Lead by Example

Good leaders must lead by example. By walking your talk, you become a person others want to follow. When leaders say one thing, but do another, they erode trust--a critical element of productive leadership.

http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/lead_by_example.html

1. Take responsibility. Blame costs you your credibility, keeps team members on the defensive and ultimately sabotages real growth.

2. Be truthful. Inaccurate representation affects everyone. Show that honesty really IS the best policy.

3. Be courageous. Walk through fire (a crisis) first. Take calculated risks that demonstrate commitment to a larger purpose.

4. Acknowledge failure. It makes it OK for your team to do the same and defines failure as part of the process of becoming extraordinary.

5. Be persistent. Try, try again. Go over, under or around any hurdles to show that obstacles don’t define your company or team.

6. Create solutions. Don’t dwell on problems; instead be the first to offer solutions and then ask your team for more.

7. Listen. Ask questions. Seek to understand. You’ll receive valuable insights and set a tone that encourages healthy dialogue.

8. Delegate liberally. Encourage an atmosphere in which people can focus on their core strengths.

9. Take care of yourself. Exercise, don’t overwork, take a break. A balanced team, mentally and physically, is a successful team. Model it, encourage it, support it!

10. Roll up your sleeves. Like Alexander the Great leading his men into battle, you’ll inspire greatness in your company.

How Do I Motivate My People?

How do I motivate my people?

Clearly we all wish that all the people working for us were energetically and diligently figuring out how to do better every day, both on the job and off the job. We want 110% put forth with the best interests of the company on the top of everyone’s mind.

So you must get out there and “motivate your people to do more, better!”

Well, quite frankly, that is impossible.

Positive motivation only comes from within.

Motivation is the reason or reasons a person has for acting or behaving in a certain way. These reasons can originate from inside us or from outside us. Those two sources are known respectively as intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.

“Intrinsic motivation occurs when we act without any obvious external rewards. We simply enjoy an activity or see it as an opportunity to explore, learn, and actualize our potentials.” (Coon & Mitterer, 2010)

The issue with intrinsic motivations is that no outsider can ever expect to truly understand a person’s intrinsic motivations. In fact, most people don’t truly understand their ownintrinsic motivations.

“It’s fun, interesting, captivating, enjoyable…” and intrinsically motivating. Who knows?

If you will never know what motivated a person, then leave it to the individual to pursue.

As for extrinsic motivations, those are provided to us by outside influences. In the workplace, this means things like peer pressure, the culture, rewards, incentives, visions, directives, and rules, along with things like value and mission statements.

Now we’re talking. Those are tangible motivations. As the boss, manager, leader and great communicator, you can control those, right?

“Set a great vision and communicate it effectively. That will motivate your people.”

Hold on!

As it turns out, if what you ultimately want is sustained peak performance, this can only be achieved by unleashing a person’s intrinsic motivations. And to do that you must minimize extrinsic motivators.

Time to stop trying to motivate people.

Psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan proved in over 30 years of research with contributions from many other psychologists that almost all extrinsic motivations interfere with intrinsic motivations.

And actually, the research showed that a person’s performance drops as extrinsic motivators increase. Meaning for example, contrary to popular belief, monetary rewards have a negative effect on motivation. It’s not about the money. It’s about wanting to do better for the sake of doing better.

Deci and Ryan discovered that to be highly motivated, every person requires the simultaneous existence of the same three things: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. That is a very, very powerful statement with significant implications for management at every level.

Over my 34 years of managing people, I found this to absolutely be true. I led my subordinate managers to provide high levels of autonomy and to ensure people were well-trained and within a highly collaborative, well-supplied, open environment. This is when performance gaps closed almost entirely.

Avoid the motivation trap.

You simply cannot motivate someone. All you can do as the boss is to unleash their intrinsic motivations. That means you don’t do what might squash it. And when you get yourself out of the way even those that you thought less of, that you believed were simply not motivated enough to ever do a good job, will surprise you.

Just as with The Biggest Mistake, you are not really at fault. We are told over and over to try to “motivate” the people that work for us. The most well-intentioned leaders try it. And the myriad ways to do so are widely touted. It’s tough to avoid the trap!

So then if you are wondering…

“Why aren’t some or most of my people motivated?”

More than likely the reason is because you are trying to motivate them.

Source - http://bensimonton.com/author/ben/

The Biggest Mistake Managers Make

For many years, I ran around telling the people that worked for me what to do. I was very good at it. Considered great at my job. Promoted early and often.

Then I discovered it was absolutely the wrong thing to do. It was a big mistake. I knew this because after I stopped – and instead began listening and responding to the complaints, suggestions, and questions of my people – performance shot up!


Most managers I meet and see, at every level, make this very same mistake over and over again. And most of you don’t know you are doing it because you believe your job, as the boss, is:

To plan, direct, and control the work of a group of individuals, to monitor that work, and to take corrective action when you deem necessary.

What you are really doing is resorting to the traditional top-down, command and control approach to managing people – exactly the one I used in my first years in the US Navy.

Some of you take it to the extreme – the micromanagers – while others are doing this only some of the time. Many of you even appear to be successful, like I was. However, through your direction and control, you are actually squashing performance and potential while building a largely unsustainable operation.

But why is directing and controlling a mistake?

There are two major reasons. First, no one likes being told what to do. Second, that approach causes you to miss loads of potential and indeed kill much of it.

Think about it, do you like orders? Do you like being told what to do or how to do it?
When you tell someone what to do or how to do it, the impression you leave is that you know best and/or that the person is not capable of doing the work. Impressions pile up. Many people endure this to keep their job or to get ahead, but no one truly likes orders and no one is motivated to do their best work when ordered around. This is simply human nature.

Thus, the top-down, command and control approach naturally demotivates, demoralizes, and demeans individuals and tends to damage the good we want to arise from them.

There are exceptions. A few people will seem not to be affected. They will prevail and succeed regardless of what their boss does. But again, they will not put forth their best work. Their output will be diminished. They will not reach their full potential.

Now, the possible performance gain from properly managing people is about 500%. That is no small gain which is why I quote it often. It is huge! Stephen Covey Sr. stated it and my own experience bears out his contention, but only after I shifted away from top-down.

So then, by de-motivating people with command and control, a huge amount of creativity, innovation, and productivity goes unrealized. You also may contribute to a reduced quality of life for yourself and those you manage.

Why do most of us make this mistake?

We are taught to direct and control from an early age by an authoritarian society. Then when we enter the workforce, we hear and see more of the same. We aren’t really ever taught how to manage people. We are taught to control the work, to get it done, as portrayed in the pyramid below.

The pyramid even appears to make sense. Take a look at it. All the right parts are included to deliver success.

The foundation of the pyramid is the most important. As the most important part, you can’t help thinking that you will be held accountable for planning, organizing, directing and controlling. “I must be certain to do everything I can to succeed and get it done” and so it begins.

”Here are our goals and objectives for this year.”
“We must do better.”
“Do it like this.”
“We need…. Get me ….”
“You do this. So-and-so will do that.”

What happens after directing and controlling?

Next, we are given the job of motivating our people – in the second level of that pyramid. But you have just de-motivated them. How, pray tell, can you motivate them? You buried them in directions and controls. Now you want them to jump? Charisma, influence and communication skills will not help you.

The few top performers on your team will pull off the jump…sometimes…while you likely struggle with the rest and begin to accept that as the way things are.

“At least I have a few good people… We’ll have to hire better people next time.” Then what do you do with the mediocre and poor performers? Direct and control them more!

Flip that pyramid.

There it is then. From my own years of managerial experience (including my own mistakes) and watching hundreds of managers, without a doubt the biggest mistake a manager can make is to direct and control people to get the work done.

This is not your job, nor is it the most effective path. You limit your own results, arbitrarily, when employing that approach and generate problems with people you don’t need…even when you only direct and control a little bit, or think you only do it a little bit.

Ditch top-down.
Flip that pyramid upside-down.
Support them with what they need to become self-directed and they will astound you!

Source - http://bensimonton.com/author/ben/