If you’re a leader or manager, consider these points:
- A tree falls in the wilderness: If you were gone tomorrow and succeeded by an average replacement would the team be considerably worse off? If not, you don’t matter – and your team knows it.
- People are not FTE’s – they’re people: Do you know the names of your employees’ spouses, the names of their children, their hobbies and interests etc? Don’t learn them because you should, learn them as a natural extension of authentically giving a crap.
- A deep well: Do your people seek your opinion? Not to be confused with asking permission or validating a decision. There are two levels: Advice about work and advice about life. If people don’t seek your advice, you’re either not approachable or not valuable.
- Praising stars: How often do you praise an employees’ work, or credit them when they’re not in the room? Be an advocate of your stars – not daily, but hourly.
- Inviting No: People will naturally fall in line, they’ll say yes because you’re the boss. It’s your job to invite them to challenge you. Teach them how to do it well and then reward it.
- Firing dogs: If you don’t have the guts to get rid of poor performers your team will resent you for it. Dogs bring the whole team down and stars are in the business of rising. If they can’t rise here, they’ll go where they can. If you’re going to loose people anyway, it may as well be the dogs.
- Hiring Stars: “Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine” (David Ogilvy) Competition is contagious.
- Knowing what people need: Do you obsess at night over how to stretch individuals, push them to the next level, roll the dice with them as the lead on the next big project? Do you try to sense when they need breathing room?
- Never eat lunch alone: Do you regularly lunch with individuals from your team? If not, you don’t really want to and that’s fine. You’ll understand then, when your team doesn’t go out of its way for you.
- Be a resource: Do you buy books that you want your team to read? Do you flip them magazine and blog articles that you think they would like? If it makes them better, it makes you better.
- Pinocchio: Did you just rationalize a positive answer for most of these questions? If so, you probably do it everywhere else – and your people notice.
It’s funny how leadership roles are the most important, yet organizations are comfortable letting people learn how to lead on the job.
If you’re looking for a true differentiator on your resume, go out into your community and volunteer. It’s here that you’ll learn how to cultivate want – the most important lesson in leadership.