According
to Darren Hardy, CEO of SUCCESS Magazine, 83% of organizations say it's
important to develop leaders at all levels yet only 5% have fully implemented
development at all levels. The reason why this occurs is that organizations
just ASSUME leadership is happening versus ASSURING it is! This has me thinking
out loud that we spend so much of our time and resources preparing ourselves for
the technical aspects of our jobs (i.e. accounting, project management,
diagnosis, etc.) but we just hope we
will be ready when we take on leadership roles.
As a
leadership educator in higher education and now consultant, it is clearly obvious
that college and universities do a fair job in training and educating the
American workforce for the practical aspects of our roles but falls short in
preparing us for the interpersonal/leadership skills needed to be successful.
The problem with such a by design vs by default approach is that when we
do reach the inevitable point in our careers when we have responsibility for
leading others, we are woefully unprepared. In fact, according to research
conducted by the Ken Blanchard Company, 75% of those surveyed revealed that
their supervisor constitutes the most
stressful part of their job. Equally telling is that when given the choice
between a better boss or a significant raise in salary, 65% of the respondents
would choose a better boss! Houston (and I might as well add New York, Los Angeles, Mumbai,
Madrid, Tokyo, and London for that matter) we
have a problem here!
According to Gallup,
staff disengagement and staff departures can usually be linked back to poor
leadership. As leadership guru John Maxwell says, people quit people not organizations! The good news, however, is
that when effective leadership is present, organizations grow, flourish, and
retain their top talent. If you are not convinced yet, allow me to share one
more data-point. According to the Carnegie Institute of Technology, 85% of your
success in life (i.e. career, financial, personal) is based on your ability to lead and communicate. Only15% is based
on your technical abilities! Again, think about how you were educated
and trained for your current role. I would bet that the converse of the above
data-point was true in that well over 90% of your preparation was technical and
if you did gain any leadership training, it was either due to an extra-curricular
experience or some content that you personally pursued to self-teach yourself.
Now don’t get me
wrong, it is important to be competent in your role. According to Stephen M.
Covey, establishing trust with team members is dependent on being capable and results
driven. But as we have seen, that is only 15% of the “effectiveness paradigm”. It
is important to be technically good,
but we need to become leadership great!
So how do we make the shift? How do we make up for our lack of leadership preparation?
Put simply, time to go back to school! I have heard time and time again that
the most successful entrepreneurs and leaders in other fields are continual learners.
They prioritize their time and are constantly retooling their leadership and
interpersonal skills to be more effective. They understand that what got them
here is not sufficient for the next step.
You may be thinking
you simply do not have the time or resources to engage in such a deep dive but
the good news you do not have to. Much like a successful launch of a new product
or service, you can scale a
process for self-improvement as follows:
Explore –
Take just an hour each
week for the next four weeks to explore some new leadership content. There are
so many free resources out there anything from blogs like this to a Minute
with Maxwell video that you can subscribe to for free. Just let Google
lead you there but explore content from many different thought leaders.
Engage –
Once you have explored,
focus on one or two authors or speakers that resonate well with you. Engage in
what Executive Coach Ed DeCosta calls “Windshield U” where instead of listening
to the morning DJ antics on the radio, listen to a podcast or book during your
commute to and from work or during a walk or workout.
Expand –
It is important to then
take a deeper dive into content that you like and works for you. Increase your
reading and study time. Click on the hour-long teaching content on You Tube
versus just the five-minute overview. Keep a Reflection Journal and record the lessons,
observations, and your experiences with applying the content. At some point if
you want to change or increase your leadership capabilities, you have to spend
the time and effort. You will find that the more you do this, the more time
available to do so suddenly appears! If you have the time and means, attend a
seminar that your organization is sponsoring. Again, not the get rich quick
variety, just sincere leaders and trainers who are truly vested in
organizational success.
Commit –
Next, commit to
putting into practice what the authors or thought leaders are teaching you.
Really make a sincere effort. It will be awkward at first. Your team members
may be confused with your new approach and it takes several weeks to put a
practice into a consistent behavior, but the effort will be more than worth it.
The other commitment is to be constantly improving. Once you, your team, your
colleagues, and supervisor notices your increased abilities, they will expect more.
You will also probably experience co-workers approaching you about how they can
experience the success you have gained.
Finally, if you feel you
want to focus your efforts more deliberately, reflect on the following
questions to help find resources that better align with your needs.
What are your
leadership issues?
How much time are you
spending on personnel matters?
What did you prepare
for?
What has caught you
off guard?
What will it take to
obtain a more significant leadership role within your industry?
As always if I can help you and
the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I invite
you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching
experiences I offer can provide an impact.
Yours in Leadership,
Bill Faulkner
Principal Consultant – Out
Loud Strategies
Independent Coach, Speaker,
and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team TM
Email
= bill@outloudinc.com
Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com
For more information on the
John Maxwell Team, please visit
Feel free to “LIKE” our FB
Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc
No comments:
Post a Comment