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Tag: Learn
Teach, Don’t Do: A Leadership Mindset
Teach, Don’t Do Understanding what great leaders know can vastly improve your leadership skills.
The most important role a leader plays is teacher. Teach, Don’t Do is my shorthand for “Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach someone to fish and you feed them for a lifetime”, generally attributed to Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. Successful leadership comes from knowing what great leaders know and applying it effectively.
In many cases, it is faster and easier to just fix the problem, but then, how will anyone else ever learn? Suppose, I never explained to my kids what to do when the smoke alarm starts beeping. All I ever did was say, I’ll take care of it. I’m locked in as the official smoke detector fixer. Will my kids grow up and move away and still call me when the smoke alarm battery needs replacing? Now, I am driving 4 hours in the middle of the night (smoke detector batteries always run low in the middle of the night don’t they) when I could have taught them long ago and they would have taken care of it and I would still be sleeping.
The more people who know how to do something, the more the team benefits. If only one of member of the Women’s Olympic Team has mastered the bar, the team is in trouble if that person is injured. If only one person knows how to submit payroll, when that person takes a vacation, there’s going to be a problem. Great leaders know this and ensure every team member is prepared.
Those mentors I have respected most were all excellent teachers who took stock of my abilities and challenged me move beyond them, seeing something that wasn’t yet there and understanding it could be. Investing time with me to help me grow. Wanting what was best- for me! When I grew, I applied what I had leaned, I became a stronger leader. Research shows 74% of adults consider themselves lifelong learners! Teaching them is an investment, rather than a waste of time.
My point is not that a leader should never do anything directly. Great leaders know that teaching the team is everything!
Great Leaders Know- Teach, Don’t Do
The most important role a leader plays is teacher. This is a foundational principle that great leaders know.
Make Teach, Don’t Do your mantra.
The more people know how to do something, the more the team benefits. As any great leader knows, this is vital for team success.
Links
https://whatgreatleadersknow.com
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/03/22/lifelong-learning-and-technology
Leading a Misleader
How to Lead A Misleader Understanding what great leaders know can vastly improve your leadership skills.
Every organization has misleaders, challenging employees who steer the team in the wrong direction. Great Leaders Know how to lead a misleader.
Why Misleaders Lead
Unrecognized and underutilized leadership skills can cause misleaders to unknowingly pull in the wrong direction. Misleaders leading cause turbulence and wasted effort, pulling focus from the mission. Leaders must align them. By understanding what great leaders know, you can better manage these individuals.
I came to a new location to lead the team and recognized a misleader in our ranks, disrupting work processes. Their approach rubbed everyone else the wrong way. Intelligent, outspoken and capable misleaders seem like someone we should follow. Effective leaders improve performance by harnessing the ability of all team members.
Leading a Misleader
I assigned our misleader with leading the safety team were their keen eye, intelligence, and ability to say what was wrong were strengths. It worked. injury rates dropped, which peers appreciated and recognized the misleader for and the work place improved. Our misleader evolved misleader to leader! By helping them find the right role, I applied what great leaders know about leadership. My task was to align their superpowers to help pull the team in the right direction,
Helping the challenging leader find the right seat on the bus is a successful way to re-direct misleader energy. At times, we all mislead, detract, and oppose the direction of the boss. Great Leaders Know seeking change or greater understanding will help them align with their personal mission. This is part of what great leaders understand well.
Great Leaders Know– How to Lead A Misleader
Ignoring a misleader is a misstep. A misleader will continue to pull in the wrong direction, great leaders take immediate action.
Assign misleaders an aligned leadership role to harness their natural leadership ability in a supportive way.
Utilize misleaders skills as an advantage, something that every great leader should know.
Links
Missions & Measuring Cups
We have a set of nesting measuring cups in our kitchen, the smaller cups fitting inside the larger cups. It is an effective way to organize this useful tool. Measuring cups remind me of how the mission of individuals who work for an organization must be concentric, nested, fitting inside one another.
For example, the 1/4 cup represents the organizational mission, which fits into the 1/3 cup which which represents the mission of the senior leadership team, which fits into the 1/2 cup representing the middle managers, which fits into the 1 cup, which represents the mission of the front line team members.
If your measuring cups have been pieced together, they may not fit, you may have duplicate or be missing cups, they may be inefficient to use. Similarly, the organization will be less effective when missions are not aligned, much like misaligned Missions and Measuring Cups.
What Great Leaders Know
Missions and Measuring Cups are concentric
Individuals and Teams have missions that align with the organizational mission
Misaligned or mismatched components will result in ineffectiveness for the organization
Links
Leadership requires Followership
People need a reason to willingly follow you consistently.
“If they ain’t followin’… you ain’t leadin’.”
Griff Thomas
Leadership depends upon followership and followership depends upon leadership. Having a title does not make you a leader. The only thing that makes you a leader is people choosing to follow you.
What Great Leaders Know
- Lead from the front and show the way
- Results of the team measure leadership effectiveness
- We win when everyone crosses the finish line
- Leadership is a team sport
Links