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Tag: New Ideas
Turn to Your Team for Solutions
Many minds are better than one. Turn to Your Team for Solutions.
Have you ever worked at a job where every decision had to be made by the boss rather than turning to the team for solutions? Asking your team for solutions is a model for growth while single approval control is a misstep. Following the traditional model of business means yielding to the more senior leader as the expert in all circumstances. To be fair, nobody can be an expert at everything or should be expected to be.
Great Leaders know solutions, ideas, innovations come from an array of sources and their role is not to be the one and only solution provider, but the person who creates an environment where everyone has value and is depended upon to contribute to solving problems, innovation, growth.
The obstacle to including team members in decision making is the leader’s need to control. It may seem like the right thing to do is to defer to the boss, but this presents individuals from learning how to make decisions and grow.
When I learned to give problems back to my team, they generated amazing solutions.
Since they were hitting the roadblock day after day, they had a perspective I did not. I made it my goal to engage the team in problem solving. When they would ask me what to do, I asked them what they thought. If they provided a workable solution, I would let them introduce it and give them credit- “We’re going to follow Amy’s plan today.” As you can imagine, Amy’s stock rose among her peers and everyone on the team was motivated to provide the next solution. When other teams spent time gossiping and tuning out, mine were thinking about how can we make things better. Not everyone can offer a workable solution, but that’s not important, engaging them is important.
I remember asking my front line team how we can reduce supply costs. They knew exactly what needed to happen and we reduced supply costs by 20%. They were excited to watch our progress! I was too!
By turning to your team for solutions, employee engagement, retention rates and operational performance results will all improve, leaving the controllers in your wake.
What Great Leaders Know
Create an environment where everyone contributes solutions
Source solutions from an array of sources, not just from the top of the org chart
Focus everyone on making things better
Links
https://whatgreatleadersknow.com/
https://hbr.org/2023/03/how-to-equip-your-team-to-problem-solve-without-you
Mastering the Art of Hiring: Great Leaders Know Whom To Hire
Mastering the art of hiring is essential for any great leader to ensure long-term success. Indeed, mastering the process can make all the difference.
Everyone is looking for the right team members, but few actually hire them and fewer still retain them, yet the most important decision Great Leaders make is hiring the right person. But how to do it? Mastering the art of hiring requires dedication and strategy.
Hire for mission alignment and natural ability then teach skills. Remember, mastering the art of hiring involves focusing on the right attributes.
Focus Interviews on understanding the candidate’s personal mission- why the candidate did what they did matters even more than what they did, but most interviews focus on what. Understanding the why helps determine mission alignment between the candidate and the organization. Employers want to hire people who have the same mission as their organization. Employees want to work for organizations that align with their personal mission. Great Leaders Know Whom To Hire, and aligning missions is the initial step.
Great Leaders Know there is no substitute for talent.
Hiring is the most important opportunity any leader has. Retention is the second. Yet, many sourcing, hiring, onboarding, and development processes do not receive sufficient focus or resources. Great Leaders Know Whom To Hire and how crucial it is to retain those hires. By mastering the art of hiring, they secure their organization’s future.
Personality traits like imagination, organization, and math skills are with us since birth, although they can be developed or stunted based on our life experiences. Many skills, like following a set instructions or processes, can be taught.
Great Leaders highly value experience because it demonstrates a continued pattern of success and the ability to learn. It demonstrates what someone has done and what they might be able to do. However, experience is not a substitute for ability, and great leaders know they must balance both when hiring.
Every organization is a tapestry of the aligned and mis-aligned, an array of natural abilities, a wealth of experience, and fresh eyes, and a spectrum of learning styles. Great Leaders orchestrate the performance of individuals and the team, knowing whom to hire to maintain a harmonious balance. Mastering the art of hiring ensures this balance is optimal.
Great Leaders Know
Hire for mission alignment and natural ability then teach skills
There is no substitution for talent
Hiring is the most important opportunity any leader has
Links
https://www.yardstick.team/interview-questions/mission-orientation
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
Lead With Confidence
Shaquille O’Neal never has to tell anyone he is really tall (7 feet 1 inch!). Why? Because he knows he is and we can see that he is in person or on TV. What would it be like if he walked around telling everyone he was really tall? Would you be suspicious?
Gold Medalist gymnast Simone Biles doesn’t spend her time telling everyone she meets that she is a champion gymnast. To lead with confidence, she doesn’t need to boast. Why? Because she knows she is and we have seen her in the Olympics. What if you met Simone and she greeted you with a list of her accomplishments? Would it inspire confidence or concern?
Great leaders know they don’t have to tell people they are the boss because they lead with confidence and act accordingly. Their team members understand from observing and interacting that the leader is the leader. Managers who continually stand behind their title have an important lesson to learn- using a title to provide leverage reduces effectiveness.
When a manager regularly says “You have to do what I say because I’m the manager” it is because THEY don’t believe in themselves. Leading with confidence is key because if they don’t believe, the team won’t either. The team still needs to do what the manager says, however, a leader without confidence will be seen as ineffective. This type of behavior will earn compliance- the lowest level of performance.
What Great Leaders Know
- Have confidence in yourself
- There is no need to proclaim you are the leader when you know you are and lead with confidence
- Using a title as leverage weakens the perception of the leader
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
Links
Great Leadership- Alignment and Mission
We cannot be fulfilled in our work experience if our personal mission is not aligned with our organization’s mission.
When a vehicle is out of alignment, the tires wear out quickly and unevenly delivering an unpleasant ride. Mis-alignment can also damage the breaks, steering and frame. As more time passes without resolving the issue, the more damage is done, the more costly the fix. This is true for Wheels, Alignment and Mission in a professional context as well.
When I have parted ways with employers it has always been because my personal mission no longer aligned with the organization’s mission. Either my personal mission had evolved or I realized the company no longer stood for what I supported. These moments are clear indicators when the focus on Wheels, Alignment and Mission is absent.
I encourage everyone I work with to sit down and write their personal mission statement so they have a North Star. Next, to write down their employer’s mission statement. Compare them. Do they align? Does working for the employer help them achieve their personal mission? How do the leaders of their employer behave in relation to the mission? Is the mission an afterthought, a slogan? Alignment in Wheels, Alignment and Mission is key.
If your employer’s mission or the way they pursue it, doesn’t align with your personal mission, find an organization that does as soon as you can. You will be much happier and less worn down by the journey. Addressing Wheels, Alignment and Mission can help in finding fulfillment in your career.
What Great Leaders Know
Their personal mission
A personal mission must align with our employer’s mission
Missions with conflicting purposes result in unavoidable strain and waste
Links
https://www.firestonecompleteautocare.com/blog/alignment/is-it-time-for-a-wheel-alignment/