Gifted Leaders

Leading Your Team Part I: Look at the Questions You’re Asking

"If you are asking questions like 'How do I get people to ...?' or 'How do I get people onboard with my ideas, vision or ...?', you’re asking the wrong questions!" - Peter Block

Stepping out of the role of benevolent parent and moving toward becoming a collaborative community builder requires a totally new way of thinking about organizations and leadership. Making the change is definitely necessary if you want to reach your full potential both individually and collectively.

Question like "How do I get people to ...?" or "How do I get people onboard with my ideas, vision or ...?" are the wrong questions!

These are the questions of a parent regarding non-compliant children. And this approach has the unintended side-effect of creating resentment and a feeling of being manipulated, with related symptoms of whining and complaining. "Put this in boldface," Block says, "They are not your children. Once you realize that, real engagement is possible."

Learn to step out of the role of benevolent parent, download our free e-Book: Leading Your Team: Making the Switch from Frustrated Parent to Collaborative Community Builder.

The Perils of Paternalism

"We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others." - Blaise Pascal

Many teams and businesses today are attracted to the romantic notion of being a "big happy family." The difficulty with this is that somebody gets stuck being the parent. And it’s the parent who often finds themselves trying to keep everyone happy.

The Perils of Paternalism

The paternalistic view of leadership is one in which the leader plays the role of a benevolent ruler who makes all important decisions, controls all important information, does all the important thinking, and basically directs all the important activities of the organization as he (or she) sees fit. Workers are there to do the work as directed and to seek information or solutions to problems from the leader.

According to research by Jim Laub, Ed.D., most organizations operate with a paternalistic view of leadership  and that, more than any other reason, hinders them from becoming truly collaborative and effective. This kind of benevolent rule has the effect of producing a child-like response in employees who readily accept that their leaders know more, are wiser, and should be followed. This abdication of their own responsibility to lead has far-reaching effects. When employees are encouraged to take on the role of children, the result is a transactional form of leadership that operates more on compliance rather than true individual motivation.

Making the Switch

A healthy organization is one in which people talk and act as partners for the good of each person and the organization as a whole. When people at all levels trust and respect one another and encourage active participation and leadership, the organization as a whole prospers.

Are you tired of feeling like a counselor, mediating disputes about workplace music volume and who took Nicole’s lunch?  Leaders who take on the role of parent may find themselves feeling frustrated, and asking questions like, "Why does it seem like people need constant guidance in playing well with others?" and "Why won’t they take any responsibility?"

Learn to step out of the role of benevolent parent, download our free e-Book: Leading Your Team: Making the Switch from Frustrated Parent to Collaborative Community Builder.

The Top 10 Ways to Build a High-Performance Team

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision; the ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." – Andrew Carnegie

In a recent article in The Linkage Leader (www.linkageinc.com) Phil Harkins, an internationally known expert in the fields of organizational development and leadership, outlines ten keys to building high-performing teams:

1. Define a very clear picture of the future – a vision for the team. "If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there." Journeys without a clear destination leave groups feeling flat and lost.
2. Be genuine, even if it means lowering your guard. Effective leaders have an uncanny sense about how and when to express their inner selves. They are not concerned about projecting a perfect image: they don't play make-believe, knowing it's more important 'to be' than to 'seem to be'.
3. Ask good questions. Effective leaders use the 70-20-10 rule in conversations: 70 per cent listening, 20 per cent inquiring with just the right amount of advocacy, and 10 per cent tracking (i.e., summarizing and synthesizing information, and providing possible courses of action).
4. Talk about things – even the hard things. An effective leader is not afraid to talk about the tough stuff. They find ways to have the difficult conversations in the knowledge that burying problems doesn't make them go away.
5. Follow through on commitments. Leaders of high-performing teams find ways to build trust and maintain it, especially by holding to their commitments.
6. Let others speak first. In high-performing teams, members see themselves as equal in terms of communication. Leaders encourage this by putting the other person's need to express their agenda ahead of their own.
7. Listen. High-performing teams are comprised of people who have mastered the art of listening without fear, of allowing others to speak without reacting strongly or negatively to what is being said, or what they anticipate will be said.
8. Face up to non-performing players. Leaders do not tolerate players who pull the team apart.
9. Have fun, but never at others' expense. High-impact leaders steer clear of sarcasm: they always take the high road. They have learned the lesson that reckless humor can be misinterpreted and backfire.
10. Be confident and dependable. Leaders who build high-performing teams project confidence. They don't try to be spin doctors because they know that, ultimately, this doesn't work. Rather, they are known as straight shooters – people who play hard, fight fair, and never, never give up.

Which one of these, if you were to practice it for the next 30 days, would make the most difference in your ability to build your team?

How the Mighty Fall: The Undisciplined Pursuit of More

"The greatest leaders do seek growth - growth in performance, growth in distinctive impact, growth in creativity, growth in people - but they do not succumb to growth that undermines long-term value. And they certainly do not confuse growth with excellence. Big does not equal great, and great does not equal big." - Jim Collins

A recent edition of John Maxwell’s Leadership Wired featured a review of Jim Collin's latest book, How the Mighty Fall. The article points out that, as Americans, we are currently living with the consequences of our undisciplined quest for wealth. Collectively, our ambition exceeded our discipline, and the entire economy careened downward as a result.

In Collins' new book, he identifies the "undisciplined pursuit of more" as a key stage in the breakdown of a once-mighty business or nation. He shares three keys to avoiding a fall:

1. Fear excessive ambition more than idleness
2. Don’t confuse growth with excellence
3. You only grow as fast as you can attract the right people.

This third point is worth some additional elaboration. According to Collins and his research team, "No company can consistently grow revenues faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company." Internally motivated, self-disciplined people are the foundation for growth. Without them, new business ventures collapse.

Where in your life have you succumbed to "the undisciplined pursuit of more?" How do you want to live differently?