Monday Moments by Monica Wofford

I recently listened to a leader describe a difficult employee who always said “well, that’s the way we’ve always done it”. You’ve heard it, but what happened next may surprise you… that same leader then told me she wasn’t sure about changing the training format because… “well, you know we’ve never done more than 1 live program a year and I’m not sure that’s something we want to change.” Hmmm…sounds a lot like “that’s the way we’ve always done it”. And whether it’s said about learning or leading, that phrase will keep you stuck and failing to make progress. The simple truth is employees become mirrors of a leader’s philosophy. In this case, it was about training. In all cases, it’s about learning. Are you the leader who is always learning new ways, new information, and new approaches to the same old problem? Are you the leader always looking to better your own approach, knowledge or skill set? Or are you the leader who prefers to keep (and complain about) the same problems day after day? Either way, the following guidelines will help you become, model, and remain a learning leader who then paves the way for employees to do the same. (not to mention helps you become a better leader in the process!) Identify Key Nuggets of Need Even leaders have blind spots, as well as areas they know there needs to be growth. To continue to learn and enhance your skills, decide what area you’ll focus on first and try not to attempt them all at once. Perhaps you have a good grasp of essential leadership skills such as communication, conflict, coaching, and performance, but need to develop the skill of bragging about yourself or managing up. Good sources for where to start first might be your last performance appraisal or the areas that give you the greatest struggle. Pay close to attention to the things you put off the most as those are usually clues to areas that deserve your attention first. Dedicate the Time Learning is not an event, but a process. Some leaders choose to learn their leadership skills through experience, time, or what I like to call trial and error, but there are other ways to acquire wise guidance and valuable wisdom. Read books ; download articles; scan Linked In leadership groups (Linked 2 Lead or Lead with Giants are great choices!); or even create your own Flipboard on your phone with topics of interest to you. Spend time daily scanning your favorite sources for industry trends, economic advice, communication guidance, and leadership tips. Daily small steps is one way to make great long term leadership learning progress. Make it a Habit Much as a manager might encourage the employee habit of putting a customer first or treating each other with mutual respect, the best managers lead themselves to develop lifelong learning habits. With nuggets of focus identified and time set aside, making learning a habit becomes easy and something you look forward to when starting your day. Just like that exercise program, this part of learning might not be easy, but daily learning is the fastest way to become a more effective leader. Carve Out the Budget Just this week I’ve trained leaders in three different courses. They were great live training courses and each client made specific efforts to carve out the budget because they felt their management teams were worth it. Finding the moola, as one client calls it, is not always easy and not having it one year, does NOT make you “bad boss of the year”. It does mean you may need to get creative and continue the learning for you and the team with a hybrid of training methods. Online learning and webinars are less expensive. Live courses typically are the highest investment and self-study books and audio programs are certainly the cheapest. The key is to determine what you can afford or begin building your case for training for you and the team, which means you may have to budget for more. When a leader is learning, employees will often learn from you and if you want them to get better, putting the priority on your own learning is one of the most powerful things you can do. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week, an even better Monday, and of course, stay contagious! The post How to Remain a Learning Leader appeared first on Contagious Companies.

For the entire year thus far, we have focused on segments of leadership development with each month of the Monday Moment. For this month and the next couple, our focus shifts toward application. How do you become a better leader? How do you become a better behaving leader? Both questions are answered by doing different. Improvement comes from nothing more than making even small changes and one that has come up repeatedly recently with our executive coaching clients, is in how we deal with people. People can be the simultaneously most productive and most problematic element of any leader’s position and yet, in light of even their most minimally frustrating behaviors, there are three keys to leading them better that require leaders to do three things different. Ready? Stop Imposing Your Thoughts on Them People are fascinating. When they amaze us with their actions in positive ways we’re charmed and encourag. When they do something so stupid that we wonder what on earth they were thinking, that fascination quickly turns to frustration. But why is it frustrating and why do we call them stupid? Think for a moment…. and see if the reality isn’t that the answer to those questions is because that person did it differently than we would have. It’s usually that simple. You said stop annoying all of your co-workers. They heard stop talking. You said do whatever it takes to make your numbers. They heard bribe customers. We’re no stranger to simple miscommunications, but because people are so fascinatingly complex, we forget that so many miscommunications occur because we also send our expectations with our message. We maintain an assumption as leaders (and people) that others would do the same thing, or say the same thing, or have the same interpretation as us in any given situation. We know that’s ridiculous, but the simple fact that we’re frustrated when employees don’t get it proves that we expected them to get what we meant. And of course we do because if we saw other options or perspectives it would fundamentally alter the one’s we assume are the correct choices for behavior. Stop assuming. Stop being frustrated as to how others respond. Learn from what your see is a different perspective and rapidly adjust your message so that your results get better. That’s how you become a better leader and certainly one who is less frustrated. Practice Using Emotional Intelligence One client shared with me today that while it’s helpful to have the needs, motivations, tendencies, and stressors as information on each of their team members, it’s frustrating to have to change your style to meet the needs of others who are different. She’s not wrong. No one ever said deviating from your own style or behavior preference was easy. And the more stress a leader is under, the less and less easy it gets by the minute. EQ or the preferences and personalities of people, is a topic that is a mile deep and an inch wide, that is often taught as if it’s a mile wide and an inch deep. Leaders will fail miserably when following an oversimplified labeling system. People are not labels any more than employees who bug you are inherently difficult. They’re difficult for you but that’s not who they are. Go beyond colors, labels, and short quizzes. These are great ways to start the conversation, but you need more data to practice with accuracy and influence. Find a tool that revels motivations, needs, and tendencies. Find a tool that shows you how to influence, interact with, coach, and motivate those you have the privilege of leading. The CORE Profile we use does this, but there are others. Practice using that data and then you will begin to start putting emotional intelligence into action. Leaders who do better, lead different people differently. They do different and thus lead at a much higher level. Include Yourself in the Process When a leader is faced with a difficult team member who frustrates the dickens out of him or her and everyone else, it slows down productivity. Often the challenging person becomes the target of much attention. Coaching, discipline, threats, consequences, the silent treatment, or extra development are all frequent options seen as solutions. Yet, the best leaders put themselves, and in fact keep themselves in the process. They’re not just doling out guidance, they’re looking at their own contribution to the situation. They’re not just sending employees to HR to get schooled or counseled, they’re evaluating if what was said was a reaction to something the leader did that was ineffective. Keep yourself in the mix. It always takes two to have an interaction. It takes two to argue and it takes two to find a solution in which trust, reliability, and performance are an issue. It takes two to meet each other’s expectations. Don’t divorce yourself from the reality that like it or not, you as the leader, are part of the situation with even the most frustrating team members. Fascintatingly frustrating. Yep. People can be. They’re also who we have the privilege of leading and as such, it’s our job to find their optimal contributions and make the most of them. Do different. Become better. Make a bigger effort to be the leader who doesn’t whine but does different. Be the leader who stops blaming and starts changing their own behavior. Be the leader who doesn’t talk about people in one-word descriptions but looks at the team with respect for the complexity of relationships and personality preferences. Be fascinated that those you lead do different. Be fascinated at how easy it is to change tiny small things that over time, change reactions immensely. Be the leader willing to become a better one. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post The Fascinatingly Frustrating People We Lead appeared first on Contagious Companies.

As with any pronoun used in a sentence missing context, the first step is to define it. Who are they, exactly? No matter the answer, the very question of why something or someone is not working, is sought out by leaders, perhaps all too often. Why aren’t those employees busy? Why aren’t those people focused? Where is everybody and did all members of the team or department go on vacation? Tell me again why do we follow that policy? Common questions beckoning a look at the bigger picture. All too often leaders are faced with drama and frustration when something on which they rely in order to remain productive, stops, or simply is not, working. Whether they’re people, processes, or policies in place, when they’re not working, not smoothly running, nor aligned with the leader’s value proposition or work ethic, disastrous problems are the outcomes. Well, only really disastrous if massive turnover, constant drama, and a line outside the door of HR that’s a mile long, seems troubling. There are, however, key, even simple, fixes provided in today’s Monday Moment for the top three areas most often complained about when leaders ask “why aren’t they working?” People This month’s focus for leadership improvement is on the subject of ethics. Less about morals or codes of conduct, this Monday Moment addresses what is called work ethic and what happens when yours is different than those you have the privilege of leading. When you ask Why aren’t they working? and you are referring to people, the answer could be that no one told them to. GASP! Every type A leader and Gen Xer raised with the phrase if you can lean, you can clean, just tried to grasp how someone could possibly think that working when on the job wasn’t a requirement. Think of how younger members of your workforce were shown what happens when you give all you’ve got to a company that could care less. Lay-offs, foreclosures, economic bubbles considered to be exploited by big banks and big corporate all were to blame when their mom or dad said you’ll have to change schools and find new best friends because we’ve lost our job and our home and we’re moving. Experience that as a child and it leaves an impression. Younger workforce members may not be working because they don’t believe they owe a company or anyone they don’t deeply respect and trust, a single solitary ounce of loyalty. Or maybe, their work ethic is one that says doing the job is enough and overachieving is not rewarded. Or maybe they’re not working because whatever type of leadership your offering or motivation the company is selling, is simply not of interest. Wait a minute. Not of interest? Then why work here? It’s a good question and one many employees are answering by leaving and job hopping. You think they are not engaged or that you need to increase engagement. Employee engagement is really just a new way of saying employee motivation, which is the same as what we used to examine under the name of plain old interest. And there was a time when being interested in the job you were being paid to do, didn’t matter. That time has passed and if people not working is an issue you need to address, start first with your work ethic expectations. Eliminate most of them related to the area of expecting people to work for the sheer pleasure. Interest them with the assignment or position or at a minimum, with your style of leadership. Keep their attention and they’re more likely to keep listening. If they listen, and you’re leading, they’re more likely to be, yes, engaged, but also, yes, regularly working. Processes People being the far more complex area of the three when it’s people, processes or policies that aren’t working, getting people to get back to work or in alignment with your work ethic is top priority. And while they may not align perfectly, getting them to at least do what you ask in the time frame in which you’ve asked it without too much grumbling, is acceptable. But what if it’s the processes you’re asking them to follow that aren’t working? Does all of their equipment allow for smooth completion of a process? Is there a part of the process that breaks down or backs up monthly or every time the lead list gets printed, that you’ve asked to be presented at each team meeting, it shuts down accounting? Is the process of strategic planning in place? Succession planning process working? There are processes for work performance and processes for planning and processes for production, among others. As the leader, if you’re confident the people you lead are engaged, interested, loyal, and at least don’t hate their jobs, at a minimum, check next your host of processes. Ignoring them could be considered criminal, or at least like asking someone to mow a lawn with a scissors when better equipment is readily available. To shore up gaps in this area and get production flowing, map out your top five processes, step by step and in order of importance. Then follow each step personally to see what happens, how it’s done, and where there is room for greater efficiencies or changes and improvements that would certainly making working the process easier. Policies Office environments, cultures, and generations change fairly quickly, despite what it feels like when you’re living in and leading them. The ethics of one generation are not necessarily the ethics of the up and coming team members. The policies you’ve always known and followed may now be outdated and either ignored or simply, not working as a guide to desired behavior. Dress code guidelines are in flux at present, for example. Whereas at one time a leader could assume certain standards of dress and professional attire, both geography and seasonality, as well as growing casual flair for even workplace attire has changed that fact. Add to our reality, gender dynamics and what a team member may identify with and you have a dress code that could well be long overdue for makeover. By itself, this is not a crisis, however, ignore one policy and others will follow. Continue to ignore a needed change in policy and you create what is called a precedent. Imagine explaining in a court of law your justification for not changing the dress code policy that no one follows, but enforcing another outdated policy that few follow, that you just used to terminate a team member. When policies aren’t working, employees may take an opportunity to make up their own rules and have little or no consequences for behaviors inhibiting productive performance. Why aren’t they working? It’s a question I hear frequently and in nearly every training session. It’s phrased more as a complaint about employees who don’t just do their job and find themselves engaged in some other drama that is far more entertaining. It’s how we’re training employees to behave. Want to know why employees aren’t working? Look at how you’re leading and the language you’re speaking and whether or not they are listening. If that’s not the issue, take your top five processes and start analyzing. Then look closely at your policies so that the employees who, after you’ve done all that, are still not working the way you want them, can be invited to share their skills with a new company, with minimal drama and frustration when you deliver such an invitation. For your Become a Better Leader Challenge this week, think long and hard about your work ethic and how it likely differs from the myriad of team members you have the privilege of leading. Stop being frustrated at how they don’t work in the same manner you do and start finding ways to make it easier for them to do work with and for you. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post Why Aren’t They Working? appeared first on Contagious Companies.

The title of today’s Monday Moment might well need sound effects. Perhaps we need a dastardly laugh like “Mwah haha” and a cartoon of an evil wrong doer, to convey the mood of this discussion and the potential answer. As this month’s podcasts focus on leaders being loyal to their ethics, we must also consider the ethical agreements implied in employment and how your employees are interpreting them. Whether the discussion is about non-compete agreements, personal gain arrangements, or outright theft of confidential client data, perhaps the larger question to consider as a leader, is not “are they betraying you?” but “will they betray you?” and if so, to what extent and what impact? But, before you panic, let’s look at the areas in which employee betrayal of you, the leader, or the leadership of your larger organization, are most common. Non-Compete Agreements According to Wikipedia, a non-compete agreement or clause (often NCC), or covenant not to compete (CNC), is a clause under which one party (usually an employee) agrees not to enter into or start a similar profession or trade in competition against another party (usually the employer). In layman’s terms, this clause or document is intended to dissuade an employee from taking the information or training or pricing they have learned from one employer, over to a new position of working with a competitor in the same market. Often these agreements extend for a finite period of time and even more often they are found to be completely unenforceable in a court of law. Now, before you run to legal counsel at your office and tell them they’re doing it wrong and before you leave your current position thinking no matter what you’ve signed, no one will try to enforce a non-compete you may have signed, let’s look at the ethics involved. An employee or leader with a personal set of ethics that say “I don’t steal” would not likely need this document to follow his or her own set of standards. An employee with an even stronger belief that says “I will get even with those who have wronged me” may find an internal struggle upon leaving your organization if they have resentment that is bigger than their concern over the consequences of violating a non-compete agreement. An entirely different population of employees, while much smaller, will be prone to break rules and laws that don’t suit their desires, as a regular course of business. So, here’s the issue. If leaders believe a non-compete forces loyalty, it is the very concept of loyalty that eludes them. To prevent your intel from getting to a competitor via a disgruntled former employee, consider the impact of the type of leadership you provided them with they were a part of the team you have the privilege of leading. Did you go above and beyond to accommodate them? Did you abide by your own set of ethics to treat them with fairness and equitable distribution of rewards and compensation? Not all who leave and betray these agreements can be traced back to a fault within the leader, but more can than is likely being currently considered. Don’t want employees to betray you here? Give them much less to be resentful of or disgruntled about. Personal Gain Arrangements At a senior level of leadership, those you lead are likely to have their own signing authority. It is possible the leaders you lead can enter into contracts up to a certain point, without your input or sometimes awareness. Even in cases where the agreement is small, personal gain stands to come into consideration. Let’s say one senior leader who doesn’t even drink coffee, enters into an agreement with a large coffee vendor for the many breakrooms in your multi-state organization. Because he or she isn’t a coffee drinker, there is no realization that the coffee is swill and not worth drinking, but what was appealing was the fifteen percent kick back given to the leader who made sure to sign the agreement. Complaints are consistent from employees nationwide about the awful coffee, but little is done to change it for the employees because of the leader’s personal gain arrangement. Some call this business. Some see the conflict in priorities. Does a leader do what is best for the company or best for the employees? Does the issue of how bad the coffee is in the breakrooms even rank in the top ten of issues worth addressing? Perhaps. What if other vendors were cheaper and better? What if this were the beginning of a pattern and the next decision for which personal gain was possible, was for sub-par employee health care or benefits? Leaders may betray even the savviest of senior leaders, based on a differing set of ethics and in areas with many shades of gray. How important is coffee, really? Or, how important is this pattern of betray to the very employees this leader has the privilege and responsibility of leading and serving?  Are you able to make decisions that serve the workforce and maybe serve your own personal interest less than other options? Is there an unwritten rule that back door or personal gain arrangements are acceptable if you can get away with them? Even at the front-line level, discounts are given at a register as a customer negotiates or gives a clerk whatever they have to offer. Make clear your guiding principles in this area of personal gain or you may be untangling some agreements, legal and otherwise, that at a high level become quite tricky to identify and in which to intervene. Confidential Data Theft Data breaches are no longer headline news, they happen with such frequency. However, these are typically breaches by a hacker seated in a foreign country or their mother’s basement. When the thief of client data is an internal employee, the betrayal feels much more personal and most leaders find the behavior completely unacceptable, even expressing surprise that someone would consider taking such action. Do not be surprised. This happens often. In fact, it is such a common occurrence that some large companies keep terminations or reorganizations very, very quiet until the moment of the announcement, at which time security personnel is standing in your doorway ready to escort you out with only your personal belongings. Confidential data theft is as real as shoplifting in teenage girl jewelry stores. Without an internal set of ethics that say “I don’t steal”, the temptation is real. With a termination and the feeling of being “wronged”, the access to intel feels less like theft and more like entitled payback. But, how do you prevent it without micromanaging every bit of information accessed. One method is to avoid giving one employee access to all parts of the data. Give one division access to name and address; one with access to emails and names, and one with socials and street addresses or some such system. Another method is to make known the ability to access all company laptops and trace every keystroke of what employees have saved, printed, or accessed. A leader could go complete “big brother” on this one or… a leader could look for ways to uncover the ethics and hot buttons of team members long before they offer him or her a position. Consider asking existing team members and those you are considering giving a job offer, “What are your commandments?”. Readily identifiable as rules written on a stone tablet, this question is often easier to answer than questions around ethics. Give candidates and team members word problems such as those in third grade math class, that reveal how one might truly address ethical situations. On a large scale, corporations do these things, but the number of people being hired and the lack of personal attention paid to each candidate make the “rigorous” seeming system easily gamed. The frustration of online applications alone could give someone justification to lie on their application just because of the time they wasted having to talk to a computer. Be different. Give the attention even on the team you’ve already hired. Ask them the questions. Have this discussion. Lead not by fear of the consequences you’ll wield if they do betray you, but by being the kind of boss that creates loyalty, clarity, and a feeling of never wanting to have their actions, no matter the justification, come back to hurt you, even when they’re angry with the organization. For your Become a Better Leader Challenge this week, make ethics and these three areas a topic of conversation in your next staff meeting. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post Are Your Employees Betraying You? appeared first on Contagious Companies.

If you’re a rule follower, the answer here is likely no. If you’re a rule maker, you may feel the same. But in business, where does one draw the line? Where does one say we have to do what is right, even if that means breaking a rule or even making a new one and is there a time when leaders just throw out the rule book all together? Today’s Monday Moment takes a closer look at not only an unusual question, but the scenarios in which the answers might surprise you. Reasoning Leaders, by definition, are often tasked with bringing about change. As a result, nearly every decision made in those times of change is going to include some form of ethics. Many of the actions of the workforce, from front line to middle management is then also going to incorporate their ethics and in places where a decision is not easy, nor able to be made, the leader will be tasked with invoking a ruling, based on their ethics. Yet, for many, the topic of ethics boils down to doing the right thing in the right way. But, seek to define “right” and there is often a problem. How much of one is the question. The prevailing belief is rooted in motivation. A leader or company who is ethical demonstrates ethical, or what some call “good”, behavior out of a sense of duty. The contrary motivation would be to do something such as avoid profiting from sweat shops or destroying the environment in the production of one’s products for the sole purpose of getting marketing coverage for having taken the necessary measures or precautions. The very discussion of ethics, however, is enough to make one’s head hurt or at the very least, spin. Philosophy weighs in, five distinct approaches from scholars are a factor (saving those for next Monday’s Moment), and the passion with which any given leader argues for the “rightness” of his or her deeply held beliefs, can make a difference. For this reason, it is difficult to discuss what ethics mean to a group of new leaders or open the discussion up to a team of people you have the privilege of leading because the situations, answers, and certainly perspectives, are so varied. So, let’s examine a few scenarios. Scenario 1: You discover information that could keep a big sale from happening in your organization. You have a relationship with the client as someone on the team you lead is working the details of the deal. Do you stay silent about what you’ve found until the deal is done, and papers are signed, or do you reach out to the client to share what you know in the hopes that you can still find a solution? It is in these scenarios that what a leader truly values becomes most obvious. Do you see doing the right thing as telling the client what you’ve found because you know it will bring them harm? How much harm? Do they earn too much anyway? Will you look bad for putting the deal at risk? Is your reputation less or more important than your integrity and what some of our parents used to call lying by omission? Your decision and how you lead the situation not only reveals your own ethics, but the ethics you expect those you lead to follow. The question of having too many ethics might come into play when the risk is actually smaller than the leader believes, and the leader is prone to drama and leaning on ethics as an excuse to become the center of attention. Scenario 2: A long-time employee with a stellar performance record is found to be clocking in a co-worker who was actually not arriving for work until hours after the clock-in time recorded. That co-worker happened to be his wife, unable to leave home to arrive at work on time, due to the recent birth of their new-born son. You discover the action and take the matter to HR, who you know will immediately terminate the long-time employee for stealing hours and money from the company. Do you report it? Do you write up the employee? Do you ignore the situation and therefore become somewhat complicit? Being a member of Human Resources can be tricky for many reasons, some of which are found in the answers to the above questions. How much is loyalty valued in your organization when it comes to long-time employees who are also strong performers? Can your top producers pretty much get away with murder? How clear is the zero-tolerance policy on stealing and is getting paid for extra hours really considered stealing? Where is the role for empathy for the clearly lacking in communication, new mom who needed to make adjustments to her schedule? How you answer these questions will set precedents. How you approach Human Resources and make them your enemy or partner will largely determine the loyalty you’ll experience from employees you lead in the future. But is there a possibility there are too many ethics in this scenario? More often than not, the issue is not one of having ethics in excess but having no time to address issues that are perceived to be minor or able to blow over or go away with a simple chat or threat of consequences made to the team member. For some, ethics are easy. They’re black and white and easy peasy. Do not be lulled into such a distinct belief unless of course you lead people and a workforce who is also always black and white and customers who never make requests other than those that are easy peasy. People are complex and they always bring their complexities with them. The real question is not whether or not you use too many ethics to respond to the situations that involve them, but whether or not you do what allows you to look yourself in the mirror in the morning and stay employed according to the guidelines of your office. For your Become a Better Leader Challenge this week, seek out an ethical dilemma from employees past or from within your organization that is able to be shared or could be considered public knowledge. Change the names where appropriate and review how the situation would be handled by the team you have the privilege of leading, should it come up again in the future. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post Can You Have Too Many Ethics? appeared first on Contagious Companies.

There is an argument that could be, and has been, made that if a leader needs to teach ethics to future leaders, the organization has employed the wrong people. However, in your role of leader one of your key responsibilities is to develop future leaders and, in this day, and age, ensuring their ethical standards are high and in the forefront of awareness, is important. Thus, today’s Monday Moment utilizes the popular acronym method of helping you remember six simple steps to teach, reinforce, remind, and bring to top of mind the conversation around ethics and the need for their demonstration. Explore Our first letter E stands for exploring the topic all together. Leaving ethics in the land of assumptions is a dangerous proposition. No discussion and no exploration means you and your fellow leaders are assuming everyone is operating from the same value base, similar principles, and actions that will mirror top leader choices when there is a need to make tough choices. Test For most new leaders or those new to the workforce, the conversation of ethics is not one they’ve readily addressed outside of perhaps that one class in college. Set up opportunities for ethical decisions to be made. Use real life examples and scenarios and consider keeping the test they’re taking a secret while ensuring there is minimal risk if they make a wrong first decision. Testing will show far greater results than merely talking through the ethics discussion. Highlight What feels right or looks right for one leader in one scenario may completely fly in the face of appropriate for another. Rather than claiming right or wrong, good or bad, acceptable or offensive, right off the bat, highlight the differences in perspective or reasonings that caused all parties to arrive at whatever was their conclusion. Highlight the differences and learn more about those you lead and the teams they serve. Each of these leaders who become more aware of the differences among those they have the privilege of leading will not only grasp the basis of ethical decisions at a new level, but will be less likely to immediately label those who are different, as difficult. Incorporate Different than what you might do if you’re starting a business, when you lead a team and incorporate ethics into your daily routine, you are leading by example. Take it one step further and invite commentary, feedback and questions on how you handled an ethical dilemma. Ask what your future leaders would have done differently. Ask for suggestions from the future of your organization. Incorporating their learning into your leading will develop the leaders you have the privilege of leading and your own leadership skills, simultaneously. Clarify Not everyone you lead is always operating from the same sheet of music. Not only is this true in ethics, certainly, but it shows up in a more pronounced manner in this area. Borrowing from Capism.com, “Expose future leaders to a variety of experiences. The definition of ethics varies among individuals so make sure ethical discussions encompass factors like country of origin and religion. Learning to consider the impact of these factors on ethical decisions helps leaders identify all stakeholders” in myriad circumstances. Start Not unlike many topics that seem wrought with gray area, many leaders treat a conversation of ethics like parents might treat a conversation around sex with their children. If you’re not completely clear on your own ethics or on what ethics are exactly, this is a talk subject to a LOT of procrastination. Avoid the temptation to set it aside indefinitely presuming it will just work itself out. The last thing you want to be leading is a public discussion on the news of you or your company’s ethics, standards and values. Start by having A conversation and then follow it where it takes you. Depending on the team you lead, varying questions will arise, and you can take them one at time and over time. The key is to start the conversation and bring the topic to the forefront. For your Become a Better Leader Challenge this week, plan for Ethics to appear in your next staff meeting or team huddle. Prepare one realistic ethical dilemma to share with the team you lead and talk though how each team member might address it, as well as the way you or the company, would deem appropriate. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post 6 Simple Steps for Teaching Ethics appeared first on Contagious Companies.

The subject of ethics is tricky, but critical, to every leader and each workplace. Some would say ethics are “good” behaviors, yet we’ve all seen good experienced in multiple interpretations. It is the confusion around what they are and how to enact them that makes ethics tricky and yet this is also why they landed on our Top Ten Tips for Leaders list of 2019. What makes ethics even more tricky is when you have them and use them daily, they are much more an experience than explanation. In fact, if you have to explain to a new leader or team member, what ethics are exactly, chances are good there is a likely deviation from them in their future. But what are ethics exactly and how do leaders not only experience them, but explain them in way that incites compliance and frequent utilization? By Definition According to EthicsSage.com, “in philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is “good.” The field of ethics or moral philosophy involves developing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. These concepts do not change as one’s desires and motivations change. They are not relative to the situation. They are immutable. However, it is difficult to judge what may be right or wrong in a particular situation without some frame of reference.” And if you’re still reading, it is more difficult still to wrap one’s head around what that means exactly in the office. Ethics, by definition, incorporates norms and standards or behavior, laws and guidelines, and a snippet of character. In short, to experience ethics, you and those you lead are doing what they consider to be right, what society considers to be right, and what your organization deems is appropriate, though the latter is less of a factor. By Example This means that in order to develop ethical behavior in those you lead and the new leaders in your organization, you simply have to state the rules as you know them. The rest of ethics is conditioned, taught, and shared long before most employees enter the workforce. We are taught right and wrong as youngsters. We are conditioned to identify certain actions as appropriate and others as those one just doesn’t commit. But what happens when those you lead were raised in or exposed to an entirely different set of guidelines? Then it is up to you to set the example. It is up to leadership to do what is right even when no one is looking. It is up to leadership to make the tough calls, to give the customer what we said we’d give even when the price quoted makes us lose money. It is up to leadership to truly terminate those who violate policies we say result in immediate termination. It is up to leadership to do what is right when doing what is wrong is so much easier. Leaders and those you lead experience ethics through your examples, not your explanation. By Being Transparent It’s the word that has shown up in the news lately. Universities, government entities, and yes, leaders, are facing changing expectations of their behavior. Be transparent. It’s easy when what others believe is right mirrors your own beliefs and actions. It is much more treacherous when situations are complicated, riddled with politics, or have solutions easy to implement that might hurt a few, but serve a good purpose for many. Yet, be transparent in your struggle. Show the difficult decision-making progress. When you struggle to write someone up, talk through the multiple sides you see in the issue. When you feel strongly about a reorganization, be aware that the actions you may have to take may emphasize a difference in ethics between you and the organization. When appraisals come around, give employees a say in their own development and rating or assessment. This is different than letting them fill it all out. This is being transparent in ethics, being willing to face and have tough conversations, and ethical leadership. The topic of ethics is tough enough without adding another challenge, so this Monday we forego the become a better leader challenge and replace it with an opportunity to merely consider your position. Where do you stand on what’s right and what’s wrong in your organization? Your own right and wrong rules guide your leadership style, tolerance, and actions. Those of your workplace, if vastly different from your own, are guiding your frustration. Frustrated leaders find it hard to develop anything more than other frustrated leaders. So maybe it’s time to stop explaining the concept of ethics and to start simply experiencing them through your transparent discussions, leading by example behavior, and clarity of what, at least you, expect and will or will not accept in the behavior of those you have the privilege of leading. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post How Do Leaders Experience Ethics? appeared first on Contagious Companies.

There’s promoted and there’s prepared and there’s a real chance both don’t exist in the same new manager. So, before you say yes to a promotion or let an up-and-coming leader accept your promotion opportunity, make sure they have the answers to these questions. The questions seem easy, but they reveal the underpinnings of what drives actions in an organization. They uncover the principles by which behavior is being guided and getting clear on those principles is number eight on our list of 2019 top leadership tips. Yet, no matter the value of principle discovery activities, most leaders struggle with how to do it, exactly. Easy. Answer these questions and the way things are really done around here will become clear. Without that awareness, making changes or improvements, or asking for employees to be innovative is futile. Can Leaders Ever Mess Up? All leaders would prefer to be good and some need to be perfect, but what happens in your organization when one messes up? Listen carefully to the answer to that question because what is revealed in it speaks to how senior leadership fosters learning and values practice and development. Do you need to hit the ground running like a pro or is there any grace for building a foundation and learning new skills? Meeting a Deadline or Producing Quality Work? Many times, the questions that provide the most clarity are based on comparison. Does the organization place a higher priority on meeting deadlines or on producing the best quality work possible? Does it depend on the client or maybe the project or product? What is valued here may later guide who’s made responsible for the outcomes of poor craftsmanship and if you’re a car seat manufacturer or airplane engineer, for example, this is much more than a problem. Who Gets the Credit? Whether you’re seeking to know your own organization or sharing insightful tidbits with the soon to be promoted, the question of credit seems silly to some leaders. Yet, if your boss is clear that no matter what the team does, the outcomes are his for the taking, resentment is or has been building for some time now. If you believe in giving credit to the idea’s or project’s innovator, loyalty is the outcome. Giving or taking credit are actions based on principles and all leadership is principled, you simply need to know what they are to navigate your company culture. Are Customers Ever Fired? In nearly all industries, at some point you’ll hear complaints about certain customers in the break room or an after-hours employee event. The companies without this chatter are rare and yet, the principle to uncover is how much is too much to take from any customer? Is the line drawn at the utterance of a curse word? Can the customer completely milk the system? Does the customer who asks for the manager always get his or her way at that level? If so, as a new leader, prepare for your authority to never hold and to always look like the bad guy here. Firing customers is not the goal in most organizations, but knowing whether they ever are, will tell you how much employees are truly valued. 10 Hour Workday or Happy Employees? Some employees are truly happy when working all hours of the night and day, but the answer you seek with this question is where is the line? What is the principle driving how much we ask of team members and leaders in the hours they work, priority placed on personal life events, reaching out via text, call, or demand all hours of any given weekend? Sure, you can choose not to answer, but knowing the consequences and principles you might be violating is valuable to the future of your employment. Ever Say No to Business? Is there ever a point when, as an organization and leaders of it, you find a customer is not a good fit and walk away from their business? On occasion this is due to customer behavior, but this question is actually geared toward when that potential customer is a prospect. If business is never reconsidered or turned down, no matter the cost or impact to the employees doing the work, then this is a principle that clearly puts profits above people. This doesn’t make your company evil, but is merely a principle of which to be aware. Number 1 standard? This final question reveals as much as the first six put together. When you are a principled leader practicing principled leadership, as all leaders are, (whether they realize it or not) these unwritten rules are operating in the background of every decision. The key is to find out the top priority principle, rule, or standard? Is it the customer is always right? Is it employees come first? Is it we always do what we say? The standards will be different for every company but finding out what is top priority will help a new leader avoid violating important rules inadvertently. Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment with Monica shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic and this week, your challenge is to start asking questions. Whether you’re a new leader looking to be promoted AND prepared or a leader who is seeking to prepare others, uncover these key answers and identify quickly the rules of the road on which you and your organization are driving. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post The 7 Answers Leaders Need Before Being Promoted appeared first on Contagious Companies.

Sex sells and whatever the man in this picture is sellin’, many people are buyin’. Not a new idea. Principles aren’t sexy and they just don’t sell well. Maybe a note for leaders to consider. The media, entertainment, and beauty industry have figured out how to influence their buyers and they rinse and repeat the process like a shampoo product. Leaders, on the other hand, try to influence, but do it while talking about things that just aren’t appealing. Principles. But they need to be clear to those you have the privilege of leading, right? But who wants to talk about the rules that govern your organization? Boring! Who wants to dig into the notion of culture, vision, or company direction? Yawn. But if we ask who wants to get everyone going in the same direction, producing triple the numbers of last year, with minimal conflict, drama, or difficult people relations? Every real leader on the planet. Perhaps we need to clarify those principles differently. Perhaps we need real influence. When trying to sell concepts to those we lead and clarifying the principles in which no one is really interested, start in these three areas with an approach that might be a different. Culture The principles by which we lead, develop, work, and relate are really nothing more than the rules that govern our actions, behaviors, and interactions. In an organization’s culture these could include how we treat each other, how we encourage others, how we handle defeat or change, and how we determine what is appropriate based on the environment in which we work and how we interpret it. Whoa. That description alone would make the average leader check out and do something else. So, let’s do different. Today. Identify the most important rules if you will of the culture you work in, or wish to create and lead within. Maybe yours are the customer is always right, we do whatever it takes to do what we say, and we find a way to have fun no matter what the project. Or these might be examples to get you started. Determine your top three and run them by those you lead. If no one’s excited about those, then they’re not really the rules you are currently following. Or you have a team of people who is not right for the culture you want to create. Lead the clarification of the difference. For everyone to embrace the culture you wish you had or want to create, everyone needs to see the rules you state as the ones that are plausible for the team in place. They have to see them as appealing and it is that appeal that will motivate them to help you make it happen. Community Similar to your culture, your community also has a set of guidelines and principles under which it is operating. Do you have a principle you personally follow that governs public criticism or public social media bashing or what you’re willing to put out there on the internet? How do those you lead treat each other, treat you, and show up to the outside world as a community? Are we all in this together? Does one department have no clue what the other is doing? Is each leader siloed or mired in their own division’s efforts? Want to sell united principles in this area? Determine quickly what is appealing to the very community you’ve hired. If they all came to work where you lead because they care about the service you provide and how it helps people, then the principles followed for working here better include helping each other internally, as well. Sell the team on what led them to join your company naturally. Engage and influence their performance by lining up the community guidelines with their natural preference, intention, and motivation. Communication Communication is the skill to be mastered in influence and selling and communication is not the same as telling. Senior leaders who tell team members what the rules are what the principles are that we follow around here, often find themselves managing a revolving door of turnover. Ask those you lead what they value. Ask those questions in interviews. Ask those questions in one-on-one meetings. And then keep asking. What is valued by those you lead and what brought them here and why do they stay? Even the data from exit interviews is helpful, though shows up in bad timing. It’s your communication that will not only share information but gather it. It’s your communication that will allow you to have your words match your actions. And it’s your communication that is the result of the principles you are already following. What you tell others is based on what you believe needs to happen or should have happened or is appropriate for this scenario. What you sell others is based on what you realize they would like to have happen, would like to have done, or would like to accomplish. Tell all you want if your only real interest is in having your principles known in these three areas. But, if what you want is principles put into action that are embraced by all those you have the privilege of leading, you’ll need to involve them in the process from the beginning. Influence is a joint effort, as is leadership, and while neither might be what we call sexy, both, done well, create an environment in which people love to immerse themselves. Don’t you want people coming to work with the same enthusiasm and hope they have when they purchase a product that promises to make them look or feel younger, thinner, or stronger, but then also really makes those promises happen? Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment with Monica shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic and this week, your challenge is far simpler than exercises in this area are often presented. Find your top three principles in each area. Don’t put this off and don’t overthink it. Determine what rules govern your team’s culture, community feel (both internally and externally) and communication. With those top three rules in each area in hand, your next step will be to look at policies, processes, and actions for which team members are punished, to find areas where there is a match and areas where there needs to be changes. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post Principles Just Aren’t Sexy appeared first on Contagious Companies.

Let’s play with words for a moment. One of my most fond leadership influences, was my high school principal. We feared him, loved him and knew he had a paddle, and wasn’t afraid to use it. His role was that of principal, but looking back on it, it is clear he also operated from a pretty clear set of principles. Those who played a memorable role in your own leadership development, are still wielding influence and likely left you with a set of rules, or principles you follow. What are they? Are they what you wish to pass on to future leaders? Have you found any that just don’t feel right for you for some reason? The principles we follow drive culture and commitment. They fuel motivation for behavior. They inspire or thwart loyal followers and may or may not be developing our future leaders to perform better than their predecessors. In an effort to clarify and confirm our own rules or principles and set our budding leaders up for exceptional futures, today’s Monday Moment with Monica shares the rules the great leaders follow and the ones that could provide a new leader with a much needed simple template. Own It When talking with Gen X or boomer leaders, the chief complaint of the generations coming in behind us is often that they lack responsibility. Whether we failed to teach them those traits or their environment was simply so different that responsibility did not have an opportunity to be fostered, when you own your own actions and behaviors, you will set the example for future leaders. When something goes wrong, own it. When a result is not met and there were multiple people involved in the effort, own the result and demonstrate how leadership is in fact, responsible for outcomes, regardless of the team effort or intent. The best leaders own what has happened, what was interpreted, and what transpired as a result. The best leaders adhere to the principle of being responsible for the result of their words, thoughts, deeds, directions, and actions. Grow It Those same great leaders are always looking for ways to achieve improvement. How can we make it better and how can we be, or become, better, are frequent leader questions. Grow your own development and the development of others consistently and follow the guiding belief that there is likely always a new way or better or different way to accomplish nearly everything. Just because one is doing the best that he or she can doesn’t mean it is being done in the best way that he or she could attain. The best leaders grow their knowledge and skill sets regularly and over the period of a lifetime. The best leaders adhere to the principle of finding ways to continuously take action toward regular, and even constant, improvement of themselves, their awareness, and the abilities, skills, and potential of others. Show it The phrase lead by example applies to roles as varied as parenting to mentoring, but also to the official position of leader or manager, supervisor, or vice president. The power in the phrase is to remind us all that those we lead watch what we do and how and when. Employees take their cues from our actions and approach to nearly all situations. It is in the act of showing your proficiency that employees are then able to see opportunities to perform better, or to make better decisions on how to conduct themselves when faced with an issue similar. However, showing what you know as a leader, also means showing your humility when you don’t know something. Be willing to learn together and show that you, too, don’t know everything. The best leaders show more than tell or talk about their abilities. The best leaders adhere to the guiding principle that it’s easy to use words, but more effective to show actions. Know It To be honest, this principle makes me giggle. Knowing your stuff for leaders is about proficiency, but all that runs through my mind is when your happy and you know it, clap your hands! So, before you run around the office clapping in unison, consider this: the proficiency, knowledge, know-how and skills that got you promoted INTO leadership, are not the ones that will get you promoted to the next level of leading others. Know where your needs are and seek to fill them with new knowledge, skillsets, or training. Know who you are and stay true to the principles, along with these, that guide your choices and behavior. Know what you’re doing, which means if you’re new to leading, make that a focus for your continuous learning and improvement. And lastly, know who it is that you have the privilege of leading. The best leaders know their stuff in one or two, or maybe a few, areas of expertise. The best leaders also know their boundaries, when to rely on the knowledge of others, and when to transition from what was well done enough to achieve promotion to what is needed to succeed in the new position. Like and Love It The power of this principle depends much upon how you define “it”. Do you like your position and the people you get to work with? Do you love the responsibility and privilege of leadership? Love your industry? Love your job most days, but less than like it on others? There is no right or wrong answer to such questions, and all are a matter of energy and personal preference. All leaders can put up with a bit of yuck if at the end, they enjoy what they do and who with, more than they hate certain aspects. The great leaders often began leading something about which they had passion. Take the time to make that internal examination. Is there still passion driving your interest? No one is asking you to start skipping down the hall in enthusiasm, but simply to be mindful of the clear existence of positive feelings about your work or your position. Once those feelings disappear, so do things like putting forth extra effort and being truly driven to find the right solution. The best leaders have a set of guiding principles. They’re likely not even conscious of it, unless they’ve done the work to craft or uncover specific belief statements. But, whether you, as the leader of others, are aware of the rules you follow, your own personal principles, or not, they’re still driving the bus of your leadership behavior and how others see you operate in any number of situations. If you want to be in the category of the top leaders in the near future, remember to own it, grow it, show it, know it, and like and/or love parts, if not all of, your chosen position. Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment with Monica shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic and this week, your challenge is to record the principles most important to you. These are often identified by thinking of the words that follow must, should, have to, or required. These may not be the same rules of others you work with and while that’s not personal, it can make others appear difficult. Make a list of your most important principles so that you can see a violation of them for what it is versus reacting by defending a belief that before now, was not even conscious. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post The Principles Leading Great Leaders appeared first on Contagious Companies.

While schrinciples may not be the easiest word to say, there’s likely not a leader currently working who can’t say they’ve seen a mission statement on the wall that no one in the company knows how to actually implement. This situation is frighteningly common. Leaders think values, vision, mission, goals, and yes, principles are known to all they lead and yet, the reality is they’re often just pretty. Those you lead need more direction. Platitudes on posters are nice, but what does that mean we do to live them? What are our guiding principles and company mission or vision? But, before you go answering the questions or think this is a Monday Moment on how to create them, take a moment to stop and assess what you know about these terms before you keep using them. Our August Monday Moments are focused on claiming and clarifying your principles, number eight on our list Top 2019 Leadership Tips and deciding what they are is where most leaders hurriedly begin. Instead, the best leaders step back and ask themselves if when using those foundational terms, do they really know what they’re talking about? A dear friend and colleague, Liz Weber, CMC, CSP, does and in her article, she does a powerful job of clarifying some of the more commonly used, and confused, leadership terms. Before you clarify what your principles are, let’s ensure that you’re not confusing them with values, vision or mission statement items, like Roger almost did in a way that would have stymied his team and created more confusion. “On my return flight from a recent speaking engagement, I started talking with the gentleman sitting next to me as both he and I worked on our laptops. Roger was a senior level manager for a 250 person, defense contractor and was traveling to meet with his company’s leadership team for an off-site management and strategy meeting. Roger was finishing his notes on what he wanted to present to help create greater clarity, energy, and productivity throughout the employee population. When I shared with Roger what my company did, he asked if I’d mind critiquing his ideas. (Poor Roger, he had no idea who he’d just asked to critique his ideas!) As I read through Roger’s ideas, his intent was solid. His passion for helping the employees was clear. His acknowledgment of current and prior management missteps and failures was honest and bare. However, Roger’s plan for improvements was flawed by a common leadership over-sight: Roger wasn’t using the right terms consistently to enhance clarity, consistency, and action. It became quickly evident Roger didn’t know the strategic planning terms he was using. He was making the same mistake many in leadership make, they believe they know how to use the terms because they’ve heard them so many times before, but they’ve not really used them as a management and leadership tool before. As a result, like many others, Roger was setting himself, the leadership team, the employees, and company up for embarrassment, confusion, mixed messaging, and frustration. Vision Roger had outlined the very real need to clarify the company’s vision for the employees. The employees needed to know what the leadership team expected. That’s true and important. However, Roger’s company doesn’t have a clear vision. Instead, they’ve historically focused on “winning contracts.” To provide clarity, Roger outlined their vision as: Win Contracts; Double in Size; Implement Well; Strive to be the Respected Industry Leader; Integrity; Teamwork; Profitability. Those are nice ideas, but Roger just blurred goals with values. A vision is the big goal your organization is trying to achieve; how you behave are your values. Roger had, in fact, suggested a vision: Double in Size, he had just buried it among everything else. Mission The mission statement Roger included in his notes was clear and without fluff. In one sentence, it outlined broadly what his company did; why it existed. Perfect. Values Roger didn’t have values specified. As noted above, he had included some basic expected behaviors (i.e., values) in his proposed vision. I explained to Roger, that he may want to consider suggesting a handful of behaviors (actions) expected of everyone to help them and all the employees move toward their vision. Things such as: Share Knowledge, Take Risks Wisely, Communicate Clearly and Often, Take Ownership of Problems, Consider the Big Picture Impact, etc are sample values that he and his peers could consider as these behaviors would cause employees to think, learn, share, and grow — all of which align with an organization that wants to grow. Strategies Roger had listed strategies he believed the company needed to pursue, yet, like many managers when outlining strategies, the list of strategies Roger had created was a mix of organizational development changes needed, R&D actions, numerous administrative tactical actions, and a few long-term goals. When I asked Roger to clarify the difference between strategies and goals, he looked at me, opened his mouth, closed his mouth, then said, “I don’t know.” Strategies are big picture themes of HOW you’re going to move forward. So, ideas such as: Improve Employee Engagement, Increase R&D Production, Reduce Waste and Inefficiencies are big picture ideas. To implement them, you need specific actions. You need goals. Goals Strategic Goals are the big chunky projects your organization needs to take on (over and above current operations) to move your organization toward your vision. Goals have due dates, specific deliverables, and are comprised of numerous sub-goals and projects. The sub-goals and projects are what are divvied out to staff to help move things forward. As I walked Roger through the terms, how to use them, and how to tighten up his plan, his eyes lit up. “Thanks. That could have been really confusing to everyone and I wouldn’t have been able to defend or clarify my ideas. You really do need to know what you’re talking about to be an effective leader.” Yes, you do.” It’s true. You really do need to know not only what your beliefs and principles are, but which one of them are relevant to your role as leader and which ones will factor into how you are leading them into the future. Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic and this week, your challenge is to begin the work of clarifying your own principles. Principles are what govern a leader’s actions and principles are based on values. For example, if you value fairness, your principle may be to never treat someone unfairly. If you value honesty, your principle may be to never lie, even if it causes harm. Thus, to take on this challenge, you may find it necessary to clarify values first and then principles. To complete this week’s challenge, record three of each. Three values and three principles relevant to your workplace. And, keep in mind, clarity IS contagious. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post Principles Shrinciples. Aren’t They What We Know Already? appeared first on Contagious Companies.

Develop your future leaders. You’ve heard the advice and perhaps even considered the wisdom, but there’s a larger issue. What exactly are you looking for in these soon-to-be leader people? Is it enough just to like them and click or does there need to be a set of traits that are more substantive? In a continuing focus on the Top 2019 Leadership Tips that started off our year’s Monday Moments series, this Monday Moment shares not only guidance on what traits to look for, but also the top five traits that are essential. Yet, when once you reach the end of the trait listing that you and your team are desperately seeking in future leaders, keep an eye out for the surprising twist on how to overcome the reality that finding these traits could be compared to a needle in the haystack hunt conducted at night blindfolded. Talkers All evidence points to a need for your future leaders to be prolific communicators. Whether in written or oral forms, the words of those leading teams in the future need to express not only direction, but clarity, vision, inclusion, guidance, support, reassurance, and management. In addition, the future leaders you are developing will need to know how to communicate differently with different people and how to translate what is said in a face to face conversation into clear communication over text, email, social media, video conference, transcription, and inter-office IM messages. The need for this trait does not discount introverts who technically talk less than their extroverted colleagues, but simply means you want to seek out candidates who are able to communicate in ways that suit them and meet the needs of others. Listeners On the flip side, look for those with well developed listening traits and tendencies. Your future leaders can’t be all talk all the time and must be able to stop the talking (or the madness) and give someone else all their attention. We used to call it active listening, and still do in some circles, but the reality is this trait should now be called listening actively and it’s harder to find than you might imagine because we’re no longer teaching the skill and in fact, we’re teaching the opposite. New leaders entering your workplace have been taught to “listen” while watching TV, their tablet, and scrolling Facebook simultaneously. In fact, they’re not listening, they’re rapidly shifting their attention from one distraction to another. The future leaders you hire and develop need to know how to truly stop, focus, and listen. Drivers The future leaders you’re seeking also need to be driven to reach the next position, or at least driven toward continuous progress and momentum. When these traits are applied to a career, collectively they’re often called ambition and while the trait can and has certainly been overused, spotting ambition in others is typically pretty easy. The tricky part arrives when you start looking for a candidate or current team member who is able to balance both a focus on others and a focus on one’s own career simultaneously. Commonly, those who are driven, constantly driving to excel or reach a new level, are fairly myopic in their awareness and can even see others as a threat or at least a barrier. However, for your future leaders, you and the team who may eventually report to them, are looking for someone who’s driven. Developers Perhaps this one could go without saying, but it continues to show up in research. Your future leaders must have the ability to develop others. The trait is somewhat obvious and also flies in the face of someone who is strongly driven, but without this trait, team members will stagnate, suffer, and eventually leave the organization. Whether that development is in the form of resources, verbal guidance, genuine skill development, or even a simple book recommendation, being able to develop others and being interested in developing others is essential. Even as you focus on finding the future leaders TO develop, you are demonstrating what it looks like TO develop others. Look for a person’s awareness of others. Uncover how curious they are about others and ask questions that will reveal how much they might care about the success of others, as well as examples that can serve as evidence that their answers are more than lip service. Destroyers This final top five essential trait the team you lead needs their future leaders to possess might seem counter intuitive or even contrarian. Who wants someone who will destroy all that the team has created? Well, no one with any sense…unless of course, the focus in your workplace is on innovation. Future leaders need to be able to speak up against the ways we’ve always done and break down old models to create new ones. They need to be able to act as a contrarian in order to seek out and fulfill the drive toward improvement. This also means they need more confidence than their predecessor and that their colleagues may not always like them. Perhaps that’s why your future leaders need both the confidence to destroy stuff and get push back along with the ability to listen and then explain themselves through clear communication. Okay, so wait a minute. Or instead, spend a moment trying to imagine a single person being both a good talker and great listener. That same person is driven but willing to focus on the development of others and be a person who speaks their mind often with ideas that are in opposition to current procedures and practices. Finding all these traits in the same person is doable, but not likely to be demonstrated by someone who is anything short of exhausted, as the reality is these traits come naturally to vastly differently preferences in personality. So, rather than trying to find the one future leaders who holds all five of these figurative trait cards, look for two or three who posses the traits collectively, and then teach them how to appreciate each other and work well together. Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic and this week, your challenge is to find these traits among the team you have the privilege of leading. Who always gets their point across without creating drama and values the opinions of others? Who speaks up even when sharing their opinion means they are going against tradition? Who is driven, but not so much that they wear blinders when it comes to the needs of others? Identify those traits on the team members you have the privilege of leading and you have the makings of a great group of future leaders. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post 5 Future Leader Traits Your Team Desperately Wants appeared first on Contagious Companies.

A startling article claims, “research has proven we’re experiencing a drastic leadership shortage on a global scale” and then it makes it sound worse. According to Inc. magazine, “eighty-five percent of companies have reported an urgent need to develop employees with leadership potential”. But, if this is you or your organization and you work with employees who remind you of knuckleheads or who prefer apparently to keep their potential well hidden, how do you find it, much less get it developed to avoid such a crisis? An urgent leader need is a real problem for you and for your organization. Coupled with record low unemployment numbers and the presence of a generation of workers most senior leaders would say have a low work ethic, this means we could be headed for a crisis far worse than the current brain drain and retirement of expert team members leaders are currently facing. There are solutions and there are ways to prevent it. Find that potential and drag it out kicking and screaming if needed, or instead, perhaps we state steps in a bit more prescriptive manner as our focus for this month’s Monday Moments is, in fact, to develop future leaders. Here are a few vital suggested actions to ward off an impending lack of leaders and potential crisis. Stop Settling Far easier said than done, now is an even more critical time in which to stop filling positions with people for whom breathing is their main qualification. Look for, test for, profile for, and interview for, not just attitude, not just skills, but potential. Don’t just take the candidate’s word for it that yes, they’d like to excel in the organization and remain loyal and stay there forever. Any candidate who wants a position will say nearly anything to secure it. Ask more questions. Spend more time. Hire slower and ask for examples of when they were loyal and did demonstrate ambition and leadership. Start Planning Your organization may have a succession plan already in place or may not. Your company may have a loose plan and think it is far more viable than is reality or it may not have been recently updated. But in your department, among your team of the people you have the privilege of leading, what is your plan for who will be the future leader? Start planning. Discuss it openly. Ask those you lead who would like to one day be promoted into leadership. Mind you, you’re not making promises and you’re not making any guarantees. You’re gauging interest and uncovering what might be missing. If no one is interested, it is time to find outside candidates for which leadership interest will be a priority. If everyone is interested, you’ll have what’s called a caviar problem. Create Competition Should every employee on the team you have the privilege of leading, decide that a future in leadership is their dream, consider creating a competition to showcase their skills and talents. Perhaps you have two teams work on one project and the winning team gets points on some public score board. Perhaps you assign a project to two different high potential team members and see who shows the most skills or results relevant to the possible promotable position. In either or both cases, be sure to explain transparently, what you are seeking to accomplish. Clarify that while there will be a winner and non-winner, those who do not win, will still have shown potential. Set up the competition in such a way that the non-winning team, while they may not get participation ribbons, still remains a productive part of your organization. Showcase Specific Skill Sets Current research continues to show that those who will excel in leadership in the future are those equipped with high levels of emotional intelligence, listening abilities, empathy, and assertive skills. While these may not be new traits needed by leaders, the value of them is certainly becoming more pronounced and as you develop those who will lead future team’s in your workplace, provide opportunities for employees to show these skills easily. Possibly add these traits to performance appraisals or expectations. Allow them to be noticed and measured, which will make them something on which each team member will then focus. Employees focus on what managers manage and measure. Stay Focused In a fast-moving environment, it is easy to shift focus to the most pressing customer need at the moment. It is easy to drop one project for another because a senior manager said this one is more important. It is easy to let time fly by thinking there will always be time to get back to your succession plan and if all is well at present, the urgent nature of staying focused on who will be your future leaders is non-existent. This approach leaves many teams and organizations fumbling when the unexpected happens. Keep the spotting of potential, improving hiring practices, and succession planning on your list. Talk about it in meetings monthly or quarterly. Do your part to stay focused on this issue or the next time a leader leaves, that will be the most pressing issue and finding an ideal replacement will risk being done in a hurry, resulting in settling for a less than stellar candidate. Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic and this week, your challenge is to put at least two of these five steps into action. Add skills you’d like to see developed in your potential leaders to your one-on-one conversations or to their annual appraisals. Make these a key focus so that development continues to happen and both you and they are accountable. Examine the team you have the privilege of leading and identify who would take your spot if you left or were promoted. Who would take their spot if you promoted that person and so on. Determine the potential people at least three layers deep and if you can’t, start looking for people with the ideal potential for those positions. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post Urgent Leader Need Problem and Solutions appeared first on Contagious Companies.

It started in January with a list of top ten tips leaders needed to heed for the year and as we’ve progressed, we’re now at Tip 7: Develop New Leaders. How, how fast, how well, and how often you make it a priority to develop those who will lead after you, and maybe even take on your position when you get promoted, impacts the perceived value of your leadership. But how do you do it and frankly, who’s got time for it on days when it’s late afternoon before you feel you’ve really even gotten started. One step at a time is the logical answer, but let’s be even more tactical. There are multiple ways to facilitate new leader development, but in this Monday Moment list we’ve culled your options down to steps that could easily take fifteen minutes or less. Identify Your Top Contenders Put on your list of today’s needed tasks, this action item. Then think of the team you lead and mentally identify those you believe have the most potential for excelling in positions of greater responsibility and leadership. Your reasons for potential need not be spoken and could be based on your knowledge of them, experience in working with them, or simple gut instinct. The point is to think for a moment of your team members and identify the ones that you know have the most immediate or highest levels of potential. Record that list of names somewhere. Step one and done. Connect Regularly Whether it’s a text, quick call, chat by the water fountain, or formal sit-down meeting, connect with your high potentials regularly. These promotables have what you’ve deemed as a lot of potential and staying connected to them will help you help them make rapid progress. Staying connected builds rapport and the more rapport you have with a team member the less time is spent on awkward, break the ice conversation. When you’ve talked with someone daily for weeks, you can text him and say have you finished that yet? If you’ve not connected in a while, you have to ask about the weather, their holiday weekend and so forth to build back up to the level of familiarity needed to be that direct. Assign Development Actions If you know which ones among the team you have the privilege of leading are most likely to be future leaders, chances are you also have a clear handle on what each person needs in the way of development. Determine one resource, action, class, experience, book, or assignment that would provide the opportunity for such growth and invite each employee to get started on it. Technically, determining the assigned resource could take a few minutes and then assigning it to the person could take a minute longer. This may be a fifteen minute per person step, but it’s still doable. Provide Simple Format Follow through can be time consuming and if you have a team of ten, seven of which you’ve said have potential, you’re now in need of following up with seven people, or so it would seem when you feel responsible. You’re not. You as the leader are responsible for their development, responsible for guiding them to it and giving them the opportunity. You are not responsible for making sure they take you up on it. Provide a simple progress update format and ask them to follow it. This could be as simple as a three bullet or three sentence email that says what they did, how it went, and what they plan to do with the learning from the experience. Letting go of the need to follow up on their progress in the area of growth and development is not universal, nor always applicable. However, in the case of developing future leaders, one skill they need is initiative and the act of you letting them prove they have some is one more way to validate if they should remain on the high potential list and be given more and more opportunities. Clean the List In truth, not everyone who has the potential, wishes to exercise his or her potential by seeking out a future position in leadership. This could be for a dozen different reasons but is a fact to which you want to pay attention. Simply because you ear mark someone as a possible future leader candidate does not mean he or she is interested in going all the way with that aspiration. Provide opportunities, request updates and watch for engagement. Should you find a few who are less inclined to demonstrate commitment, remove them from your list of potential new leader candidates and stay open to the idea that he or she could return to it at some point even if it is not this very moment. Request Goals As the leader of others, you spotted potential, determined development opportunities and shared a simple way for employees with potential to show their commitment and share progress. Now is the time to request goals from each of them still showing interest in being promoted to a higher-level position. What do they want? What position are they truly after? Where do they see themselves in twelve months, eighteen months, or three years? Developing new leaders does not mean you need to be psychic or telepathic. In truth, the process is much more about communicating, listening, and being interested in aligning the potential you see with the potential they see in themselves. Requesting their goals will be good validation and provide clarity on whether or not you’re heading in the right direction, as well as give you ideas for your next assignment of resources for development. Repeat the Process Six steps. Most of which are done with an email sent to each person or an internal list made of your selections, each in likely under 15 minutes. Leaders don’t fail to develop new leaders because they have no interest. They fail much more often because they have no process. Follow these six steps and then with your new list, or the next round of people you can clearly see have potential, you simply repeat the process. Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic. This week’s challenge is to work through the first two steps of how to develop new leaders in fifteen minutes or less. Put it on your list and dedicate the few minutes needed to complete it. For your consideration, if you did two steps per week per person you find has potential, you’d have done more in less than a month than many leaders do in the time between annual appraisals. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post How to Develop New Leaders in Fifteen Minutes or Less appeared first on Contagious Companies.

It may come as no surprise that all leaders have personalities. Some you like and some, well, you could likely do without, but the truth is leaders have not just one, but multiple, and they need all of them. Why? Because each person you have the privilege of leading is different. Not to worry, nothing here is an attempt to turn you into Cybil or that weird guy on the movie Split. Each of these explanations as to why your multiple personalities are necessary is so that you are better at speaking their language as you work on developing future leaders. You see, development of future leaders on the team you now lead is one of the key actions necessary to become a better leader in 2019. In fact, it is number seven on our list of top ten tips and this month, each Monday Moment will focus on how to do just that. But first a question. Do you have a personality? Got more than one? This video explains even better. Reason #1: Communication Leaders need multiple personalities because each person they have the privilege of leading has a different one and each one communicates differently. When you share direction with an action-oriented person, or what we refer to as the Commander in the CORE Snapshot, that direction can be short, sweet, to the point and almost delivered as a dare or challenge. When you provide directions to a more laid back team member who values guidance and reassurance, you want to communicate each step and nuance of how each step is taken to such a degree that he or she is certain if they follow your steps they won’t get in trouble. These are two very different types of communication, but both are needed as is the leader’s knowledge of when and how and with whom to modify delivery, so the message is conveyed accurately and clearly. Your effective development of future leaders relies on how well you modify your communication and how well you shift from the natural tendencies of our own dominant personality to the needs and tendencies of everyone else’s. Reason #2: Influence We see it in interviews of new leader candidates. We see it in cliques or favorites, as their called at the office. We even see it in the way our boss addresses us. It’s called influence and leaders need multiple personalities, or at least need to know how to behave in ways relevant to each one, because influence is achieved through people believing you get them. Use the style with which they are most familiar and there will be an immediate increase in understanding and compatibility. In interviews, we call it likability. In the creation of cliques or people who appear to favor certain team members, it tends to happen naturally. We gravitate toward those who are like minded and thus build a relationship. Don’t you have more influence (and are more influenced!) by those with whom you have a relationship? Of course! And the process of purposely shifting your style and developing relationships with each team member you have the privilege of leading is quite simple. Speak their language. This is the focus of the quick video in this post and it is also an important step for leaders developing others. How do they need to hear you to understand what you’re asking or directing? How are they interpreting your actions or your statements? How do they know when you’re pleased with their work, or unhappy? How do they know when you meant to say thanks or great job, but no words were forthcoming? Those we lead are not telepathic, so it is important to understand their personality so that you share guidance and development in a way that they are easily able to take it in and take action. Reason #3: Action Developing future leaders is a process comprised of multiple actions on which the person you’re developing should likely practice. You may request him or her to accept a challenging assignment. Perhaps you debrief a situation that went sideways and ask what he or she might do different in the future? Development is about what they’re doing, what they might stop doing, and what they are learning and doing with that new knowledge. Leaders who develop future leaders need multiple personalities because the best way to motivate action or changed behavior is through the application of emotional intelligence, or the personalities of both you and each of the team members you have the privilege of leading. Personalities go well beyond the names and labels. Personalities go well beyond the tools and quizzes. Personalities are the basis behind what we do and how we are motivated. What motivates you in your leadership role may not in any way motivate the person you are developing to take on your position in the future, but most of us do for others, what we would want someone to do for us. Shift your perspective. Developing future leaders is not about making a mass collection of mini-Me’s. It is about you being the best leader you can be and helping others to see their own potential to be the best leader they can be. Call it silly, but that’s the net of it and frankly to do that and do it well, you need to know how to access all of your personalities tendencies and behaviors so that you can effectively reach each of the people you are developing. Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic. This week your challenge is to increase your knowledge of your own possible personality. To do that, simply complete the CORE Snapshot mentioned in the video. This free online quiz will at least give us a starting point for conversation and may be found at: www.ContagiousCompanies.com/CORESnapshot. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post Why Leaders Need Multiple Personalities appeared first on Contagious Companies.

We’re told history repeats itself. We’ve learned that a knowledge of our history is critical for improving our present and our future. Yet, while both statements have value, what really does our American History, and the day we celebrate our independence have to do with how we lead going forward? More than you might think. In honor of this weeks’ American Independence Day Holiday, this brief Monday Moment is a quick read or listen and is a modification of an article posted on Lead On. In the trying times of the American Revolution when change was imminent and rebellion, revolt, and efforts to control were ever present, the story of Nathanael Greene is poignant. Shared in Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough’s book 1776, Nathanael’s story includes ambition. At age thirty-three, “he became the youngest general officer in the Revolutionary Army, eventually becoming a Major General and George Washington’s most gifted and dependable leader. But Greene’s rise to greatness wasn’t an easy journey.” Ever felt like your road to leadership was a tough one? “Nathanael Greene came from a large family; he was the third of eight sons who helped run the family forge. He had little schooling, and he’d also been injured in childhood which left him with a limp. To make matters worse, he suffered from asthma attacks. Needless to say, when the fledgling American army was first forming, leaders didn’t give much credence to his potential, despite the fact that he’d helped begin the Kentish Guards of Rhode Island.” Ever questioned your credibility? Feel you have an element that holds you back or serves as a barrier? “Yet, Nathanael Greene was determined to become a leader, and he wouldn’t be deterred by doubters and naysayers. Instead, he believed that the best quality for leadership was courage. So, he began reading, military books in particular, and other material that would increase his knowledge. He also became a militia private, more willing to serve in some capacity, than sit on the sidelines and observe. And, as they say, the rest is history. Greene’s leadership abilities were soon recognized, and he climbed through the ranks quickly. McCullough points out that this was likely due as much to his industrious spirit as to his natural gifts.” How would you rate your courage? Are you observing what you wish you were doing or are you out there practicing and learning how to do it? Many valuable lessons can be found in the story of Nathanael Greene. Be courageous, despite what’s going on around us or what you believe is your biggest barrier. Recognize that doubt from others is an opinion not always based on facts or evidence. Get the knowledge you need in the area in which you need it and stop assuming all of your skill sets should just come naturally with no effort. “And, finally, may we never be afraid to humble ourselves, roll up our sleeves, and do what needs to be done despite how “lowly” or seemingly unrewarding that job might look to those around us.” The leaders from 1776 in the days of the uniting of the States of America to form this great nation, were writing their own history and we are better for it. What will be your story as you lead into the future? What will be your history as the leaders you develop now look back on your legacy? I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post What American History Means to Leading in the Future appeared first on Contagious Companies.

Leaders in the role for more than a minute, all know that teaching and doing are entirely different. Yet, in recent Monday Moments we’ve talked about the benefits of teaching employees to fail and learn faster, while we’ve ignored teaching leaders to stop backing themselves into proverbial failure corners. These are the tight spots and conflicting beliefs that drive leaders to berate themselves and their own achievements. And while most leaders learn to accept the failures of other people, talking about what they can learn from their OWN failures, in the face of these three powerful belief systems, is a much different matter. But, what’s the big deal and what do we do about it? First, review and decide if these beliefs are part of your own belief systems driving your own leadership actions or hesitations. If they are, there’s a corner where you fear failure, for one reason or another, and will miss real opportunities, in your near future. Fear not and all is not lost. These beliefs, that may have you back in the corner of your childhood with no clear end to the punishment, are able to be quieted or even completely overcome, but it does takes time. Perhaps one motivating factor for their removal is the realization that before you can be credible in teaching those you have the privilege of leading, such a vulnerable and delicate issue as failing, while at the office and risking embarrassment, you must first be willing to give yourself permission to not have every endeavor you undertake, or effort you make, result in a perfect outcome. May these beliefs be with you less time in the future than they may have been with you on the journey thus far. 1.      Past It’s likely that the first time you stole something, and got caught, left a lasting impression. As a teen or young kid, many have this memory and I’m told the most painful part of it is when they were required to apologize to the store owner or person. Many of us chose not to become hardened criminals from this mortifying experience. Failures can feel similar. The first time you were passed over for a promotion you really wanted may feel like failure or rejection. Fear of feeling that same pain could be keeping you from ever showing any ambition ever again. That time when you spoke your mind and a bully in the meeting said your opinion was stupid may have prompted you to never speak up again for fear of having your reputation ruined or your insecurity discovered. Part of your past may include a college you didn’t finish, a degree you’re no longer using, or a comment by some idiot that you’ve been carrying around as a reminder of what “everyone” thinks while telling those closest, his opinion isn’t important. If you’ve lived, you’ve lived through a few painful moments. The key is not to keep reliving them long into your future. But, if you’re not leading yourself well in the healing from pain department, you may be holding back, covering up, or talking yourself out of reaching for what you really want because of the events that happened in a past over which you no longer have any influence. Come into the present and give yourself the gift of leaving the past behind you. Besides, measuring your current efforts on an old metric such as past events is like measuring your worth based on whether or not you still fit your clothes from kindergarten. You’ve grown since then. 2.      Parents What our parents did or said is part of our past, but their messages have a different impact. Right or wrong; good or bad, nurturing or debilitating, your parents gave you a set of beliefs from which you may still lead or operate. The childlike brain is not very rational and makes decisions based on a less than fully developed decision-making center. As such, a five-year-old may interpret a parents’ requirement to get all the answers correct or there will be punishment, to mean that perfection is the only way I continue to stay loved, or am valued. And yes, we know when we grow that these messages may no longer be accurate. However, knowing their real intention in the message and doing differently than the behavior you learned to get around being hurt by it are two entirely different matters. It is often issues like these that surface when coaching executives. Smart, successful leaders back themselves into a corner of failure, self-loathing or simply anger at their own outcomes often based on a five- or six-year old’s interpretation of the rightness of their actions. Your parents’ messages had great power, some positive and some negative in nature, yet at some point as the leader of yourself and of others, you get to decide what you value, what you believe is best, and what you believe is the best dream, behavior, career, or action you should be taking. Believing you can’t or that you’ve failed because of a message given back when you were a kid might lead you to a corner in which you feel like a kid taking a time out moment. Finish your moment and then get back to the business of leading yourself into your own ideal chosen future. 3.      Perfect Perfection is a corner with which only a small handful of leaders cannot relate. Whether it is the big boss driving the need for the project to be perfect, or a corporate office requiring parts of the process appear perfect, many organizational cultures are hindered by this belief pattern. Good enough is not a good option and it sucks the very creativity or innovation out of most in management. Though if you’re lucky, perhaps it’s just your own internal perfectionist raining down repeated criticism should there be the slightest deviation from utterly zero errors. If the latter is your belief, and that’s your corner from which you can’t try anything new, take any risks, or boldly step out to prove you’re not perfect, that’s much easier, as it’s within your control to adjust. Perfect is not a condition. Perfect is a subjective label used to reveal either one’s hopes or one’s expectations and if either are self-imposed, you fail pretty regularly, at least according to your own belief system about what needs to be happening. Consider making an adjustment. What if the perfect way to approach something was however you did it? What if the perfect motivational speech to give to the team, was the one that came from your heart and you never wrote down? What if the perfect outcome of whatever mistake you just made was the bond you now have with the one person who watched you do it? Perfect is filled with pressure for no reason and leads leaders into a delusion of grandeur that it’s even possible. Let this not be your chosen corner. The idioms are abundant. We are our own worst critic. People are not perfect. It’s lonely at the top. And yes, it can be with one exception. The voices in your head simply never stop talking. And they never argue with your own data, decisions and assessments. This is how your beliefs back you into a corner. Question what you believe about your past experience, your parents’ messages, and even your own thoughts about perfection not because you’re bored or overanalytical, but because it will make you a better leader. Teaching others how to fail is one of the Top Ten Leadership Tips of 2019 and failing yourself is part of the journey of developing examples you can use to teach growth and resilience to others. Instead, if you avoid failing completely, or beat yourself up for what you think are failures from the viewpoints of these three corners, you’ll also miss incredible opportunities to grow, show humility, and become a leader who continually strives to be better and better. Holding oneself to decades old messages from parents, or the belief that perfect is an option, are beliefs systems that trick many a manager into believing they’re failures. Don’t back yourself into these corners, or live a life leading by someone else’s standards. This is your time. It’s your time to step up, step out, get up front, raise your hand, use your voice, and lead those you have the privilege of leading and serving to even greater heights than you or they imagined. Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic. This week your challenge is to: Examine how often you beat yourself up for failing to be perfect Determine how much of what you believe is needed is driven by a deeply held desire to still please those who raised, loved, and helped you develop as a young person. Consider reaching out for Professional one on one coaching if the appearance of these belief systems are abundant and you believe they are holding you back from become a better leader. (Truth is, they are exceptionally difficult to work on by yourself. A coach will make a world of difference in your progress.) Introspection and clearing out of old obstacles, both have great value and something tells me you’re on it and that before next Monday, you’ll make leadership progress! I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post Beliefs Backing Leaders into a Corner appeared first on Contagious Companies.

“The fastest way to succeed,” IBM’s Thomas Watson, Sr., once said, “is to double your failure rate.” It’s a nice topic of conversation, but most companies and even more leaders find themselves ill equipped to encourage failure, much less teach new leaders how to double their rate at it. The question becomes are you a “Failure Tolerant Leader”? And the next ultimately more important question is are you willing to overcome your own fear of failure, and that of your team members, by being more engaged in what they’re doing and how many new ways to go about it they’re willing to try? Read that again. This month’s Monday Moments are focused on the larger topic of teaching those you lead how to fail. What did not become clear until we began to dig into this topic, was just how much real engagement and true innovation are tied to one’s rate of failure. If your department seems stuck in a rut, lacking creativity or enthusiasm, no real engagement exists. Everyone is simply going through the motions, afraid to deviate from the status quo and certainly unwilling to risk stepping outside of prescribed boundaries. If your company hasn’t had a new idea in decades and is of the opinion that the same old products or services will always be needed, no employee is going to take the initiative to be innovative internally. They might leave and innovate their own new company, but that’s an entirely other story. Rather than just talk of failure or speak of a wish to create more engagement, what innovative ways can leaders actually enact both initiatives? How can you get them engaged, on board, and bought-in to the innovative idea of failing far more often, on purpose, and for the sake of bonding over mistakes made and possibly even finding the next latest and greatest new idea or invention? The short answer is a LOT of ways. The longer answer is change your culture. The easier approach is to examine your style of leading and how you might accidentally be keeping employees from doing what you and HR and Senior Leadership keep saying you wish would happen. Here’s how to start with where you will have the most immediate impact: on yourself. 1.      Stop Making Failure So Scary As other articles have shared, there’s failure and then there’s failure and while either can be detrimental to one’s career, the latter tends to be lethal. New leaders and even those who’ve been doing this for years, have tied to failure the fear of a loss of self-esteem or embarrassment and let’s face it, often that’s exactly what happens. But what if you were the kind of leader who fostered the level of rapport on a team so that there was support in times of failure? What if there was forgiveness? Heck, what if there were accolades and a reward for the biggest, tried something new focused, blunder? Clearly, we’re not talking about removing the fear of stealing from the register or embezzling paychecks or lying to customers. Those are mistakes that in any organization will and should result in your unemployment. We’re talking about leading the charge and leading the change to take the scary out of failing that comes from taking a risk and trying.  For leaders to demonstrate this kind of leadership they have to engage more in the working process of their team members. They have to be more engaged in what they’re doing, not less. They have to be more aware of how close an employee is to a breakthrough or an almost brilliant discovery. They have to be in the moment and present, not behind their desk or never around or in day long meetings with other senior leaders on how to foster engagement. They have to be doing it to create it and then they must instill new beliefs around what will happen if that first, third, or seventh attempt to be better, results in failure. 2.      Start Testing With any new idea, campaign, or product launch, larger companies conduct testing. Their leaders may decide to survey focus groups, or launch a product in only one market, or temporarily set up a system in isolation before connecting it to the mainframe server. There are dozens of ways to test initiatives and as a leader who might be trying something as new and radical as encouraging failure and teaching employees how to embrace it, testing might be the best way to approach your own methodology. Are there two or three team members with whom you could try out a reward system for when they mess up in pursuit of a bigger, better, process? Could you launch two different concepts at the same time with two different groups and gather results of the two attempts even faster? The concepts may not apply to all elements of leading a shift in culture but consider these examples: Coca Cola tests a new flavor in one market before rolling it out nationally. If the strawberry guava isn’t working, they may run one TV ad, instead of fifty. Capital One and other credit card companies do similar testing with running various credit card or marketing campaigns simultaneously knowing some will fail, but eager to glean the customer feedback and insights. Your team members are your customers and whether you offer credit cards, colas, or something completely different, and far less flashy, you can still take the concept of testing and lay out the parameters to conduct them in your own office. Test the waters. Test the people. Test the concepts and then who needs to test how to celebrate innovative results? Just go party! 3.      Value the New and Different There is an entire population of people who genuinely prefer the status quo and would just kindly appreciate it if you changed nothing in your office, their role, or your industry. Well, that’s just dandy, but not reality. Customers change, jobs change, and companies change. If you want real engagement in those you lead, make that change exciting. Bond over the fear of what’s coming or still to be known to everyone. Play what if and require that everyone come up with a positive option. Get the team excited about and eager to test possibilities, knowing full well some of them will not net favorable results or be changes that stick around permanently. What you’re building is the muscle of resilience. Those who remain disengaged and have no interest in your fancy notion of innovation, have limited skills in being resilient or persistent and need your leadership to work on it. If you brace for impact or start yelling every time someone makes a boo-boo or some reparable error, you are subtlety teaching the team to never make changes. If when things stay the same, every one appears happy, including you, the leader, you are teaching them change is bad and that is recipe for a rut in the near future. You may or may not be failure tolerant in the way you lead others. You may have a few employee engagement efforts going on in your company, but are you actually seeing results. Leaders may talk about innovation, but do they know how, and are they, driving it? There is a sizable difference between saying we want something and actually getting it or doing what it takes to achieve it. Engagement and innovation are no different. Maybe it’s time to have that talk about why change doesn’t have to be scary. Maybe it time to help the team build that muscle of resilience. Maybe it’s time to just start failing at a rate faster than you ever imagined tolerable. Fail faster and you get more ideas. Fail faster and you learn more information. Fail faster and you get through the emotions you fear from it much more quickly. When you lead yourself through failure and you teach others to follow you on that journey, where you end up will quite likely be better than you imagined. You ready to start doing it? Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic. This week your challenge is around failure and the assignment is simple. Look around your office and at how you lead others. Do they appear to be afraid of failing? If so, time to get started on making changes that will lessen their fear and increase the failure rate exponentially. With this assignment, you are ready to become that better leader by Monday. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post How to Create Real Engagement and True Innovation appeared first on Contagious Companies.

Monday Moments for this month are focused on teaching those you lead how to fail. It’s not easy, but it’s a one of the Top Ten Leadership Tips of 2019 leadership will benefit from the most and in which they’ll find the most value. Workforces are changing by the minute and new generations are emerging that have not had the same experiences. This change in experience is causing some skill sets to lack development and causing others, we’re not used to leading, to have extra development. Learning to learn from failure, being resilient, and demonstrating persistence are some of the skills sets that those now entering management appear to be missing. Leaders with a slight bit more experience or tenure are now in a position to teach these lessons and it’s not always easy, but it’s well worth it. How can you teach those you have the privilege of leading to be more resilient? Well, it begins with helping them fail faster and more often. How can you teach them to be less afraid of failure? Much as we mentioned in last week’s Monday Moment, endeavor to create real engagement and true innovation. But, where do you start on making mistakes happen and who in their right mind does that? Leaders looking to build these skill sets do, that’s who, and they start with some of the mistakes that are more obvious, such as these three that you want to ensure happen faster and faster. 1.      Find the Wrong Job So much is learned from having a job in which one knows he or she does not belong. This is where an employee who is practicing self-awareness, can find his or her voice, see clearly what type of work is the preference, and even find motivation to make some more risky decisions about their career choices, in pursuit of more fulfillment. Not everyone learns these lessons, of course, but those who have, never forget them. In the role of mentor, the insistence on this error becomes easier. There is no reporting structure, payroll, or HR to deal with if the person you’re mentoring is not an employee. Encourage them to work in a locale or position that is just completely wrong for them, even for a short period of time. Or have an in-depth conversation about what they saw, what they learned, and why that job didn’t fit, so the lessons can be gleaned and put to use in future positions. If you lead a team member, clearly in the wrong position, this conversation is handled much more delicately, but is still doable. Some leaders have even encouraged team members to leave current positions, in pursuit of one that is completely different, so that he or she can then return to the organization later, equipped with new appreciation and learning. As hindsight has told many a leader, working in the wrong position will create a permanent appreciation of what the right one feels like, instead. 2.      Say Something Newer managers and even new team members are frequently hesitant to speak their opinion. With barriers such as “that’s not how we’ve always done it”, to being accused of “just not understanding how it works here”, the comfort of speaking up can be minimal, but teach them to work through it. The truth is that until you speak up you get no feedback about your opinion, idea, position, or thought process. That feedback is not automatic criticism. It is simply information. Teach that lesson to all new leaders and team members. Encourage and challenge them to speak their mind, in a professional setting and demeanor, and be there when they feel attacked or shot down, to remind them that feedback from another is an opinion, which is different than factual information. Saying something is critical when it comes to managing team member performance. Saying something is critical when a leader feels as if they’re being told something other than truthful information. Saying something is necessary in clarifying expectations and sharing direction. Yet, if an employee is afraid to say something, you’re missing their insights. You might even be missing the information, ideas, or wisdom for which they were hired in the first place. Even if it seems like a mistake to speak up and risk the reaction, teach them to say something and teach them the difference between criticism and feedback. 3.      Stop Learning A few organizational cultures still believe that new team members should be seen and not heard. That culture trains them to stop learning. Some companies claim to train on the job when in fact what’ happening is a lesson in “how we’ve always done it”. Success experts are quite clear in this area of learning and say in one form or fashion that if you’re not growing, you’re dying; growth of course, coming from learning. Teach those you lead how to make the mistake of stopping the learning. Allow them to be a know-it-all for a moment and then show them what could have happened if they were open to the ideas or experience of others. It is a critical lesson, that if they’ve grown up around others who were also afraid to say something, has likely never been presented, much less challenged. Lead employee awareness of the value of learning, by being the example. Be willing to be wrong. Be willing to learn from them instead of telling them frequently how much more you know than them. Share in the learning experience. Don’t rub their face in the reality that they couldn’t possibly know everything just yet with their level of experience, and instead make learning an enticing way to progress, achieve, make the most of their ambition, and to attain accomplishment. With these mistakes, and all mistakes for that matter, come great lessons. Yet, the power in making mistakes or risking failure is wrought with risk and vulnerability. Embrace that difficulty early on and in the beginning and you develop for yourself, as well as for those you have the privilege of leading, the skills of resiliency and confidence in their efforts, that are long lasting. Continue to act like we all have the ability to be perfect, and should strive for that to be our primary outcome, and you teach a workforce to cover up or hide new ideas and to stop trying. While it sounds counter intuitive, authentic leading of a team who is more mature and consistently seeking improvement, begins with teaching how to succeed at failing. Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic. This week your challenge is the lessons and mistakes you want to insist on employees making. This week: Identify a know it all employee and start gently teaching the lesson found in stopping one’s learning Identify a team member in the wrong position and determine the value of having a conversation about what they can learn from the feelings of that situation and how it can be applied to future fulfillment Some challenging and delicate conversations to have this week and yet, each will help you become a better leader by next Monday. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post 3 Obvious Mistakes You Should Insist Employees Make appeared first on Contagious Companies.

In one of our first Monday Moment’s of 2019, the Top Ten Leadership Tips of 2019, tip number six was Teach them How to Fail. The year is flying by and chances are these last six months have been filled with both failures (hope not too many!) and successes. Yet, for leaders, it seems the key is to fail faster and more often so that the knowledge and experience required for successes accrues far more rapidly. Have you had any failures this year? Were they large or small? Did they sting for a short while or linger longer? No matter your answers, the biggest, most important question, though no leader seems to enjoy answering it, is did you learn from that failure and put the learning into practice as you moved forward? As I’ve written previously in Contagious Leadership Step 5: Leaders Allow and Forgive Mistakes, errors and failures are part of the learning process. An unrealistic effort toward perfection actually slows down learning and improvement and can cause a leader to forever continue the process of aiming, so let’s get to it and make some rapid improvement, shall we? Today’s Monday Moment helps you see the five steps to quick recovery from a blunder, but will also serve as the first installment of this month’s focus on how you teach others to fail with grace, forgiveness, and a keen focus on the learning that comes from it. In preparation for any failures that arise this week, here is the first step to a speedy recovery: 1.      Own It Online resources from AARP to Fast Company, address failure. There’s the Failure Project, the mention of many inventors whose failures became many of our most commonly used products, and there are those failures that no one writes about, the ones we don’t talk about. Failing is not fun. It’s embarrassing and our boss may even have a thing or two to say about how it affects our reputation, but let’s be candid for a moment: If you refuse to fail, you’ll never learn how to do anything any differently or better than you are now and if you don’t like the results of what you have now, failing is your fastest, best option to arrive at a new situation. The challenge for most leaders, in their personal and professional scenarios, is that failure is seemingly inextricably linked to how good they’re doing in their role or performance. Failure dings one’s reputation, or so it is believed. Own your errors and maybe we stop believing that the only time it’s okay to own those errors is in hindsight of some stellar success. You don’t have to become a billionaire, the inventor of the lightbulb, or the Vice President of your company before you can admit you made a few blunders in your journey. 2.      Mind Your Markers It is this unspoken belief that success is only attained by those who had an easy road, some lucky breaks, or an obvious advantage, that keeps us from admitting our failures. Couple that with the fear that if we don’t make it big, we’ll just be seen as a failure, and not someone who overcame one, and you have a recipe for keeping all failed attempts a giant secret. Yet, the problem is often our marker, not our attempt. Think of it this way. If clean the entire three-car, completely disorganized, garage is on your list and you clean only half of it in your spare time on a busy weekend, is that a failure? Depends on your marker. If clean garage and complete entire weeklong project in one weekend is the marker that deems success, then yes, your partial completion of the part of the garage that now sparkles, would be considered a failure at total completion. The example may seem silly, but how often you set your own self up for failure based on nothing more than your unrealistic expected or desired accomplishments or outcomes, otherwise known as success markers? 3.      Fix What’s Fixable Even Edison had failed attempts in leading his lightbulb experiments, but because, in this well-known example, he fixed what failed over and over again, he finally found the right combination to light up the world with his idea. So, you failed in that most recent hiring decision. Fix what you can see led to the failure and adjust it for next time. That is learning. So, you failed to meet your numbers last quarter. Fix the number of meetings you attend and the time you spend on the phone selling and see if that doesn’t make a difference. So, you failed to keep your cool with an annoying employee and you wish you’d done better. Examine what about them drives you crazy and see if you can approach it differently or even prevent the behavior. Once you fail, the magic happens in the next steps forward and those steps? They are much more effective when you fix what initially made you stumble. 4.      Move Forward As you own it, fix what you can, and learn from the failed experience, leaders know the only way to continue to make progress is to keep going. Move forward. Whether that means you delegate the task at which you keep failing or you find help to keep you from failing in that area, or you doggedly work at it until failure is no longer the outcome, move the heck on. As comedian Darren Lacroix tells his audiences, don’t fall on your face and then stay down there forever talking about it while you’re still lying on your face. If you face plant, it doesn’t mean you need to grow roots there. Learn to bounce, improve your steps, and keep walking. 5.      Remember the Process Driven achievers and leaders who relish the opportunity to cross items off a list will regularly make the mistake of making learning a single accomplishment. The conversation sounds a bit like this: “Okay, messed that up. Fixed it. Won’t have to learn that lesson again. Done. Next.” And yes, it’s often even those words that are used. But learning is a lot like weight loss. One doesn’t lose ten pounds and never have to address watching what you eat again. Eating right and learning to implement what we gain from our mistakes, is a process, not a one and done, one-time effort. Be the leader of your own efforts in this process of recovering from failure AND help those you lead to remember that learning from failure and making mistakes is a never-ending process. Some have even said that if you’re not failing, you’re not trying often enough or hard enough, to become better. And on that note… Ready to Take the Become a Better Leader Challenge? Each Monday Moment shares a Become a Better Leader Challenge relevant to that week’s topic. This week your challenge is around mistakes and these actions might not be easy to take. For your leadership improvement: Think of one recent mistake and record what you learned from it. Determine if you have applied that learning or simply stopped trying. If you’ve stopped trying for fear of a new failure, actively seek ways to try, not just again using the same old method, but different. Fix what you can, apologize where needed, and move forward with a focus on improving your expertise in this area. You’re on your way and you’re ready to become that better leader by Monday. I’m Monica Wofford and that’s your Monday Moment. Have a great week and of course, stay Contagious! Monica Wofford, CSP develops leaders. CEO of Contagious Companies, her firm designs and delivers leadership training for those managers who’ve been promoted, but not prepared. Author of Contagious Leadership and Make Difficult People Disappear, Monica may be reached at www.ContagiousCompanies.com, www.MonicaWofford.com or by calling 1-866-382-0121. The post 5 Steps to Leadership Failure and Recovery appeared first on Contagious Companies.