Front up to your team and they will follow
I thought I would share some of the Leadership themes that come up in my coaching activities.
Awareness
When you want the best out of your people you have to understand their strengths and weaknesses in style, experience and skills. In order to do that, you have to start by understanding where you stand on those dimensions.
Style - Do you know your style? Are you aware which dominant style emerges in time of crisis? How do you manage that? Do you surround yourself with people whose style complements yours so that as a team you are stronger? Does your team have style awareness?
Skill and experience - Have you taken stock of how you have moved up n your career. What do you bring to the table. Where do you need your team to complement your gaps? Do you deliberately surround yourself with skill and experience above yours?
Values - What values do you bring to the table. What do you stand for. Do you bring all of you to the boardroom? How do you define success for yourself and how does that translate to your work?
Our self-awareness, our stocktaking of ourselves, is a critical starting point to leading high performance organizations. When we know what we stand for, and when it becomes how we stand up and account for ourselves with our people, we cross the chasm of transparency…and that leads to trust. And when our team trusts us, then they open up (transparency). The result is efficiency in decision-making: we get better communication, we challenge each other, and we get better decisions faster. In other words, our self awareness and willingness to be vulnerable and lead with all of ourselves assures that our teams will bring all of themselves to the table too.
Its about Trust. Do we trust ourselves to front up with all that we stand for. Do we trust our team to do the same. Do we trust each other that when we really take risks in the input we gee, in the decisions we make, that we all have each others' backs. Do we trust that when we admit to failure, to our doubts and concerns, that this won't be used against us?
Trust is not easily won. And it requires that we as leaders step up to the line first. Trust is earned. Slowly. But when we have trust, then the doors open.
Trust is gained because we have led with transparency and have shown that by opening up, by not withholding, that we value the same from our team-members. That we want to understand their viewpoint and perspectives. Its the empathy gene in action! We go from transmit to receive. We want our team's perspective. Really want it. We want to understand where they are coming from because we know that the unvarnished truth is the only way to clear the filters we often have to work with as leaders.
Awareness
When you want the best out of your people you have to understand their strengths and weaknesses in style, experience and skills. In order to do that, you have to start by understanding where you stand on those dimensions.
Style - Do you know your style? Are you aware which dominant style emerges in time of crisis? How do you manage that? Do you surround yourself with people whose style complements yours so that as a team you are stronger? Does your team have style awareness?
Skill and experience - Have you taken stock of how you have moved up n your career. What do you bring to the table. Where do you need your team to complement your gaps? Do you deliberately surround yourself with skill and experience above yours?
Values - What values do you bring to the table. What do you stand for. Do you bring all of you to the boardroom? How do you define success for yourself and how does that translate to your work?
Our self-awareness, our stocktaking of ourselves, is a critical starting point to leading high performance organizations. When we know what we stand for, and when it becomes how we stand up and account for ourselves with our people, we cross the chasm of transparency…and that leads to trust. And when our team trusts us, then they open up (transparency). The result is efficiency in decision-making: we get better communication, we challenge each other, and we get better decisions faster. In other words, our self awareness and willingness to be vulnerable and lead with all of ourselves assures that our teams will bring all of themselves to the table too.
Its about Trust. Do we trust ourselves to front up with all that we stand for. Do we trust our team to do the same. Do we trust each other that when we really take risks in the input we gee, in the decisions we make, that we all have each others' backs. Do we trust that when we admit to failure, to our doubts and concerns, that this won't be used against us?
Trust is not easily won. And it requires that we as leaders step up to the line first. Trust is earned. Slowly. But when we have trust, then the doors open.
Trust is gained because we have led with transparency and have shown that by opening up, by not withholding, that we value the same from our team-members. That we want to understand their viewpoint and perspectives. Its the empathy gene in action! We go from transmit to receive. We want our team's perspective. Really want it. We want to understand where they are coming from because we know that the unvarnished truth is the only way to clear the filters we often have to work with as leaders.
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