Leadership Fundamentals Part 3 - Tools

Hey Guys,

October was an awesome and crazy month. On the downside, I only wrote one blog article, on the way upside, I got to present "Eyes Up - how to get what you want through deliberate conversations", to almost 300 people in three cities. I've also been working on the new forgingleaders.com, it is just a landing page right now, but my brother Troy and I are looking to launch the new site at the beginning of 2011. It's gonna rock! Plus, I've been doing a ton of reading and coaching, so I have a lot to write about in November.

In this article, I'm going to describe the third pillar of leadership, making sure your team has the tools and/or resources they need to be successful. If you haven't read part 1 and part 2 yet, go do that first, then come back.

So, as a leader, you've communicated a clear vision to your team, you've made sure that they understand their role and what is expected of them; now, it's time to make sure that each team member has the tools they need to be successful. I use the term "tools" to mean the actual equipment they need to do their job, e.g. a sawsall, a ladder, a copy of MS Excel 2007, as well as the skills they need, e.g. sales training, systems training, or leadership training.

Lot's of times, as leaders we just assume that our people will come to us if they need something; we may even pride ourselves on our "hands-off leadership". The truth is that's just lazy leadership. It's our duty to check in with our team to make sure that they have what they need; in fact, they may not even know what they are missing.

If you're doing a good job of checking in with your people on a regular basis, you'll probably see where they could use some help. Even so, I uncover all sorts of training opportunities and resource gaps by asking the following questions every chance I get; "What can I do to support you?" and "What do you need to be successful this week?"

As with everything else I write about for Forging Leaders, this applies equally at home as it does in the office. When was the last time you checked in with your kids and your wife to see how you could support them?

Next time, I'll wrap up the Leadership Fundamentals series with the fourth pillar, Accountability.

Until then, keep your eyes up and take the lead,

Jeremiah

Leadership Fundamentals: Part 1 of 4 - Vision Test

You know how when you get a new gadget, you start noticing all the other people who have the same gadget? Before I got an iPad I never saw them; now that I have one, they're everywhere; it's the same way with leadership. Now that I spend so much time writing and coaching in the area of leadership, the behavior of leaders jumps out at me wherever I go. I've noticed some inspiring examples of leaders who really get it, and almost every day I see examples of leaders totally wiffing, missing the point, forgetting their role.

Whether you're a leader in your family, your team, your company or your community, there are four vital functions that, as the leader, it's your job to fill. So often, leaders ignore, gloss over or delegate these functions, always to the detriment of those who follow them. This article is the first in a four-part series that will help you identify if you've got this leadership thing nailed, or whether you've got important work to do.

Develop a clear vision of where you're taking your family/team/company and communicate that vision with the rest of your team in a way that they can understand

Remember, as leader, YOU are the captain of the ship; does the rest of your crew know where the ship is headed, or do they think it's just drifting aimlessly on the currents? It may sound like a trivial thing, but when a wife understands that her husband has a plan and is leading their family towards a common goal, she will support him through anything; when she feels like the family is aimless, she gets scared, frustrated and loses confidence in him. The same goes for the workplace; the people whom you manage will throw themselves and their passion into their work if they know that you're leading them someplace they want to go. If you don't provide this vision, they lose interest, maximize their sick days and do as little work as possible. After all, if their work isn't important, why should they spend the energy it takes to do a great job?

Imagine that you work for an aimless company; the culture has eroded, the employees are cynical, people do barely enough to scrape by in their roles. Whoever creates a vision that people can get excited about and believe in, will start being looked to by their peers and by their "superiors" as a leader. Leadership isn't about position, it's about vision.

There's a great example in one of my favorite movies of all time. Why was William Wallace such a powerful leader in Braveheart? People followed him because he had a profound vision of a Scotland that was free of the English; his passion came through when he communicated that vision and he got his people to risk everything to follow him. The same holds true in real life; Nelson Mandella had a vision for a South Africa without aparteid, George Washington had a vision for a United States of America. I challenge you to think of a great leader without a powerful vision; one cannot exist without the other. In order for you to become a great leader in your own life, the vision must come first.

So, what's your vision? Where are you leading your family? What is your team working so hard to achieve every day at work? Get clear about your vision, get good at sharing it with the people around you and watch what happens.

Take the Lead

Jeremiah