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Be an Employee Influencer

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StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article |Influencer|Be an Employee InfluencerI have read that 85 percent of us are unlikely to make big changes in our lives without some kind of outside influence. That means that only 15 percent of people unilaterally decide to make changes and then follow through and do it on their own. Translation: Most of us need someone we trust to influence us either by their words or their actions. Effective leadership is really about influence.

Influence, at its core, is the reward of investing in your employees and helping someone transform. The result of that influence is a gift that your people will give you when you pursue them well and care enough to engage with them to make needed changes. And caring enough is the secret sauce to making all of this work.

The truth is, the positive effect of influence can be seen in all our relationships, not just at work. Think of your personal relationships with your friends or family members. For example, I, as a parent, desperately want to influence my children in a positive way. But if I haven’t invested in them well enough as a dad, they won’t look to me as a role model or request my advice, and they will not be open to my influence. The same is true for your employees.

Recognize Opportunities to Influence

Being an employee influencer is one of the most rewarding aspects of leadership. If you have invested well enough in your employees, they will seek your influence. You have to learn to look for this, become aware of when they’re seeking it, and not miss the opportunity when it presents itself. That can be easy to do if you’re not paying close attention.

For example, through the course of a typical work day while I’m reviewing projects and tasks with my team, an employee may ask questions about how they would like me to have them manage a project or accomplish a task. When this happens, it would be easy for me as a leader to misunderstand the individual’s intentions and think they’re trying to abdicate responsibility or get me to solve their problems for them. In actuality, they are requesting my influence without asking for it directly. When this happen to you, take it as a sign that you have invested well in that employee. On the other hand, you may have an employee who never seeks your advice. This may be a sign that you haven’t invested in them enough. Pay attention to both and calibrate your time and attention accordingly for each.

Here’s another example: A member of my senior leadership team is being considered for a promotion to the executive leadership team. We—the executive leaders and I—have invested greatly in this person personally and professionally. We enjoy spending time with her, and we want to see her succeed. We’ve been persistent in letting her know, “We’re for you.”

Recently, I invited her to an executive meeting. She was asked a question and sort of stumbled over the answer. This stumble felt like failure to her. She felt like this one moment might impede her rise to executive leadership in our organization.

Later that day, she came to my office.

“I feel like I really blew it at the meeting,” she said. “Everyone else had such terrific responses to your questions, but I didn’t know what to say.” I asked her why she felt that way, and she told me that she hadn’t properly prepared for the meeting. Then she asked, “What do I need to do to be able to better answer questions in these meetings?” What I heard was “How do I improve?” That’s what every leader wants to hear from their people. It was gratifying and encouraging. It also confirmed what we all were thinking about her ability to move to bigger responsibilities within our organization.

She wasn’t asking me, “How do I fix it?” It was so much more than that. She was asking for my influence. She was saying, in so many words, “I’m seeking your counsel and advice. What do I need to do next in order to live out my version of success?”

I gave her my thoughts on the issue and she responded by saying that she was going to follow up. My guess is she’ll be better prepared for our next meeting and the questions that might arise there.

And this is how you’ll know your influence is working. It’s what happens after you do or say it. Influence is only successful when another person responds to your words or deeds and does something about the issue, whatever it may be.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Chris MeroffChris Meroff has spent more than 25 years supporting leaders in education at both the campus and district levels. Through his work in 17 states and across thousands of school districts, he’s seen firsthand the frustration administrators feel when their efforts don’t produce the alignment they desire. He’s made a career of testing new leadership ideas to see what works—and what doesn’t—in service-oriented leadership. His business, Alignment Leadership Consulting, exists to teach leaders how they can boldly pursue a workplace culture that prioritizes employee fulfillment. You can learn more at www.AlignLeadThrive.com.

How to Ensure You Have Happy and Productive Employees

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As a manager of a team, your primary responsibility is to make sure the people working for you are doing the best work they can be and are inspired to come to work every day to do so. If you’re doing your job well, your team will, in turn, do theirs well and will be more productive, efficient, and overall happier with their jobs. Happy employees mean less turnover, which can save the company money in the long-term — it’s a win-win for everyone.

The challenge is to balance managing and leading a team while still being able to find time to get your own daily task list completed. Maybe you were thrust into a management position without prior experience or much knowledge, or had to lead a team before and are still looking for new ways to be efficient, but regardless, there are some easy ways to ensure your employees are happy at work without spending too much of your time.

Be authentic

Nobody wants to be around someone they can tell is acting fake, nor would they trust that person and turn to them with work-related issues or to help solve a problem. Don’t come to work with a “work persona” or with a face on, but rather be yourself and be genuine – people can certainly tell the difference.

Lead the team how you’re comfortable doing so, not based on how others lead or by trying to copy a leadership style that doesn’t work for you. Find your groove instead of trying to mimic someone else’s, and your employees will value that, as well as feel they can be themselves at work too.

Appreciate good work

When someone feels as though they put in a good effort and don’t get recognized for it, they can quickly feel undervalued and start looking elsewhere for work. Colleagues are often caught up in their own workload that they don’t take the time to offer recognition to each other, so step up and be the one who appreciates and congratulates an employee on doing well at their job. It will ensure motivation levels are high, and also set the bar and encourage other employees to do the same, which fosters a positive and empowering environment for everyone. Even a simple “good job” can make a big difference.

Have a good break area

Taking a break from work helps relax your mind, detach from the stresses of the day or problem at hand, and then come back at it with a refreshed brain, ready to tackle it again. It can also help people take a look at a problem from a new angle they wouldn’t have thought of if they had sat there racking their brain for hours on end.

Having a space to encourage breaks, like a family-style kitchen eating area with a big table and chairs, or a “fun room” with activities like a foosball table, books, board or card games, or a fully stocked mini-fridge. Also, having water coolers around the office encourages employees to get up every once in a while to stretch their legs and grab a drink, and maybe socialize for a bit with a colleague.

If you have the boss’s ear, advocate for a good and fun employee break area. Or, you are the one who runs the show at work, maybe it’s time to rearrange some furniture or even get to remodeling the office space. It may seem like a big upfront cost, but happy employees are more productive, efficient, and you’ll have less turnover to account for.

Top 5 Skills that Differentiate a Stellar Leader from a Mediocre One – Do You Have Them?

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | Leadership Skills | Top 5 Skills that Differentiate a Stellar Leader from a Mediocre One – Do You Have Them?There was a time when the great thinkers of this world thought that we all come into being with a specific set of skills. These skills defined our lives and decided who we were going to be even before we’d have a chance of thinking about it.

This led to the idea that some people are born leaders, some are born musicians, and some are born without any special skills (aka the regular ones). Luckily, we know better by now, and even if a natural inclination is important, it’s the skills we acquire that make us who we are.

This means that we have talented people who chose not to develop their natural abilities, and we have determined people who choose to compensate by learning and being consistent.

Now, when it comes to leadership, not everyone is a natural at it. However, if you truly want to be a stellar leader, you can do so by refining your behavior and actions through training, education, and experience.
Today we’ll list the top 5 skills any true leader must have in order to rise above the average and make a difference in their field.

Communication & Empathy

You must be able to inspire the people in your team and the only way to do this is by communicating in a way that lets people know you understand and support their positions. As a leader, you are in charge of guiding the team towards new levels of success but there’s no way to do this without showing empathy and being a good listener.

Verbal communication is crucial in both one-on-one and group meetings, as it creates a strong bond between participants.

Luckily, most of us can learn to get better at communicating their thoughts and making other people feel heard and understood. Nowadays, we have access to a wide array of online business communication courses designed specifically for leadership and management positions.

However, empathy may be a bit more difficult to grasp if you’re not a natural empath. It can be learned, but it requires you to see the world through the eyes of another person, which can be confusing to master.

Integrity & Accountability

If you want people to be honest and work from a moral high ground, you need to be the leading example.

C.S. Lewis once said that “integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” If you invest more in your image than you do in your team and your behavior, things will start to crumble pretty fast.

A good leader must implement a solid foundation and allow team members to grow on their own path. This usually means putting your employees first and being appreciative of their time and efforts. After all, their success is yours as well.

Furthermore, a stellar leader will always support its team and share in both the blame and the success. They will hold themselves accountable for their actions, thus creating a sense of responsibility among team members and gaining their respect.

Resilience

When we talk about great leaders, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk, we only discuss their success stories. However, if we were to read their biographies, we’d learn that they had to overcome increasingly difficult conditions and situations.

Most people would have caved, given the same difficulties, but the stellar leaders of this world plowed through any wall that blocked their way. They had the vision and, even though there were many times of doubt, they never let their teams see this.

Wrap Up

While the skills mentioned above don’t talk about incredible talent or extreme intelligence, they can be difficult to master for most people. We’re not all great communicators and it can be difficult to maintain your integrity when things don’t go your way. Also, keeping yourself accountable and moving forward regardless of difficulties doesn’t sound like that much fun.

However, these are skills that toughen a person’s character, earn their peers’ respect and help create some of the most amazing leaders of our world (past, present, and future)!

About the Author

Oli is a working mum who has a passion for teaching and all things educational. With a background in marketing, Oli manages the digital channels and content at Courses.com.au.

The Failures A Leader Should Never Tolerate

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StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article |Leadership|The Failures A Leader Should Never TolerateAs a leader, being understanding of mistakes and even merciful when possible is often the right strategy to take. Your team needs room to grow and if you come down too hard on all problems, you create a culture where people simply aren’t willing to bring your attention to those problems, so they fester.

However, you also have to show courageous leadership and even be confrontational when it comes to the serious issues. Otherwise, you have no authority and you create an environment where everything is permissible. With that in mind, here are some failures that you cannot tolerate as a leader, and how you should combat them.

Preferential treatment

This is a problem that you’re going to see in almost every workplace. Exceptional team leadership means being able to delegate, to discipline, and to praise evenly across the board, regardless of personal chemistry or whether you and a colleague don’t see eye-to-eye. However, your discipline isn’t always the problem. The other managers and team leaders can fall prey to the temptations of preferential leadership. You have to be able to spot the signs of it and to ensure that the leaders beneath you know that is simply is not permitted. Otherwise, you may have to find other leaders who won’t fall into the same trap.

Passing the buck

As mentioned, a culture where your team feels free to communicate and report misconduct in the workplace is important. You have to create that culture of accountability yourself. The best way to do that is to hold yourself responsible when possible. If your team fails to meet a business goal, rather than blaming them, apologize for your role in making that failure happen. Be forgiving with small mistakes, as mentioned, so your team is more willing to take accountability. There will be those who try to pass the buck onto others, and you may have to make an example by reprimanding them for doing that rather than simply taking the blame, themselves.

Theft

Employee theft comes in a lot of different shapes and sizes, and it’s not always targeting you directly. However, whether it’s a stapler, a filing cabinet, or cash, you cannot tolerate an employee who rips you off, rips a client off, rips a supplier off, or rips one of their colleagues off. Implement different approaches to prevent theft as best as you can but be willing to address the problem and nip it in the bud as soon as it happens. People who are willing to steal from those they work with cannot be trusted in any capacity and should be let go. It doesn’t matter if they’re working in the mail room or if they’re with you for the daily briefing in the executive team every day.

StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article |Leadership|The Failures A Leader Should Never TolerateDrug use

Alcohol and drug abuse are a sad fact of modern life. It’s a disease that’s spreading through society, affecting countless individuals, families and, yes, even workplaces. Effective, empathetic leaders will provide pathways or help in finding treatment for substance abuse, but that doesn’t mean that they will tolerate it in their workplace. Addiction is a dangerous condition, one that can endanger the safety of the others in the workplace. Finding the right method to test for it and removing the affected individual, if found, from the workplace is the first priority. How you choose to help them or not comes after that. However, it is important to show empathy to the stresses and troubles of your team where and when that’s possible.

Digital misconduct

Nowadays, a business is often most vulnerable in its digital spaces. Most businesses that suffer a major data breach do not survive past two years. For that reason, you have to make it as clear as possible to your team that digital security protocols simply must be followed. Those who neglect their duties or who willingly allow unauthorized access to sensitive data cannot be tolerated. Working with an IT security provider can help you close the vulnerabilities that they open and, furthermore, can help you realize when employees have been tricked or negligent or when they have intentionally contributed to the vulnerability that comes with a data breach.

Harassment

Workplace bullying, discrimination, or harassment of any kind is a noxious weed that takes root deeply and spreads fast if allowed. It creates a culture of intimidation, fear, and coercion that can irreversibly impact the sense of trust and team identity that you work hard to build. As such, you must act to stamp it out as hard as possible, with no reprieve for the culprits no matter their position or personal/working relationship with you. The best way to combat harassment is as a team. Provide safe, anonymous ways of start HR reports, provide tips on how to identify and report it, make sure that it’s clear you have a zero-tolerance approach to harassment. If you fail your duties to provide an environment where harassment is treated seriously, your business is liable for the damage suffered.

Safety snafus

Every workplace has its safety issues. Even in an easy-going, secure office, slips, trips and falls and fire hazards still exist. It’s important to make sure your team is aware of the workplace safety policies and practices that you have in place. It’s just as important to make sure that they never cut corners when it comes to worksafe practices. If they undertake any actions that endanger themselves or others in the workplace, they need to be trained in safe practices from the beginning. In the case of a breach that could cause serious harm, you may want to consider further punishment. The consequences of allowing someone to be seriously injured on your watch are too great to simply let it slide.

As a leader, there are going to be situations that test your resolve and demand hard decisions. It’s important that you be aware of the risks and have strategies in place to deal with them so that you’re able to effectively show that authority when you need to.

5 Telltale Signs of Fear-Based Leadership

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StrategyDriven Business Politics Practices Article |Fear-Based Leadership|5 Telltale Signs of Fear-Based LeadershipFear is bad for business. It significantly lowers engagement, morale, and ultimately, performance. Despite clear and overwhelming evidence of fear’s debilitating impacts, many leaders still resort to stoking people’s anxieties to get work done.

Consider these facts:

  • According to Human Resource Executive magazine, roughly one-third of U.S. workers spend at least 20 hours at work every month complaining about their bosses, instead of performing their jobs.
  • Gallup reports that American workers who are unhappy with their bosses are significantly less productive, to the tune of $360 billion in lost productivity each year.
  • A study published in the Journal of Managerial Psychology found that people who are mistreated on the job are twice as likely to be depressed at work and 33 percent more likely to report exhaustion and sleep disorders, which all disrupt productivity.

Given how damaging fear can be—and given the financial consequences—how can you assess if your organization is operating under fear’s grip? Look for these five telltale signs:

CYA Rules the Day. If employees spend an inordinate amount of time generating proof that they’re doing their jobs, they’re fearful—and worried about saving their tails. This may take the form of long lists of people cc’d on mundane email exchanges, obsessive meeting summaries, and employees who request formal approvals for everyday tasks.

Leaders Are Oblivious. When leaders are insulated from employee feedback, they become dangerously blind to themselves. Typically, the higher up you go in the organizational food chain, the less performance feedback is given. In most organizations, feedback flows downward, keeping leaders dangerously and blithely oblivious.

Bean Counters Call the Shots. In fear-based cultures, the educational backgrounds of C-suite leaders can disproportionately favor finance and accounting, which causes organizations to be hyper-analytical and risk-averse. When financial acumen is valued more than creativity or innovation, decisions end up being driven solely by the numbers, or by the fear of not meeting those numbers, instead of what’s in the best interest of the organization.

Everything Is Needed Yesterday. When fear-based leadership reigns, work environments turn toxic, permeated by anxiety and urgency. In such places, regardless of their roles, everyone seems to have the same job: firefighter! By jumping from one blazing inferno to the next, workers lose focus and their performance suffers.

People Are Crucified for Mistakes. When leaders rule through fear, even smart mistakes are punished swiftly and harshly, creating a play-it-safe-at-all-costs environment. Workers end up hiding their mistakes or blaming others for them. They cry, “Who caused this to happen?” instead of “How did this happen?”

Fortunately, despite all of its badness, fear does have one redeeming quality: it’s an invitation to courage. As such, fear, or more precisely, the courage that fear often prompts, can help you encounter your better self. By setting the tone from the top, you’ll set the stage for courage to prevail.

About the Author

Bill Treasurer is a workplace expert, courage pioneer, and author of Courage Goes to Work: How to Build Backbones, Boost Performance, and Get Results. Founder of Giant Leap Consulting, a consulting and training company specializing in courage-building, he advises organizations — including NASA, eBay, Lenovo, Saks Fifth Avenue, Spanx, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Pittsburgh Pirates — on teaching workers the kind of courage that strengthens businesses and careers. Learn more at GiantLeapConsulting.com.