Decision-making: not everyone is good at it, but the buck ultimately stops with the leader who is the final decision-maker.  This article looks at how to deal with the challenges of making tough decisions, and what leaders can do to create a environment where effective decisions can be made, fast. 
 
I can’t tell you how often I hear people complain that managers around here just don’t make decisions! Usually that is because of one of 3 things: (i) the scope of authority is unclear and it is unclear who should make the decision in the first place; (ii) there is fear that if the “wrong” decision is made, there will be negative or punitive repercussions; (iii) managers don’t have a process that they follow in making a decision, so they have little confidence in themselves. As a result, decisions are not made and this blocks up the works. The resulting frustration causes people to disengage – after all, what’s the point of attempting to be engaged when one gets stymied at every turn. Don’t underestimate the resentment that builds towards the “leader” who doesn’t make decisions. If you have difficulty making decisions (for whatever reason), you will lose the respect of your team. Don’t be surprised if they make jokes at your expense behind your back.  Don’t be surprised if they do the big eye roll as you leave the room having promised to look into something.

The same applies to your meetings. The purpose of meetings is to make decisions! How many meetings do you attend where items are carried over from meeting to meeting? What are your views about such meetings? My guess is that you drag yourself to these meetings, fully expecting that your time is about to be wasted. What about those meetings where people talk and talk, but no decisions are made. Do you look forward to these meetings with anticipation? My guess is not so much. We all enjoy meetings where the debate is vigorous, clear decisions are taken and action is reported on at the next meeting.

If you are unclear on the limits of your authority, have a meeting with your manager and get clarity. Use the table below and agree on the level at which you will deal with each of your responsibilities. If you are being asked to function at Level 4 or below, also reach agreement on the process by which you will progress to higher levels of authority (as your manager’s trust in you grows).

Use an effective decision-making process. I like GROW, which you can learn more about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GROW_model. Alternatively, you could learn more from here: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_00.htm
What is your greatest decision-making challenge? Is it your limits of authority? Are you afraid of the consequences of imperfect decisions? Do you lack a trusted process that you follow in order to arrive at solid decisions? Draw up a plan for yourself that will improve your own decision-making confidence and ability.
 
Catch up on previous articles by following this link, and please send me your feedback on how they are changing or improving your leadership capacity and approach.

In the previous article in this series we looked at talent and managing the risk of losing talented team members.  Hopefully you have implemented a few changes in strategy to avoid losing your talent.  If you have missed any of the previous articles with their practical tips, questions and exercises, you can read them by following this link.
 
Essentially this article is about continuous improvement. Whether the leader is developing people, resources, systems or anything else, the focus is on being better tomorrow than we were yesterday. Some of this continuous improvement – for example, that which relates to systems and processes - may be about finding incremental improvements in the way we do things. However, there may come a time when small increments do not do the trick. In some instances, the most innovative thing you can do is eliminate the system – or a particular stage in the process. The mind-set that looks for small increments is unlikely to notice that a process is quite useless – unless some bright person has a blinding flash of inspiration and asks “Why are we doing this?” That can be a telling question.

When it comes to developing people, that is also, to some extent about “continuous improvement”. As people develop, their ability to make a contribution grows. Furthermore, they have more options in terms of how they apply their abilities. As a consequence, they become more engaged and do better work. Managers who do not spend time developing their people are not serious about being managers! Any manager who is not willing (or claims to be unable) to invest time in developing team members does not deserve to have that role. Becoming a manager is not a reward for good work. It confers on the manager total responsibility for the performance of the team – and that means that a good proportion of your working hours must be spent developing your people: clarifying expectations; coaching them; giving them projects that stretch them; reviewing their work and spending time supporting them in their work. It takes time – and that means you need to allocate this time. It is not an interruption to your work. It IS your work.

How do you foster development in your team? What disciplines or routines do you have in place that create opportunities to critically evaluate your systems and processes? Do you have a team member who asks “Why are we doing this?” How do you take advantage of this point of view in the interests of improving how you do things? Or do you dismiss these questions? Not a good idea. Rather give this person the opportunity to critically evaluate your systems and processes and make recommendations for improvements. How much of your own time do you spend deliberately developing your people? Do you treat this as an irritation and an interruption? Rather schedule time for this into your calendar, and give it your full attention at those times.

Please don't forget to contact me with your comments, queries or simply to let me know if there is anything you would like me to address in one of my articles.

This article deals with averting the risk of losing talent and organizational knowledge in an increasingly competitive, cut-throat business environment.  If you've missed previous articles in this highly popular series, follow this link.

There is a war on for talent, and your good people are going to be wooed by your competitors, so what could you do? A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by Rebecca Knight called “When the Competition Is Trying to Poach Your Top Employee” suggests that you focus on being the employer that no-one wants to leave. Pay attention to the indicators. Apparently people are most inclined to look around for opportunities around particular anniversaries (either work anniversaries or birthdays), so this would be good timing for career discussions and getting them involved in new projects. A great employee who has just had a project they were invested in put on hold or cancelled is likely to be ripe for the picking – so make sure you quickly address their negative feelings and show that you care. If you can, assign them to a new project that will make their pulse race.

Stay connected to your people to make sure you know if they no longer feel challenged or valued. Notice if they suddenly want to do courses and attend conferences – these could be indicators that they are looking around, so check it out. You can ask the question directly – but make sure that they would feel safe to disclose. You need to tell them that there will be no negative consequence if they are looking around – you just want to know, and you want to know if there is anything you can do to change their minds.

Be alert to opportunities to reduce some of their frustrations. Might flexi-time do the trick? Would working from home twice a week make a difference? Don’t underestimate the impact that these small concessions can make.
Do not allow yourself to be held over a barrel. You are at risk if a single talented individual has knowledge and experience that is crucial to the success of your business. Make sure that you always have alternatives. Ask and answer the bus question: “If this person was taken out by a bus tomorrow, what would I do?” If you struggle to answer the question, you are at risk and need to take action. Make sure these talented people have individual development plans that give them a clear sense that they will benefit by staying.

In the long-run, however, we need to make peace with the fact that there will always be a certain amount of movement – it is natural and sometimes even desirable. For more, read the original article: https://hbr.org/2015/09/when-the-competition-is-trying-to-poach-your-top-employee.

Have you noticed who might be at risk in your team? Any anniversaries? Any big disappointments experienced by key team members? How will you respond to these talented people? Do you have a plan that mitigates any risk attached to having too much intellectual property vested in one individual? Do all your talented people have an inspiring personal development plan? If not, what do you intend doing about it?
 
The next article in this series will look at the concept of development in a broader sense.  If you have any feedback on your progress that you would like to share, email me.  Email me if there is a specific aspect of leadership that you would like me to explore.

Due to the great response to the first 12 articles in the “Leaders are Dealers” series, we have decided to add a few more.  The series of leadership articles deals with those challenging times when inspiration deserts the leader, and the vision seems vague and irrelevant to what is currently going on in the business.  To read the previous articles, with their practical advice, hints and tips, click here.
 
At the very least, a good leader surrounds herself with good people - particularly people who have strengths where she is weak. A leadership team full of clones is a very risky thing – they see things in the same way, they think similarly, they have similar weaknesses and similar blind spots. We seek the kind of diversity that ensures that there are various points of view, thinking and learning styles, approaches to business and life, interests and concerns. In a patriarchal country with a racist past, diversity includes gender, race and ethnicity. When diversity is well managed, it can improve the quality of decision-making as well as enhancing the reputation of the team.

​Perception is everything. The team shows commitment to equal opportunity and inclusion is likely to win the trust of the broadest spectrum of stakeholders – and trust is currency! The leader who stands up for what is right, and makes a deliberate effort to bring into the team good people who represent the diversity of our population, is likely to be trusted, and sets the example to others. See Rosalinde Torres' TED Talk on leadership in the 21st century: http://www.ted.com/talks/roselinde_torres_what_it_takes_to_be_a_great_leader/transcript?language=en and Susan Conantuono's TED Talk on the gender gap: http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_colantuono_the_career_advice_you_probably_didn_t_get#t-822011.
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What have you done to broaden the diversity in your own team? Have you given up, claiming that “they are just not out there”? How are you developing people who can bring diversity to the team? How could you do it better? Where could you find likely candidates who could be trained? What industries have the kind of people you are looking for? How could you attract them into your team?
 
Good luck in moulding your team into a powerfully diverse concentration of talent.  As a team leader, you will be leaving a truly invaluable legacy.  Keep tuned for the next article on talent.

This is the final article in the series of twelve articles on developing, regaining and retaining inspirational leadership.  A clear focus on the vision, on what needs to be achieved and how best to go about it, gives the leader the ability to lead calmly, consistently and in a way that reassures the team regardless of internal or external factors.

A leader is a dealer in calm. You need to keep your head while all around you are losing theirs – to paraphrase Rudyard Kipling. Dealing in calm means taking measured, considered decisions. It means staying the course – if it is the right course - even though you are being pressured from all sides to change this or go there. Your people can see when decisions are being made out of panic and desperation – and it does not inspire confidence. Keep your eye on the vision. Stay true to the guiding policy of your strategy – who you are; what you do; what you don’t do – and refuse to be rushed into making rash decisions that create confusion and uncertainty. Keep taking that 20 mile march every single day in the direction of your destination.

Take a long hard look in the mirror. Are you the picture of calm? Or do you exude panic? Do you keep your team calm, or are they also headless chickens. You need to create a calm ocean. If you are not, take this into your coaching and work on it. Your team cannot win if you are in a panic – and you will never be able to hide it.

Thank you for joining me on this journey to tap into the inspirational leader within.  How has coaching, and having a trusted sounding board assisted in developing your ability to remain calm? Email me about your successes.

Advocacy is closely related to the concept of trust.  This article builds on the article on the concept of trust, and deals with being an advocate for your team.  To read previous articles in this series, including the article on trust, follow this link.

A leader is a dealer in advocacy. If you want your team to go into battle with you in tough times, when the market is soft and competition is fierce, they need to know you have their back. If your team expects that you might hang them out to dry, their efforts will be safe and tame. If they know you will protect them from criticism and attacks from your upline, they will push the envelope and make courageous efforts. The greatest destroyer of trust is that you sit back and allow your upline to tear your team to shreds in front of them. You need to cover their backs – either exclude the team from these meetings and take the heat yourself, or be bold and defend them. Definitely not for sissies!

Are you guilty of exposing your team to unhelpful criticisms and attacks? Who do you need to shield them from? What can you do to shield them better? How can you advocate better on their behalf? With whom do you need to have a fireside chat about the negative impact their criticism and attacks has on your team? How do you intend having this conversation? Who can help you to prepare?

Answering these questions and implementing the suggestions requires a high level of self-awareness, and awareness of your impact – as the leader – on the team and its performance.  It is always helpful to revisit the vision so that you can “play the ball and not the man”.  Do you think you can do it?  Let me know how it goes.

Accountability is an over-used and misunderstood concept.  People in leadership positions often bemoan the lack of accountability within their teams, so it is appropriate to examine what accountability really means in relation to responsibility.

A leader is a dealer in accountability. They model what it means to be accountable. Remember, one is responsible for, and we account to. A great leader accounts to his team for progress on commitments he has made to them. He accounts to his upline and shareholders for progress in rolling out the strategy and the impact of that strategy. He understands that every problem that stands in the way of achieving targets and objectives is his problem – he owns it and he must find solutions. He tackles problems and finds solutions rather than just accepting that it is there and working around them. I am amazed at how often I work with clients who have just learned to live with problems that are actually solvable. When I coach them through the possibility that the problem can be solved and situation changed, they realise that they had simply been living with the problem. If something in the environment is working against the team’s efforts, the leader accepts that he is accountable for finding solutions – and he tackles problems one at a time.

In their book, The Four Disciplines of Execution, S.Covey et al advocate that one of the four disciplines is to create a cadence of accountability. This means that team members get together regularly and account to one another for progress they have each made against their strategic goals – they come to the meeting prepared to account to one another. This is so different from “being held accountable”. One is supremely adult, while the latter is far more “parent-child”. How can you replace holding team members accountable with a very adult cadence of accountability? How will you model this cadence of accountability by accounting to the team for your own progress?

Make sure that you haven’t missed out on any of the previous articles with their helpful approaches and methods to build capacity within your team while leading in an inspirational and visionary way.

This series of 12 articles is focussed on assisting leaders to tap into their inspirational, visionary talents when the business environment is tough.  To read previous articles in this series, click here. This articles examines power and looks at ways of establishing and exerting power in a way that builds the team and enables achievement of the vision.

A leader is a dealer in power. Real leaders know that the most damaging thing to any organisation is when people are frustrated by having severe constraints on their power – that is, they feel powerless. Power is very simply “the ability to act”. When a leader shares power, and pushes it down so that people can act within appropriate limits of authority, it assures that appropriate actions are taking quickly in order to solve problems, exploit opportunities and mitigate threats. Power is the organisation’s blood supply – it keeps it moving and energised and gets oxygen and nutrients to all parts of the body. However, when the arteries get blocked because of severe power constraints, it causes organisational aneurisms. One of the paradoxes of leadership is that the more the leader shares power, the more power he has – he has the power of many, rather than the power of one.

Using the Levels of Initiative below, decide at what level you want each team member to make decisions. Challenge yourself to make it one level higher than feels natural to you. If you are setting the level lower because a team member is learning, by when do you want them moving up a level? And up two levels? Now discuss your expectations with each team member and agree on how you will support them so that they are able to act with confidence..

Let me know how exercising power in this way empowers your team.  Send me an email.

We have previously dealt with trust, influence, self-control, discipline, results and hope (or inspiration).  Each article contains suggestions, exercises or approaches that you can implement in order to address these areas. To catch up on the previous articles in this series, follow this link.  In this article, we examine the concepts of pride and humility in the context of the leader and his/her team. 

A leader is a dealer in pride. This is not arrogance. It is based on the understanding that the team that is proud of itself, its achievements and its members will constantly strive to win. He talks up his team and makes sure that they celebrate their successes. He looks for opportunities to give recognition, and focuses on what is right in the team whilst quietly addressing what is wrong or needs fixing. His team has no doubt that he is proud of them and, as a result, they take continued pride in excelling.

Are you proud of your team? How would they know? How do you celebrate successes with your team? What is worth celebrating right now? How will you do it?

A leader is a dealer in humility. She knows that any success that she may achieve is because of the collective effort of the team – and she shares the glory with the team. In fact, very often she will stand back and allow the team to bask in the glory of their success, with little need to have the limelight all to herself. She will acknowledge the collective efforts of the team at every opportunity, and ensure that everyone knows that the team is the key to her success.

What successes have you enjoyed that should have been shared with the team? What will you do now to put it right? What will you do next time? What can you do to make sure that your upline knows how great your team is?

The next article in this series of twelve will look at the concept of power and how to exercise it in a constructive way.  If you have any feedback on your progress that you would like to share, email me.

In the previous article, we looked at the constructive exercising of power.  Another challenge for the leader is to maintain the momentum when times are tough, and this is when clarity of vision is vital.  If you’ve missed previous articles in this series, you can catch up by following this link.

A leader is a dealer in pace. She gets things moving and keeps things moving. She knows that energy and momentum are critical in achieving results. She works fast herself, and she expects her team to also work quickly. She knows that lethargy is a killer, and makes sure to keep things pacey. She knows that gradual improvement is not good enough, and so fosters change and growth at a pace that stretches the team but does not overwhelm them. You know this leader – she walks quickly, thinks quickly, acts and decides quickly and works quickly. She knows that if change is to happen, it must happen quickly – change that is dragged out creates far more pain and resistance than change that is quick – and she keeps it moving until it is done.

Think about changes you wish to make. Are you happy with the pace at which change is happening? If it is slower than you would want, what is the hold up? Is it you? Are you slowing things down on the assumption that this will make it easier for the team? What could you and the team do to pick up the pace?

How are you doing so far?  Send me an email to let me know where you have experienced the most challenges in terms of implementing new practices and approaches.