Leadership Nuggets

Effective leadership does require the masterful use of  higher mathematics though not in the traditional financial arena. It requires that you practice C2 (Communication to the power of Clarity)  to insure alignment on focus and goals.

As  the pilot of your organization you know what group(s) or leader(s) occupy the window seats , what group(s) or leader(s) occupy the aisle seats – what are you doing with those who have the middle seat? Their leadership requires influencing skills and access to power to have a balanced journey.

Do you know the leader bytes in your organization? Leader bytes are similar to sound bytes advertisers use to capture our attention and influence our behavior and next steps. What you say is being repeated. Has your team heard what you meant or what they understood? How that message is cascaded  throughout the organization is an indicator of what gets done and what is ignored.

All leadership teams have meetings and updates.  What can derail a team or organization is more often what is not being said. Look to the unanswered question(s) for clues. Have you created the dynamics for your leaders to challenge you and their peers on what they need to know that is currently unanswered?

If you want to understand the “real dynamics” in your organization ask yourself “what happens in a crisis”?

Leadership is a privilege. Do you and your team use this privilege to create  distance or as a magnet for your team? Do you visit the front lines often and create access for them to share “what is really going on”?

Without this five letter word you may be managing resources and plans but you are not leading with complete support. Trust.

Does your organization provide the foundation for learning? A masterful coach asks questions that create insight. Insight is where learning begins. If you walked around with a recording device and heard the typical conversations at your company would would they sound like?

What do improv comedians practice to keep the audience engaged and have a successful performance? When faced with an interruption or sidetracking influence use it to reframe, apply your wit and wisdom or engage in new dialogue but don’t make the individual “bad or wrong”. Leading a diverse team requires good improv skills to insure you are clear on what can get in the way of buy in and implementation of new plans. What do the leaders in your organization do when someone “doesn’t get it?”

If we were using text speak to describe what happens frequently in your organization would it be “lol” (laugh out loud) or “omg” (oh my god)? One helps alleviate stress the other amplifies stress.

Many have asked me how can you tell if the organization has a high performance culture? For me that is defined by the following: The right things get done in whatever business cycle, all involved know their responsibilities and they hold themselves accountable first.

One of the more daunting responsibilities of a leader is to make good decisions.  Often the dilemmas that lead to the decision surface in a crisis. Root cause analysis is fundamental to make the best choice but is cloaked in “time delay”. Do you make the time to address the root cause  before launching into a decision?