Great communication plays a vital role in solving almost every problem in the workplace. How well leaders communicate has everything to do with how well employees engage in their work, how they take feedback, and whether or not they feel a sense of meaning and purpose. This type of communication is incredibly hard. It doesn’t come naturally to most.
Have you ever noticed that when things don’t go well, there’s always a meeting afterward? It’s typical for companies to do a deep dive, analyzing step by step what went wrong and how to fix it. We spend a lot of time, energy, and heartache focusing on what goes wrong.
There is nothing wrong with this: troubleshooting problems, creating solutions, and infusing them into your processes and procedures is critical to helping your business get better and better. However, it’s only one side of the story.
We are often hesitant to admit we don’t know something. Rather than saying, “I don’t know,” we often give an answer thinking the boss will think less of us if we don’t know. That fear forces answers that sometimes need more thought or research. The reality is that saying, “I don’t know,” or I need a little time to think it through will make your boss and colleagues respect you even more.
This short video from Quint Studer should be watched by every physician, physician leader, and those in those hospital leadership. It’s a great reminder of what we all should be doing right now to prepare to “Re-Launch” our practices, hospitals, and businesses.
Working virtually really is a different kind of challenge for most of us. Under these circumstances, as a leader you aren’t able to directly manage employees. Likewise, employees don’t have direct access to you. This can be frustrating for all involved.
There are many difficult aspects to leadership: from having the best plan, to hiring the best talent, to putting in excellent standard operating procedures, to making decisions around products, pricing, promotion, and productivity measures, and so forth. Yet, to me, one of the toughest decisions a leader must make is letting someone go. In my decades of work with many organizations, a defining trait of the best leaders is the ability to make the uncomfortable decision on when to move someone out of a position and most likely out of the organization. There are very few leaders who don’t struggle with this.
I’ve been fortunate to meet and work with all kinds of people over the years: entrepreneurs, leaders and employees in companies of all different sizes and industries, elected officials and citizens in cities and towns across the country. And since I love to learn, I’ve paid attention to what separates people who regularly meet their goals from people who don’t.
What can you do to challenge high performers? When leaders act like full-time park rangers, it cripples employees. They never develop the confidence or the sense of ownership they need to solve problems, to grow, and to become leaders themselves. busyleadershandbook.com #leadership #highperformers #leadershipdevelopment #busyleadershandbook
The other day, my cousin Al shared with me that he appreciated a statement I had made years ago on what a gift a pause is. By this, he meant the space between what he wants to do or say and the moment he actually does or says it. Pausing gives him time to make the decision and/or take the action … or not. By “or not” I mean that the pause allows us to rethink. Many times, not taking the action or not saying the words is the better choice.
I had an interesting conversation with a venture capitalist. We were discussing the qualities the VC looks for when thinking of buying a company. I was expecting to hear words like “profitability” and “growth potential.” But instead, the VC put self-awareness and coachability at the top of the list.
I was surprised but probably shouldn’t have been.
