Leaders, Are your teams empowered?

The key to your team's success is taking the risk of letting go and giving power to your people. That's essentially what the word 'empowerment' is saying. Yes, it's scary. It means giving up some control. But by making your staff stronger, you strengthen the whole organization.

India-based CEO Vineet Nayar has built a highly successful software company by embarking upon a management philosophy he calls "Employees First." In a blog post, he wrote:

“All too often, companies take employees — the lifeblood of every organization — for granted, and the hype surrounding their leaders overshadows the work that employees do. Together, employees have the power to find innovative solutions to the many problems we face. Yet, we prefer to wait for a superhero to change the world with the wave of a magic wand. Let's not fool ourselves; employees are at the core of every game-changing idea. They have built yesterday and today, and undoubtedly, they are going to fashion tomorrow. ”
Washington D.C.-based creativity consultant Kristen Barney, at her blog Insight & Interaction, writes "when an organization has a culture and practices that support everyone in stepping into their highest potential, leaders can expect members to take initiative and excel beyond what is possible when controlled from the top."

Nayar and Barney are right on the money. If you are a leader in your organization and you want innovation, your job is to build the culture and practices that will support your people stepping up to their potential.

Regarding the role of the leader, Nayar has said "Get out of the way!"

"The role of the CEO is to enable people to excel, help them discover their own wisdom, engage themselves entirely in their work, and accept responsibility for making change.” 
When a leader does this, the people will say “We did it ourselves.”

Together, employees have the power to find innovative solutions to the many problems we face.

Four key steps in learning to empower others...

Respect - Effective leaders have a deep respect for their followers. They show it by asking for input, by listening, by speaking the truth, by keeping promises, and by building trust.

Engage - Effective leaders practice lively engagement with their people, seeking their involvement in change initiatives, seeking their ideas and opinions on improvements, having frequent two-way conversations, and making them feel like they are part of the very heart of the business.

Acknowledge - Effective leaders notice each member of the team as an individual human being, recognizing each one's talents, strengths, issues, and goals. Effective leaders are great listeners, opening up to everyone's perspectives, even making sure that dissenting voices are heard.

LBYE - Effective leaders know that they lead by their example. They understand that 'everything they do teaches.' So they coach on a regular basis, always on the lookout for potential that can be evoked and developed.

Highly engaged cultures are action oriented and collaborative. They cherish and unleash the real personalities of the people who work there, resulting in creativity, fun and excitement. In addition to this energy, these organizations empower people through trust, training, and teamwork.

Organizations known for service excellence, like Disney, Southwest Air, and Costco, invest a lot in developing their people. Delegation of assignments and responsibility is a great way to develop others. Plus it empowers them to take on more, growing not only their skills but also their sense of ownership.

Effective leaders do everything in their power to support their people so that they can be successful. In a nutshell, the best leaders empower their people. By giving the team the tools, the training, the equipment, the information, and the authority, plus whatever else is needed to get the job done, the leader has set the team free. 

The best way to find out how effective a leader is, is to ask the led. The followers know best how well their leader is doing. 

Do you have the courage to ask them?

Terrence Seamon has over thirty years of business experience in leadership development, management training, team building, and organizational change, in both internal as well as external consulting roles. Terry has a Master’s degree in Education from Rutgers Graduate School of Education, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Human Communication from Rutgers. His main interest areas these days are change and transition, job search coaching, stress and wellness, employee engagement, and leadership development. You can find him on twitter at tseamonand on facebook at Facilitation Solutions.

For more guidance on Leadership, read Terry's book Lead the Way

Leaders, Are you acting with integrity?

I have long maintained that managing people is the second most difficult job on Planet Earth, the first being parenting. I often start my supervisory skills training classes with that.

The parallels between managing people and raising children are many. As are the lessons.

Just as we raise kids to be capable and to have a sense of responsibility for certain things, so also do we “raise workers” . . .

- to acquire the skills needed to do the job

- to be be aware of their responsibilities

- to be accountable for them, and 

- to take the appropriate actions necessary when they encounter issues....and when you are not around.

As parents we want our children to grow up to be good people. To be happy. To be productive and self-sustaining. To make the world a better place in some way.

Don't we want the same things for the people who work for us?

In a supervisory skills training for front line managers in the shipping industry, I asked them what they expect of their workers, most of whom are union employees.

They had a long list of answers including such items as "to get the job done," "to take care of the equipment," and "to work safely."

I asked the supervisors if such items were negotiable. They answered No. One said, "You can't compromise on things like that. If we don't stand firm on such expectations, it will hurt productivity, costs, and safety."

So we then delved into the key question: How do you, as Supervisors, lead, shape and guide your workers to meet and exceed the expectations?

My pastor Father Doug has a favorite saying: "Everything you do teaches." In the business world, we teach Supervisors that "you lead by your example" or LBYE for short.

This goes to the heart of Integrity which I like to define in three dimensions:

1) Doing the right thing: The leader with integrity encounters her people authentically. She doesn't hide behind her office door. Rather, she is visible, available, approachable. She listens and learns. She cares about her team and wants the best for them.

2) Doing what you said you were going to do: The leader with integrity follows through. She is true to her word. She can be counted on. If she makes a commitment, she will deliver on it. She has her team's back.

3) Making sure that your words and your actions are congruent with your values: The leader with integrity lives by a solid core of values. Values that guide her each day in all her decisions.

And integrity means honesty. She tells the truth, calling it as she sees it.She can be tough when the situation calls for it. But always with a caring intent. No matter what, there is always a pulse of heartfelt love motivating the Leader with Integrity, because it's all about that.

The "A" in LEADS therefore is for Acting: What you do and how you do it.

Effective supervisors act with integrity. Everything they do teaches. So they are mindful of their own conduct, self-aware of the signals their actions (and non-actions) may be sending to their teams.

If you are not getting the performance and results you want from your team, stop and take a look in the mirror. That's where the assessment must begin if you want to make meaningful improvement that sticks.

This article is the third in a series of practical tips for front line leaders.

Terrence Seamon has over thirty years of business experience in leadership development, management training, team building, and organizational change, in both internal as well as external consulting roles. Terry has a Master’s degree in Education from Rutgers Graduate School of Education, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Human Communication from Rutgers. His main interest areas these days are change and transition, job search coaching, stress and wellness, employee engagement, and leadership development. You can find him on twitter at tseamonand on facebook at Facilitation Solutions.

For more guidance on Leadership, read Terry's book Lead the Way

Leaders, Are your teams stressed out?

How stressed is your workplace?

I have a client that recently said to me, "We are so stressed out here. We wonder if we have to "crash and burn" before anyone in management notices...or cares."

It's our Do More With Less operating culture at work, a recipe for disaster. According to news reports on the U.S. economy, hiring is still crawling at a snail's pace, and many employers are planning further headcount cuts. Workloads, however, are likely to keep going up. "Doing more with less" will continue.

As so will stress.

When you combine workloads, pressure, and time shortages, with uncertainty and chaos, much of it due to organizational change, watch out: stress will escalate. As decades of stress research has taught us, the more stress, the greater the negative effects.

What are you doing to manage the stress in your organization? Do you even know how stressed out people are, yourself included?

Most of the organizations I work with are experiencing high levels of change. There was a time when change projects were "neat," having a beginning, middle, and ending. Forget about that now. These days, change is like a roaring flood. With no end in sight.

Some management pundits preach the gospel of change. Jack Welch once said "Change before you have to." He was ahead of his time. Now change is a fact of organizational life. And Welch's words are an imperative.

Should managers care? In short, Yes. Stress takes a big toll on employee engagement, on performance, and on health. In today's whitewater working environment, managers need to develop leadership capabilities for resilience in themselves and others.

If you are a Manager right now, ask yourself, What example am I setting for my team? To start with some fundamentals, consider the following checklist:

Breathe: Learning to breathe deeply and slowly and with mindful attention is now widely seen as a basic element in healthy stress management.

Slow down: Get off the treadmill every day and give yourself time to breathe. To think. To plan. To enjoy life.

Get outdoors: Get some sun and some fresh air. Take time to look at the gifts that nature offers us in abundance.

Take breaks: You can't work continuously and expect to be productive. Breaks are a necessity. Breaks help in many ways. They help you clear your head. And they help you avoid over-sitting.

Work out: Exercise of any kind, from walking to frisbee throwing, helps the body become more resilient.

Perspective: Put your priorities in order and be reasonable and flexible with yourself and with others. What is most important in Life?

Recharge: Just as your phone needs time to replenish its battery, so too do you need time to recharge. Get a good night's sleep. Eat right. Work out.

Support: Be there for others and they will be there for you.

Dr Elana Miller of Zen Psychiatry offers this wisdom:

"The ocean doesn't care about you. It is a force of nature that existed long before you were born and that will be around long after you. We operate under the illusion of control when so many of the most important things in life aren't even close to the realm of our control. When you release yourself from the illusion of control, you can relax. You can put in your best effort but let things turn out how they'll turn out. You can find moments of joy in the most simple things. So don't fight forces of nature. Ride them."

The answer is to become a surfer of change. Surfers of big waves do something that most of us will never do. But there are lessons we can adapt.

What do you resolve to work on to help your team cope with the stress?

Terrence Seamon has over thirty years of business experience in leadership development, management training, team building, and organizational change, in both internal as well as external consulting roles. Terry has a Master’s degree in Education from Rutgers Graduate School of Education, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Human Communication from Rutgers. His main interest areas these days are change and transition, job search coaching, stress and wellness, employee engagement, and leadership development. You can find him on twitter at tseamonand on facebook at Facilitation Solutions.

For more guidance on Leadership, read Terry's book Lead the Way

Leaders, Are your teams delivering results?

For anyone in a leadership role, the key is to stay laser-focused on the two most important things, Results & People. Why? Because there is a vital connection between the two:

~ Your people deliver the results you desire. ~

If there is a secret to effective management, this is it!

Let’s look at three component parts, People, Deliver, and Results.

People

The most effective managers develop their leadership capability. Leadership, by definition, requires Followers. You can’t be a leader alone. Your people are the means, the strategic channels, by which your organization reaches its goals. Therefore, your job is to do everything in your power to help your people succeed. At a high level, do what John Maxwell advises when he says: “A leader knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” And sometimes the leader gets out of the way.

Deliver

The verb “deliver” in this secret means “to do or carry out as promised; to give birth to.” Results don’t happen unless someone makes them happen. Interestingly, the origin of the word deliver means “to set free.” Effective leaders unshackle their people and do everything in their power to remove obstacles and facilitate successful performance.

Results

At the end of the day, we all are measured on (and paid for) the results we get. For those in leadership roles, the results come from the effort of their teams.

Success means Letting Go

Every organization has a definition of success. When President John F. Kennedy said that America would put a man on the moon, he set in motion a great engine of success that unleashed tremendous creative energy…and changed the world. As General George S. Patton once famously said: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and why, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

Let’s delve a bit deeper into the origin of the term “deliver.” It stems from the Latin dēlīberāre, meaning to set free, to liberate. You can’t deliver by fettering your people. Paradoxically, to deliver, one must let go.

This concept of liberation is the breakthrough idea in Jack Welch’s legendary pronouncement that “What we are looking for are leaders at every level who can energize, excite and inspire rather than enervate, depress and control.”

The “old school” of managing said: Control people. Stay on top of them. Now we know that the most effective leaders set their people free to do what they do best so that they can deliver the desired results.

Recent organizational effectiveness research is pointing very consistently toward the key to this liberation. In a word, engagement. Gallup and other similar workplace research organizations are saying that the more engaged a workforce, the higher the productivity –and the profitability– of the company.

The research is also saying that there is one variable, among all the factors that influence employee engagement, that has the biggest influence: the quality and effectiveness of the company’s managers.

As the saying goes, “Employees don’t leave their company. They leave their manager.”

Terrence Seamon has over thirty years of business experience in leadership development, management training, team building, and organizational change, in both internal as well as external consulting roles. Terry has a Master’s degree in Education from Rutgers Graduate School of Education, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Human Communication from Rutgers. His main interest areas these days are change and transition, job search coaching, stress and wellness, employee engagement, and leadership development. You can find him on twitter at tseamonand on facebook at Facilitation Solutions.

For more guidance on Leadership, read Terry's book Lead the Way

Leaders, Are your teams energized?

Retired CEO Jack Welch once said, "We have to undo a 100-year-old concept and convince our managers that their role is not to control people and stay ''on top'' of things, but rather to guide, energize, and excite."

Are your teams excited and energized? If they are, you are probably doing some of the following leadership practices:

Guiding

The leader as "Guide" is like a sherpa, one who is familiar with the terrain ahead. As John Maxwell once said "The leader knows the way, shows the way, and goes the way." This means sharing the vision with the team and building their self-confidence by accompanying the team into the exciting unknown.

Coaching

The leader as "Coach" is there to support and motivate the team. This means boosting the capabilities of the team to meet the challenges they are facing. As Don Shula once said, "Your job is to instruct, discipline, and inspire them to do things better than they thought they could do on their own."

Mentoring

The leader as "Mentor" raises the sights of the team to begin to discern their own future possibilities. This means sharing your experience and wisdom to help them develop career perspective.

Liberating

The leader as "Liberator" is there to free the team from any shackles that will keep them from greatness. This means removing external obstacles (like bureaucratic "red tape") that may threaten to slow the team's advance, but also internal obstacles that might undo the team's effectiveness from within. Especially the danger of dependence on the leader.

As the legendary Lao Tzu once said, "A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." This is the outcome of liberation the best leaders look for.

If your team is struggling, take a look in the mirror. Ask yourself, what have You as their leader been doing? How have you contributed to their struggle?

Then read my previous post, "The Stop-Start-Continue Method" for a way to begin changing.

Terrence Seamon has over thirty years of business experience in leadership development, management training, team building, and organizational change, in both internal as well as external consulting roles. Terry has a Master’s degree in Education from Rutgers Graduate School of Education, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Human Communication from Rutgers. His main interest areas these days are change and transition, job search coaching, stress and wellness, employee engagement, and leadership development. You can find him on twitter at tseamonand on facebook at Facilitation Solutions.

Learn more about leadership, get Terry's book Lead the Way.