to learn to guide your employees to discover the right decisions but let them make these decisions on their own. A leader who sets a tone of my way or the highway will create a toxic environment for employees. If employees stick around with this kind of leader they won’t be satisfied or happy in the long run.

Settling for Mediocre Performance
Poor leaders aim low and are complacent. They don’t respond well to high expectations, accept that their team members do the same and are not likely to rise to any occasion for that matter. They don’t challenge their team to realize their potential and their favorite word is “settle.”

Micro-managing
Many first time bosses will make this mistake, part of being a boss is to learn to let go of the responsibilities of your employees. This doesn’t mean you don’t hold your employees accountable, it means to judge their results, not their actions. There are many ways a beaver can build a dam, there is no correct way to build it. If the damn washes downstream the beaver has failed, if the dam remains in tact and provides a shelter for the beaver and it’s family the beaver is successful, regardless of how they went about building it. A good manager understands this and wants their employees to be productive on their own. They will focus on the results the employee produces, not how they go about producing them. Micro-managers do just the opposite, they focus on what the employee is doing daily, always tracking their activity. Micro-managers will keep all their employees on speed dial and expect their calls be answered every time they call.  

Passing the Buck
Everyone is human, we all screw up at one time or another, however as a manager, you need to accept when your employees downfall is because of your doing. The best of leaders will have their employees back, they will not only take the heat when they have created a problem but will also help redirect conflict which the employee may have mistakenly created on their own. There will be times where an employee makes a deliberate mistake and appropriate corrective action is required but in most cases it’s just a simple mistake, one which could have been made by anyone.

Too Reactive
Leaders need to be proactive, not just reactive. If you find yourself spending all of your time trying to put out fires, then you aren't using your time effectively. Proactive leaders have an influence on the future and form the right alliances to advance their causes. Of course you should make sure your group is getting all the answers and resources they need, but don't ignore the future.

Lack of Clarity
This is one the largest and most leadership potential-killing communication failures that you can make. If employees lack a clear goal for what the organization is striving to achieve, this can lead to many negative consequences and overall chaos. When employees are not clear about the organization’s goals or what their leaders want, they become frustrated and their motivation nose dives. After all, if they don’t know what they are working for, why work at all? Employees don’t like to feel directionless. A lack of clarity can lead to mixed messages that will frustrate you, your employees and your organization.

Failing to Develop Others
Because selfish, failing leaders view others as a threat to their position, they are very reluctant to develop top performers into company leaders. On top of their other nine flaws, it makes it almost impossible for anyone to want to work under these managers. This behavior decreases productivity and makes for poor team morale, increasing turnover in the long run.

No leader wants to be regarded as a bad boss. To become a great leader takes time.

It's true that making a mistake can be a learning opportunity. But, taking the time to learn how to recognize and avoid common mistakes can help you become productive and successful, and highly respected by your team. Most leaders will make these mistakes along the way, but those who learn and grow will be a step ahead in their career.

The 7 Most Common Leadership Traps To Avoid

If you create a high-performance team, you can exert tremendous leverage to create value. If not, you’ll face severe difficulties because no leader can hope to achieve ambitious goals on his or her own. Poor personnel choices will usually come back to haunt you. The right team makes or breaks an organization.

Strong teams improve productivity and make your company a good place to work. But a strong team doesn’t just fall into place. Finding the right people is essential, but it’s not enough. Begin by evaluating current team members to decide who will stay and who will have to go. Then create a plan for obtaining new people and moving the people you keep into the right positions without doing too much damage to short-term performance. But even this is not enough. You still must establish goals, incentives and performance measures that will propel your team in the desired direction.

Avoiding Common Traps

When it comes to building a winning team, many new leaders stumble. It's crucial to recognize and avoid common pitfalls that can hinder your success. Here are seven traps leaders should steer clear of to ensure their team remains effective and motivated.

● Keeping the existing team too long. Some leaders clean house too quickly, but it’s more common to keep people on board too long. Whether because of pride or because they shy away from tough personnel calls, many leaders end up with less-than-outstanding teams. This means they will have to either shoulder more of the load themselves or fall short of their goals.

● Not repairing the airplane. Unless you’re in a start-up, you don’t get to build a team from scratch: You inherit a team and have to mold it into what you need to achieve your A-team priorities. Molding a team is like repairing an airplane in midflight. You will not reach your destination if you ignore the necessary repairs.

● Not working organizational alignment and team restructuring issues in parallel. You can’t build your team before reaching clarity about changes in strategy, structure, systems and skills. Building your team prematurely could put the right people in the wrong jobs.

● Not holding onto the good people. Uncertainty about who will and will not be on the team can lead your best people to look for opportunities elsewhere.

● Starting team-building before the core team is in place. It’s tempting to launch team-building activities right away. New leaders with a consensus-building style often are eager to begin collaborating with their direct reports, but some group members may be leaving.

● Making implementation-dependent decisions too early. When implementing your plans requires buy-in from your team, you should postpone making decisions until the core members are in place. It can be very difficult to implement decisions that commit new people to courses of action they had no part in defining.

● Trying to do it all yourself. Keep in mind that the process of restructuring a team is fraught with emotional, legal and company policy complications. Find out who can best advise you and help you chart a strategy. The support of a good HR person is indispensable to any effort to restructure a team.

By avoiding these common traps, founders can foster a positive, productive team environment that supports sustainable growth and success. Implementing these strategies will help ensure that your team remains motivated, innovative, and aligned with the company’s vision.

Without a great team, you’ll face severe difficulties because no leader can achieve ambitious goals on his or her own.

Lean Quote: How You Make Them Feel Is Most Meaningful

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."   —  Maya Angelou

What matters most in your daily interactions isn’t so much the specific actions you take or the words you say that people remember most, but how someone was made to feel: listened to or ignored, included or left out, amused or exhausted, or big instead of small. This is the essence of it.

What’s more, the feelings you elicit in others last—or linger—surprisingly long. That’s just how we’re wired. So you should keep in mind the long-term implications of how you made them feel because, this way, you won’t be constantly playing from behind.

Lasting first impressions: There are many ways you can genuinely make someone else feel good about themselves, thus making a lasting impression. For example: being prepared, asking questions about them and theirs, remembering and using names, giving genuine compliments, being generous in conversation, and avoiding reflexive pessimism, etc.

But first impressions can go differently.

Lingering first impressions: With first impressions, there are many unambiguous ways you could leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth, perhaps by forgetting names constantly, interrupting too often mid sentences, or glancing frequently at the phone. But if you’re making these mistakes, a quote isn’t the antidote.

Because bad first impressions can take a while to undo, these lingering negative thoughts and feelings can act as a anchor, potentially holding you back in social, business, or work opportunities.

Make Lasting Impressions: Good first impressions are uplifting, congenial, and they’re enjoyable to be a part of. You’ll be remembered. You’ll be more approachable. You’ll be invited to parties. Your future will be better.

Nonetheless, how you made them feel is a helpful framework for you to think through the nuance of what’s really going on during your daily interactions (which also help shape the future).

You get what you give, and you get more when you give more, so how will you make someone feel?