Decisions - regarding people

When it comes to "people" I wonder if their happiness matters - do I even care if they are engaged or not. If it mattered, would I rehire them or better still, all of them?  Jim Collins had a question about whether the right people were on the bus.

It is no surprise that relationships matter - with that comes two key words - love and forgiveness. In fact, I believe that until I settle any relationship issues left unattended, they will consume a tremendous amount of emotional energy. 

To make it even more complicated, these relationships go outside of our own space within our corporate walls. If I am to grow fast I will need to develop relationships with key people outside of my organization. Who are the key people in my industry?  Can I find 25 names or even possibly more? Maybe one set of criteria could help me narrow the search a bit more - who are the people and the brands they represent that will be impacted by the vision I aspire to achieve.

I believe that one of my highest priorities will be having a healthy top leadership team. Who are the right people, for the right roles and are they able to do the right things. I will only know if they are doing the right thing if I have established clear accountabilities and metrics.

I suppose that I will know I have people challenges if I am not enjoying being part of the team or company I am leading.

How can I determine leadership team health? It is something that is important to me. I want to understand how people function in their environments and how they will make decisions. I believe that will give me a way to effectively choose the best people for positions on their leadership teams.

“In retaining employees and keeping them engaged, we’ll cover the five activities of great (vs. good) managers: 

• Help people play to their strengths.

• Don’t demotivate; dehassle. 

• Set clear expectations and give employees a clear line of sight. 

• Give recognition and show appreciation. • Hire fewer people, but pay them more (frontline employees, not top leaders!).”
― Verne Harnish, Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't

 

 

 

Leadership Duties - Overseeing the team

Big picture stuff - ability to oversee the efficient and effective operation of the team and support that team with whatever means possible.

Small picture stuff - your personal assistant.  Trust me they are this personified - if you do not have one that can do this - sorry - get another one.

Keeping up on details, informing you of the dozens of details that have escaped you, saving you the same dozen times from the infidels that would like to waste time, energy, lose focus and destroy you...:)

Don't think that personal assistant day is the only day that you should thank this wonderful person in your work life.  Champion their cause, make sure that the working conditions are pleasant and they they have decent equipment.

This individual should present themselves as a reflection of the same type of servant image that you are expected to exhibit.  They will be an essential part of the team, so make sure they are pleasant and even-tempered.  Best part, they should view working with a team of people - even difficult people - as part of their ministry.

Leadership Duties - Planning

It is good to involve pretty much everyone you possibly can in the goal-setting process.

Most of the time, this is a great opportunity to teach the team how to set goals and to instruct them as to the kind of goals one should be setting.

After setting the proper goals, start taking on the task of a facilitator, aiding the various project teams with plans to accomplish their goals, helping them set timetables for doing so, and then using those milestones when you met on set times during the year. 

The leaders real work starts after such a meeting in the preparation of a coordinated calendar and this calendar will be your most valuable tool in leading your team.

Related articles

• 6 Goal Setting Steps That Guarantee Success (timemapping.com)

Leadership Task - Equipping

What does an equipped person look like -- one who has been made perfect for the job or who has completely adjusted to it.

I think there is an element missing in the equipping process that I would like to mention - and that is equipping your team to understand and work with their team and to be able to process teamwork.

This is one skill set that can be taught, but if it is modelled, would carry a lot more weight.  What you do not want to do is teach to say one thing, and then do another - that does not make a future leader and you are equipping someone on your team to work dysfunctional in wherever they are placed.

As you teach and model, step by step, you will teach to the point that your team will perform the task themselves and eventually, as they become skilled, they can begin to equip others too

Related articles

• consider the ANT - part 2 (ryandayministries.com)

Developing Leaders

If you are arriving at a place where there is a healthy leadership team in place and you are surrounded by competent team members who understand that they are leaders and are in development - great - have an awesome honeymoon.

If not, not so great and post-pone honeymoon for extended period of time.

I love it when I entered a new place of ministry and found no leadership team, no experienced team members, no structure that supports the development of leaders yet am asked to perform miracles beyond imagination.  To this date that has never happened - I have always developed a team first.  In the long run - for those who can wait - success is always the fruit.

Why, because my first real leadership position was in a church.  I think there were at least 40 different groups raging in all kinds of activities - young to old, sports to marriage, evangelism to prayer.  Guess what - they all wanted me to be part of their group - guess what I said - yes.  Guess who saw the need for change, growth, development - people listen to this - for forty groups!!!  That's right, I never went home until midnight, six days a week, never saw my wife - and then the leadership team had the gull to say I wasn't working hard enough....

From then on, I developed first and moved on and developed again and moved on and developed again.  Much more fun.

One of the first things I do is check out the gifting, then equip based on that.  That includes Myers Briggs stuff, love language, leadership strengths/weaknesses, spiritual maturity etc.

Remember through the entire scenario that it is God who chooses all leaders.  Though we may have the tendency to become impatient with them because of their lack of training, ability and effort, remember to treat them with dignity and respect, trying to be submissive to them where possible just as you expect them to be submissive to your leadership.

God often will surprise us.  The most profound thought may come from the lips of someone we had considered totally inept.  If God is indeed the author of leadership and the chooser of leaders, then He is able to perform His work through the most unlikely candidates. If we doubt that, we who are part of active leadership should take a careful and penetrating look in the mirror.

Members of your team should be treated with love

When I have taken over a new team there are two things that I concentrate on - love my team lavishly and preach the Word everyday.

Some people are easy to love.  Remember to pray for them.  For those who are not easy to love, you will be spending a lot of time praying for them expecting that God works the greatest miracles of all in the lives of the "unlovely" people.

Develop a one-to-one relationship with your team members - remember to meet wtih them at least once every three months to ensure both of you are successful.

In those meetings ask a lot of questions - key questions about themselves. As a result, you will find yourself  becoming genuinely interested in them.  They in turn will see that you are interested in them.

There are quite a few practical ways of demonstrating love - remember the five love languages so that you will not do a "team" love but more expressions at the time when you meet one on one - although team celebrations are awesome.

Here is a team that "loves" - welcome to the world of auctions--

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh1f4e_show-the-love-to-auction-committee-members-run-your_webcam