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A Winning Choice for Leadership!
"The only way to enjoy anything in this life, is to earn it first." One bad apple can spoil the bunch! As a leader, we cannot allow "bad apples" to interrupt our efforts toward achieving our goals. Leaders can quickly lose credibility with their team when we fail to immediately address issues that get in the way of the teams' mission. So how do we best address an issue with an employee that we perceive to be a "bad apple"? First, we self-assess our own actions. The three key leadership areas that we must consistently hold ourselves accountable to: - Teach Teach - Have you, as the leader, taken the time to communicate your expectations clearly? Have you taught the employee? Coach - Have you provided the one-on-one training and coaching to ensure the employee is capable of meeting your expectations? Expect - Have you witnessed the employee doing the task, or exhibiting the behavior you expect, so that you know they understand? Have you been consistent in your expectations so that you know that the employee could not have misunderstood? Assuming you have met the above criteria, then the conversation with the offending employee can be pretty straightforward. We never said it was going to be easy, but if you've done your job as the leader, the employee simply needs to understand his/her choices. An effective leader understands the importance of acting quickly and fairly with problem employees. To ensure fairness, leaders must remove their personal emotions from the professional issue at hand. Leaders must prepare themselves so that the entire discussion focused on two areas:
- Performance Stay focused only on Performance and Behavior when working through employee issues. Trust this advice and I guarantee that your Human Resources Rep. and/or any future Legal Rep., will love you for it! Yes, there is always a risk, and possibility of legal consequences ie. someone suing you for wrongful termination. Serious stuff, right? Still, you can be confident! Terminating someone due to repeated, specific behavior and/or performance issues, can be reasonably understood by a 12-person jury. Whereas, firing someone because "you just did not like him/her" can raise serious doubt about the credibility of the manager. So, one last time always keep comments (verbal and written) focused solely on Performance and/or Behavior. Let's consider a specific example. How a great leader can present a WINNING CHOICE to a bad apple: - Communicate clearly your expectations in terms of Performance and Behavior. - Communicate the rewards of meeting your expectations ie. job security, future opportunity, respect and credibility - Communicate the consequences of not meeting expectations ie. looking for another role where he/she will find more fulfillment. - Allow the employee the opportunity to choose his/her own path (one road leads to rewards, the other road leads to new adventures - probably working for someone else) - Ensure the employee that you will support the employee in either CHOICE he or she makes - but ultimately, the choice and the responsibility belongs to the employee. - Confirm that the employee understands your expectations and that you will do your part by supporting him and holding him accountable. Once you have had this discussion and placed the employee on a "Final Notice", you have truly empowered the employee to create his/her own destiny. The actions of the employee, in terms of both Performance and Behavior, will soon signal to you his or her "choice". Make sure you "support" the employee in whichever path she chooses to take. Reward her for her progress, or release her from a situation that neither party is happy with. By following the above guidelines, your team will respect you for your fair and decisive leadership. No, it's never easy to let someone go, but it is the right thing to do if that's the employees' "choice". Richard Gorham is the founder and President of Leadership-Tools, Inc. His web site, http://www.leadership-tools.com is dedicated to providing free tools and resources for today's aspiring leaders. Offering high-quality tools in the areas of Business Planning, Leadership Development, Customer Service, Sales Management and Team Building.
Leadership - Google News |
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Coaching Leadership: Wisdom of the Ages If you gather 100 experienced leaders together to share with you their most important secrets for success, you probably wouldn't hear a lot of academic theory or jargon. Instead, this is a good idea of what you'd hear: Ten Ways Women Can Visualize Themselves As Leaders Women should not be afraid of or feel guilty about taking a leadership role--in their organization, in their community, in their own lives. What could you accomplish if you were leading your life instead of simply living your life? Leadership and The Dirty Work The airline, Jet Blue, has been featured in many magazines as a new company that has hard great results and success so far. A lot too has been mentioned about the challenges they face ahead and about the culture they created at the start and are working hard to foster now. One of the many things that sets Jet Blue apart is their focus on teamwork. Here's one example. They have no cleaning crews - every employee on the flight (including pilots and those not working but on the flight) cleans up the plane. This saves time and money - both things very important to any business. Getting Things Done, Without the Sweat! How do you get your people on your side? And once their on your side, how can you get them to do anything you want? It's a skill that we all want. Nothing's better than leaving the hard work for someone else! But how? A Whack Up Long Side The Head Of Human Resources: The Leadership Imperative When we perceive the simple center in the seemingly complex, we can change our world in powerful new ways. All You Really Want Is Feeling Good If I asked you what your goal in life is, what would you answer? Well, the answer would be as diversified as people are. Building Future Leaders As a whole we spend a lot of time filling our minds with various forms of self-improvement. In Leadership, The Eight Ways Of Right Action (Part 2) In Part 1, I said that leaders who can't have people take right action are ineffective, and I listed four of the eight ways of right action. In Part 2, I'll describe the remaining four ways. Effective Leaders are (#2) Technical SET CLEAR AND REASONABLE OBJECTIVES FOR THEMSELVES AND OTHERS: Plan? Plan? Plan? Managers need to do their homework. Effective managers know that setting objectives, outlining the steps required to achieve them, and delegating tasks appropriately to each staff person are all necessary components of bringing a project to fruition. The development of a system that maintains these objectives (like a wall calendar) is a good sign of an effective leader and time manager. Any major projects should be time-lined backwards from completion date to incipience to verify how long they will take, and to create intermediate goals to keep the staff and management motivated. Five Things Smart Leaders Do to Lower The Barriers To Change Smart leaders understand that they don't "make" a change happen. They recognize that the people in their organization do the work, change behaviors, and, ultimately, make the change happen. They understand that their role is to make the change meaningful and easier to accept. Smart leaders facilitate change. Miraculous Leadership It was a time of turmoil. In November 1979, supporters of the Ayatollah Khomeini took 71 Americans hostage in Iran. On Christmas Eve that year, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Gasoline prices, inflation and interest rates were soaring as 1980 began. President Jimmy Carter said America was in a "crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will." Who Needs Heroes? When we were talking the other day we started to think about our heroes when we were young. After we had discussed the usual film star and sports stars that we idolised I remembered Derek. Derek was a couple of years ahead of me in school and he had everything; he always got straight 'A's' and was formidable on the football field as well as one of the fastest over 100 metres. What's more he did not appear to work at it. When the rest of us were 'slaving' away at our homework or sweating buckets trying to impress on the football field or athletics track he just turned up and got on with it. A natural, was how one of our teachers described him. Ten Characteristics of Leadership Many people are interested in the characteristics of a great leader. There are many lists of these traits. These are quotes taken from an article by Bill George former chairman and CEO of Medtronic. According to him the most important trait is to be yourself! Two Vital Abilities Any Leader Must Have As a business owner, you are a leader whether you like it or not. Whether you like it or not you have to guide your group in order to expand your organization. And whether you like it or not, there are some difficult situations that you have to confront and handle -- hopefully in a way that inspires confidence in you from your staff. 3 Cs Leaders Must Communicate! "Of every noble work the silent part is best, Of all expression that which can not be expressed" - William Wetmore Story Effective Leaders are (#3) Communicative LISTEN, WRITE, AND ARTICULATE EFFECTIVELY: Leadership positions require effective communication skills. Basic confidence in the art of information sharing is absolutely necessary for effective leadership. Although mastering all of these skills is ideal, it is not always necessary. Creative leaders can develop teams to support them in areas of weakness. One of the strengths of a leader is the capacity to recognize those communication areas in which he or she is weakest and then to supplement them. If for example, the area is listening, a leader might request a written summary for follow-up. If the area is writing, they could delegate the writing up of their ideas. No effective leader, however, can delegate the ability to articulate. Verbal communication must be an effective part of a leader's repertoire. F2 Leadership People don't leave jobs; they leave bosses. -- Anonymous Evil, Hostile Grumpy Listeners? Think Again I hated Kyle Sisk*. A notorious bully, Kyle punctuated my grade school years with misery. He would tease me about my weight, purposely rattle me with shocking language, delight in making me look foolish at every opportunity. Kyle had scary, penetrating eyes and sharp, jagged teeth that looked, appropriately, like fangs. He even had his own evil henchman named Eddie who would follow him everywhere, laughing a conspiratorial little laugh asking, "Heh, heh, what are we going to do next, Kyle? Heh, heh." (All Eddie was missing was a hump.) A typical encounter was the time I was walking home from school and Kyle and Eddie pounced from behind some bushes, grabbed my books and threw them in the mud. Even worse, they snatched my precious, brand new little purse and threw it into the branches of a tree, far out of reach. They then ran off cackling in triumph. I, purseless, limped home in tears. The Defining Moment: The Straw That Stirs The Drink Of Motivational Leadership (Part One) Decades ago, as a rifle platoon commander in the Marines, I saw leaders who could motivate troops to do extraordinary things -- and leaders who could not get the troops to do much at all. I wondered what was the difference between the successful and unsuccessful leaders; and if that difference be taught. The Challenge to Lead The topic of leadership has been and continues to be one of the most vital topics in human history. From ancient civilizations to modern day multi-national corporations, men and women of passion, fervor and zeal have sought to discover the secrets of moving others beyond the gray of their mundane reality to the rich array of colors that embody the palate of the extraordinary life.
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