Leadership and Competency

Good leaders enhance T.E.A.M. spirit by surrounding themselves with competent people. This is not to say that every member of the team is a “number one draft pick.” Rather, it is to say that leaders recruit people who have skills and a proven track record.

Competent people are encouraged and energized in the presence of other competent people. And this energy is transferred into the work environment and typically enhances output. An additional bonus is that competent people are more easily encouraged to volunteer for or hire into an organization that emphasizes competence and excellence. Notice that this principle is true for both non-profit and for-profit situations.

People who are competent in their field lose confidence in a leader, and thus the team spirit diminishes when incompetent people are regularly hired or recruited. And this is  particularly true when incompetent people are brought in (or promoted) as a favor to friends or cronies. In other words, nepotism will destroy team morale.

A clarifying word is in order here. I am not suggesting that no one should be given a chance to learn, therefore, beginners need not apply! However, the chance to learn starts not at the top, or even mid-level. It starts at the bottom, and for reasons of prospect not favoritism. As the prospect increases in knowledge, skill, and expertise, he/she should rise in responsibility and seniority.

When beginners are brought in this way and work their way up, veterans respect them and the leadership. This results in increased T.E.A.M. spirit.

Good Leaders Build a Team Spirit

Good leaders enhance team trust by doing things that create a confident and positive team spirit. Many good leaders remind themselves of the importance of team by following the acronym T.E.A.M. Together, everybody accomplishes more. This is true in the business world, the sporting world, and even the church world.

Good leaders recognize that a positive team spirit and confidence in leadership among the troops is even more important when the organization is going through a difficult stretch. For example, when a product isn’t selling as well as predicted or a team is regularly in the basement of their division or membership is declining.

Although many people think winning automatically fixes internal problems, good leaders also recognize that being on the top does not necessarily translate into team harmony. Ask yourself why employees choose to leave the company with the hottest product or why players choose to leave a championship team or why there is high staff turnover at some churches that are experiencing unprecedented growth. In all of these apparently winning situations, people are leaving. Why? Good leaders not only recognize the value of T.E.A.M. when end results aren’t at the desired level, they also recognize that a winning team that is divided will begin to crumble. Again this is true in the corporate world, the sporting world, and even the church world.

Leaders enhance their leadership skills and leadership influence by recognizing the value of T.E.A.M. The next several leadership posts will point out ways that good leaders build T.E.A.M. spirit.

 

 

Everybody’s Watching You

Leaders, everybody is watching you. Here, I don’t mean the “Life in a Fishbowl” that many leaders dislike. Rather, I mean those you lead are getting their cues from you.

If I, as a professor, am not excited about the material I teach, why in the world should my students be excited? If a leader begins to “mail it in,” guess what his/her staff will begin to do? Even those who started out quite motivated, will over time, likely lose their enthusiasm (or commitment) when they see their leader show signs of losing interest in the organization. Leaders, beware lest you lead your organization down because you’ve lost heart for the battle.

And, because your organization is prospering, doesn’t mean you can’t lose interest or begin mailing it in. Although this issue is more prevalent and obvious when an organization is in crisis, a leader can lose interest even when an organization is enjoying prosperity. Because leaders are people, they, like everyone else, are subject to changes in life circumstances that may cause their interest in, or level of commitment to an organization to wane.

With this in mind, one of the things leaders regularly need to do is to evaluate their commitment to the organization and how they demonstrate such. Remember, people are watching.

 

The Elephant in the Room

I am often asked questions about leadership and leading others. These questions come from students, colleagues, and leaders who are seeking to evaluate their organizations. As an outsider it’s often easier to evaluate a person’s leadership in a given situation because there is no need to clear away the fog that comes with being entrenched in a situation or the inner workings of an organization. Certainly, the details of a situation are rarely understood from afar, which makes it challenging to evaluate specific decisions a leader has made. However, when evaluating leadership, the specific decisions are often less critical than how a leader leads his/her troops through a situation, whether that situation be good or bad.

This series will focus on some of the mechanics of leadership.

The Elephant in the Room

An example of a poor leadership practice that I see more regularly in both small and large organizations is a failure to address the “elephant in the room.” Usually, this is not a simple oversight. Rather, it is an effort to control a negative situation, which usually makes the problem worse. Why leaders don’t recognize the negative effects of ignoring the elephant in the room is beyond me.

With the advent of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, examples of this poor strategy are abundant and obvious for everyone to see. Except, perhaps, the executive who is attempting damage control. The results of not addressing a problem that virtually everyone is aware of are often many and usually negative.

Perhaps the most negative outcome is a loss of trust by those who are charged (by contract or choice) to follow the executive’s leadership. Once trust in leadership is lost, the downward spiral begins. A lack of trust in the leader usually results in a decreased commitment by those being led poorly. That is followed by decreasing job performance, regardless of whether the people are employees or volunteers. Poor job performance is followed by poor production/output, which will eventually lead to the stagnation or even death of the organization. This is true in sports. In business. In church life.

When everyone is aware of a major problem, address it … even if all you can say is “we are aware of the problem and this is what we are doing to address it.” The problem can be anything that raises serious concerns among a company’s or organization’s constituents. When an automobile has recurring problems that are causing customer deaths, the worst thing the CEO can do is ignore the problem as if it doesn’t exist. Are you listening, Toyota? When storms hit an area and leave people homeless, citizens want to know that the governor/mayor has his eye on the problem. Even if he/she doesn’t have an immediate solution to the problem. Remember Katrina and Sandy? When production or development plans fail, a CEO should first acknowledge the problem to the stakeholders and then keep them abreast of efforts to solve the problem. Remember Enron?

I found myself in such a situation while leading an organization. One member of the organization was publicly humiliating the organization through social media. Many, perhaps all members of the group were aware of this person’s actions and were waiting to see how I would respond. Clearly an executive doesn’t want to come out with guns blazing unnecessarily, so I had to properly evaluate the situation. Were the reports true? Was this individual hurting the morale of the membership and thus the organization? The answer was clearly yes. Furthermore, his actions were undermining my leadership … the longer I allowed them to go unaddressed the more my ability as a leader came into question among the membership.

Once this became clear, I had to act … and act, I did. I first addressed the situation with the individual, dismissing him from the organization. The next thing I did was speak directly and publicly to the members of the organization about the problem, clarifying why it was a problem for our organization and how I intended to remedy the problem. Finally, I laid out a plan for moving forward that shored up confidence in our organization and me as the leader of that organization. The camaraderie of the members grew and as an organization we were able to accomplish more than we had to date.

In that illustration, the problem was the behavior of an individual, which was pretty easily solved. Unfortunately, not all leadership challenges are so easily managed. Sometimes, the best plans do not succeed. On occasions, an executive is dependent on a series of things falling into place to solve a major problem, … and they don’t fall into place. That doesn’t have to be the end of the world … unless you leave people with their hands in the air, asking what’s going on because you refuse to acknowledge the elephant in the room. People realize that things don’t always go as planned. So when they don’t, recognize it, explain it, and give confidence that you are working on it. If you do that, your leadership reputation and skills will be enhanced. If you don’t … your leadership will be rightly questioned.

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