Have you ever noticed how simple everything becomes when you can become calm and clear my mind? ~ Jay Wren

Crisis as a Tool

Difficult managers use crisis as a management tool. Everything is serious. Everything is urgent. They shake everybody up.

Old school football coaches were well-known for public sideline tirades. Nothing was ever good enough. No one ever performed up to his level of expectation. Every referee call against their team was an incorrect call.

When to Turn it Off

Effectiveness Depends on the Individual Employee.

I remember John Madden (Oakland Raiders) has talking about the importance of knowing when to use crisis management and which people to manage that way. There are players you light a fire under. You create a do-or-die, now-or-never sense of urgency. With other players, pressure is like a lighted match and gasoline. They can combust. They can become so intense that they mentally leave the game.

Creating crisis thinking, depending on the individual, can destroy the mental flow of performance.

How Soft Voices and Clear Directions Build Better Decisions

In a world often dominated by loud pronouncements and complex corporate jargon, the image of a truly effective leader might surprise you. It’s not always the booming voice or the elaborate strategic framework that inspires the best performance. Often, the most impactful leaders are those who speak softly, yet with unwavering clarity, providing simple, actionable directions that empower their teams to make superior decisions.

Consider the contrast: one leader barks orders, micromanages every detail, and offers a torrent of often contradictory advice. The result? A team paralyzed by fear, hesitant to act, and constantly seeking external validation. Decisions are delayed, innovation is stifled, and individual initiative withers.

Now, picture another leader. Their voice is calm, their demeanor composed. When they speak, it’s with intention, not volume. They offer directions that are stripped of unnecessary complexity, focusing on the core objective and the desired outcome. They define the boundaries, clarify the expectations, and then – crucially – step back, trusting their team to navigate within those parameters.

This approach is, in fact, a powerful architect of good decision-making. Here’s why:

1. Reduces Cognitive Load and Fosters Focus: When directions are simple and clear, employees don’t expend valuable mental energy trying to decipher convoluted instructions or ambiguous goals. This frees up cognitive resources to focus on the task at hand, analyze relevant information, and weigh options effectively. A simple “Our goal is to increase customer satisfaction by 10% this quarter; focus on improving response times” is far more impactful than a lengthy dissertation on market dynamics and strategic imperatives.
2. Builds Confidence and Psychological Safety: A leader who trusts their team with clear, concise directions signals confidence in their abilities. This fosters a sense of psychological safety, where individuals feel empowered to take calculated risks, experiment, and learn from mistakes without fear of harsh reprimand. When the path is clearly marked, but the specific steps are left to the individual, it instills a sense of ownership and responsibility.
3. Encourages Ownership and Initiative: Vague directions can lead to confusion and a reliance on the leader for every micro-decision. Conversely, simple, clear directives, especially when combined with a defined outcome, encourage team members to take ownership. They understand the “what” and the “why,” leaving them to determine the “how.” This cultivates initiative, as individuals are motivated to find the most efficient and effective solutions within the given framework.
4. Promotes Clarity of Purpose: Softly spoken, clear directions often cut through the noise and distill complex challenges into their fundamental components. This clarity of purpose ensures everyone on the team is aligned, pulling in the same direction, and understanding how their individual contributions feed into the larger objective. When the purpose is clear, even difficult decisions become less daunting.
5. Facilitates Agility and Adaptability: In today’s rapidly changing environment, the ability to adapt is paramount. Leaders who provide simple, clear directions enable their teams to be more agile. When the core objective is understood, teams can more readily adjust their tactics and strategies in response to new information or unforeseen challenges without getting bogged down in re-interpreting complex, outdated plans.

The quiet architect leadership style is not about being passive or disengaged. It requires a deep understanding of the team’s capabilities, a clear vision, and the discipline to articulate that vision simply and precisely. It’s about empowering, not commanding; guiding, not micromanaging.

In a world clamoring for attention, the leader who speaks softly and offers simple, clear directions stands out not for their volume, but for the profound impact they have on the quality of decisions made by the people who work for them. They create an environment where clarity reigns, confidence flourishes, and better decisions become the natural outcome.

 

Fear arises when individuals perceive a threat. Respect is the feeling people have for those they admire and believe in.
~ jaywren

Fear is not equal to respect.

Fear is what people say behind your back.

Respect is what people say to your face.  You can push people with fear.  You can fight people with fear.  But you can’t lead people with fear.  That takes respect.

Want Respect? Do These Things.

1. Give Credit.

People gain respect when they give credit to the correct person.  Giving credit is a compliment with substance.

On the other hand, people who claim credit for the work of other people lose respect.   People who know that these people are undeserving of that credit will resent the dishonesty.

If you give credit, you will get respect and make your company stronger.

1. Admit Mistakes.
   Everyone makes mistakes.  Successful people admit them and do not repeat them.  People will respect you if you correct your mistakes and move on.

Don’t make excuses for failing to do your work.  Be honest.  You just did not do the work.  You regret it.  When you admit your mistakes and do not repeat them, you will get respect.

1. Do Your Job.

Get a copy of your job description.  Read it with your boss.  Discuss regularly with your boss what you are doing.  When you are uncertain about what you are doing, ask your boss for information.

Be conscientious about the way you do your job.

Your boss will respect you for knowing and doing what you are supposed to do.  Your co-workers will respect you.

1. Let Other People Do Their Job.

There are two parts to letting people do their job.

First, do not let people take advantage of you.  Being a team player and helping other people occasionally is one thing.  Having people use you to do their work is not the way to get respect at work.

Second, do not interfere with other people by meddling in their job.  People do not always want your advice.  People certainly do not want you to do their job and take credit for what their job is.

By respecting the job of other people, you will get respect.

Simple Steps for a Better You.

1. Lighten Up.

If you don’t take yourself too seriously, people will respect you more.  Your daily routine is a marathon, not a sprint.  If you come to work every day and load the workplace with pressure, you will create tension.

Be sincere.  Work hard.  Be straightforward with your supervisors, co-workers, and people you manage.  Take your work seriously.  However, don’t take everything so seriously that you can’t accept mistakes and adjustments in the daily routine.

People will enjoy working with you and you will get respect.

1. Keep Your Word.

Honor your commitments.  If you know that you can’t do something or that you will not do something, be honest about it.  Don’t make a commitment to do things that you can’t or will not do.  Keeping your word is basic to getting respect.

1. Be Punctual.

People will quickly get weary of dealing with you if you are late all the time.  Make your appointments on time.  Complete your work on time.

You will get respect when people know they can trust you to complete your work on time.

1. Avoid Gossip and Confidences

A quick way to ruin relationships is to gossip.  Avoid people who gossip.  The only people who respect people who gossip are other people who gossip.

Keep confidences.  When someone tells you something personal or private, keep it to yourself.  Even if you do not make a commitment to keep the information private, respect the trust that people have given you. People do not respect people who break their confidences.

You will get respect as a person who is trustworthy.

1. Gaining Respect by Giving Credit

People gain respect when they give credit to the correct person. Giving credit is a compliment with substance.

On the other hand, people who claim credit for the work of other people lose respect. People who know that these people are undeserving of that credit will resent the dishonesty.

If you give credit, you will get respect and make your company stronger.

1. Do Your Job

You will get respect when you do your job.

Get a copy of your job description. Read it with your boss. Discuss regularly with your boss what you are doing. When you are uncertain about what you are doing, ask your boss for information.

Your boss will respect you for knowing and doing what you are supposed to do. Your co-workers will respect you.

11. Lighten Up

You will get respect when you lighten up.

If you don’t take yourself too seriously, people will respect you more. Your daily routine is a marathon, not a sprint. If you come to work every day and load the workplace with pressure, you will create tension.

Be sincere. Work hard. Be straightforward with your supervisors, co-workers, and people you manage. Take your work seriously. However, don’t take everything so seriously that you can’t accept mistakes and adjustments in the daily routine. People will enjoy working with you and you will get respect.

12. Keep Your Word

You will get respect when you keep your word.

Honor your commitments. If you know that you can’t do something or that you will not do something, be honest about it. Don’t make a commitment to do things that you can’t or will not do. Keeping your word is basic to gaining respect.

13. Be Punctual

You will get respect when you are punctual.

People will quickly get weary of dealing with you if you are late all the time. Make your appointments on time. Complete your work on time.

You will get respect when people know they can trust you to complete your work on time.

14. Personal Appearance

You will get respect when you take care of your personal appearance.

Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Keep your hair groomed. Keep your shirt or blouse tucked in. Wear clean clothes.

Don’t overdress for the job. You just want to look professional. You want to look neat.

If your boss wears khakis and an open-collar shirt, don’t wear a three-piece suit. If your boss wears a blouse and a skirt, don’t wear expensive dresses.

You want to look like part of the team. Imagine the manager of a major league baseball team wearing a suit in the dugout during the baseball game instead of wearing a team uniform. Imagine a professional basketball coach wearing a basketball uniform instead of a suit.

You will get respect when you respect yourself in how you dress.

15. Gaining Respect through Confidence

You will get respect when you show confidence.

Show confident in your body language. Show confidence in what you say, and how you say it.

“Courage is grace under pressure,” to quote Ernest Hemingway. Staying calm under pressure shows confidence is grace under any circumstance.

Photo by mymind on Unsplash

 

I learned today that the docent on the USS Midway Museum who gave my family the presentation on carrier landings, Rear Admiral Pete “Viper” Pettigrew, passed away. He was the real life pilot who was the model for the character Viper in the movie “Top Gun.” He was so friendly. When I met him on the pier, he said, “Just call me Pete.” So, hard to believe.

The words “we,” “our,” and “together” create bonds of ownership and commitment in a team. ~ Jay Wren

Successful Teams: Words that empower and motivate teams create bonds among the team members. These words acknowledge ownership of responsibility. Furthermore, they show recognition of team member contributions. What are some of these words?

Categories for Words that Motivate Successful Teams

Here are four categories for words that help teams become more successful.

1. Inclusiveness
2. Ownership
3. Recognition
4. Honesty

Inclusiveness

The words “we,” “our,” and “together” create bonds of ownership in a team.

Additionally, calling people by their name increases bonds.

For example, picture this presentation. A team leader is recognizing a team’s efforts in front of other people in the company.

The presentation of the team leader might go like this.

“Bill and Sue are new members on our team. Together, our team has finished ahead of schedule and below cost. Furthermore, we have exceeded our team goals.” ~jaywren.com

Ownership

Accepting responsibility for mistakes is an important trait for members of a team. These are examples of ownership statements.

“I regret my mistake.” “I accept responsibility for the things I could have done better.” “I can and will do better.”

Recognition

Award ceremonies serve several purposes. One is to make people feel good about their work. A second, is to motivate people through recognition.

However, team leaders don’t need to wait for an award ceremony to give credit. Here are words to recognize contribution.

“You did a good job.” “Thank you.” “I would not have expected less from you.”

Honesty

Nice words are not enough to empower teams. The members need honesty. When they make mistakes, team leaders must help them see those mistakes.

Misleading team members damages the team’s effort.

People who are defensive about their mistakes lack self-honesty. Insecurities cripple their ability to bond with a team. Rather than accept responsibility and correct their mistakes, these people become a burden to the team.

Here are some ideas for dealing with people who struggle with self-honesty.

Criticism of these people makes them feel more insecure. They become more defensive.

Team leaders can help defensive people become more effective team members by teaching them that taking ownership for their mistakes builds trust.

Additionally, team leaders can teach these people that most people make mistakes. However, denying mistakes or repeating mistakes makes these team members ineffective.

Team leaders can teach people how to own their mistakes with the words they choose. For example, “I was wrong. I made a mistake and will try not to make it again.”

 

Do you ever turn to famous quotes to inspire and motivate yourself. When we are dealing with stress, quotes can help us accept our situation and do things things to solve the very problems that are causing the stress.

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” ~John Wooden

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

“It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s just that I stay with problems longer.” ~Albert Einstein

“Holding onto your anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” ~Buddha

“We don’t see things the way they are. We see them the way we are.” ~Talmud

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” ~Robert Frost

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” ~Maya Angelou

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” ~John Wooden

“The two most important days of your life are the day that you’re born and the day that you find out why.” ~Mark Twain

Photo by Nathalia Segato on Unsplash

“There are a lot of ways to do things. Some are more fun than others.” S.R. Foley, Jr., Adm, USN

 

 

Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

One Simple Political Comment can Destroy Years of Trust. ~ Jay Wren

“It’s easier to fool people than it is to convince them they’ve been fooled.” – Mark Twain

Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash

Unless your business is politics or religion, using politics or religion to promote your business is a bad idea.  ~ Jay Wren

What happens is that brand identity conflicts with deeply ingrained beliefs that inflame emotions and sway decisions.

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What makes a teacher great? Here are traits that you should consider if you want to become a great teacher.

Communication

A great teacher can communicate clearly and effectively with their students, colleagues, and parents. They can explain complex concepts in simple ways, listen actively to feedback and questions, and use various modes of communication to suit different situations.

Adaptability

A great teacher can adapt to changing circumstances, such as new curriculum standards, diverse student needs, or unexpected challenges. They can modify their teaching methods and strategies to fit different learning styles, goals, and contexts.

Empathy

A great teacher can empathize with their students and understand their feelings, perspectives, and experiences. They can create a safe and supportive learning environment where students feel valued, respected, and cared for. They can also show compassion and kindness to their students and help them overcome difficulties.

Knowledge

A great teacher has a deep and broad knowledge of their subject matter and pedagogy. They are well-versed in the content, skills, and standards that they teach, and they keep up to date with the latest research and developments in their field. They are also lifelong learners who seek to improve their own knowledge and skills through professional development, collaboration, and reflection.

Passion

A great teacher has a passion for their subject matter and for teaching itself. They are enthusiastic, energetic, and motivated to share their love of learning with their students. They inspire curiosity, interest, and excitement in their students, and they demonstrate their own passion through their actions and words.

Creativity

A great teacher can use creativity to design engaging and effective lessons, activities, and assessments that cater to different student needs, interests, and abilities. They can also encourage creativity in their students by providing them with opportunities to explore, discover, and express themselves.

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With the Internet, the truth is right there, for everyone. At the same time, politicians and political influencers, more than ever, have normalized lying and people believe them. Why? Because a sweet lie is so delicious. 

Why do we lie to ourselves?

We may lie to ourselves to avoid painful truths, to boost our confidence, to persist in our goals, to create a favorable impression, or to support our beliefs.

Lying to ourselves can reduce stress and enhance our self esteem. It can make us feel safe in our beliefs. However, lying to ourselves distorts reality and impaires our judgment. Therefore, it is important to be aware of our willingness to see the world in a light that just makes us comfortable.

Photo by Isabela Drasovean on Unsplash

Difficult managers use crisis as a management tool. Everything is serious. Everything is urgent. They shake everybody up.

 

The Power and Failings of Leadership: The Caine Mutiny

Crisis Management: Leadership Under Pressure

 

Hiring the Best People and Empowering Them to Excel: How do great leaders build great companies? Here are some of the things great leaders say.

Lee Iacocca – Automobile Executive

“I hire people brighter than me, and I get out of their way.”

Bill Gates – Co-Founder Microsoft

“The competition to hire the best will increase in the years ahead. Companies that give extra flexibility to their employees will have the edge in this area.”

Steve Jobs – Co-Founder, Apple

“I noticed that the dynamic range between what an average person could accomplish and what the best person could accomplish was 50 or 100 to 1. Given that, you’re well advised to go after the cream of the cream. A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players.”

Jim Collins – Business Consultant, Author

• “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”
• “The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake. The best people don’t need to be managed. Guided, taught, led–yes. But not tightly managed.”

Edwin Booz – Consultant, Founder Booz Allen & Hamilton

“Often the best solution to a management problem is the right person.”

Brian Tracy – Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International

“As a business owner or manager, you know that hiring the wrong person is the most costly mistake you can make.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Author, Scientist, Philosopher

“A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.”

Theodore Roosevelt – President, United States of America

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

Malcolm Forbes – Publisher, Forbes Magazine

“Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he’s hired to do.”

David Ogilvy – Advertising Executive

“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.”

Akio Morita – Co-Founder Sony

“When I find an employee who turns out to be wrong for a job, I feel it is my fault because I made the decision to hire him.”

Warren Buffett – Chairman & CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

“Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.”

Paul Russell – Paul Russell Consulting, LLC

“Development can help great people be even better–but if I had a dollar to spend, I’d spend 70 cents getting the right person in the door.”

Red Adair – Oil Well Firefighter

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.”

Robert Bosch – Founder Robert Bosch GmbH

“I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages.”

Persistence and Resilience: Empowered for Success

Leadership Development:  How can companies hire and train people to become leaders? Here are four steps to effective leadership development.

Companies that produce great leaders become greater companies. ~ www.jaywren.com

Leadership Development — Four Steps

Creating future leaders is critical to the long-term growth of a company. An element in succession planning, creating leaders from within increases moral, loyalty, and engagement. Here are four elements to leadership development.

1. Hire for Leadership
2. Teach Responsibility, Authority, and Accountability
3. Continual Training for Leadership
4. Increase Responsibility

Hire for Leadership

People in any organizations have specific levels of responsibility.  Some of those people will stay in the same job for their entire time with the company.

Other people come into a company as developmental candidates.  These people may start in entry-level jobs.  However, the company has a plan to move these people into bigger roles.  Their responsibilities increase as they master each job.

Teach Responsibility, Authority, and Accountability

For new leaders to become successful, they must know their responsibility, their authority, and their accountability.

Responsibility defines the tasks and activities under a leader’s management. Authority is the power to make decisions and the power to hold team members accountable.  Accountability in leadership development creates an understanding of expectations of performance.

Additionally, leaders must use these elements to teach their team members what the leader expects of them. Leaders can use these elements as reminders for team members to stay on task.

Train for Leadership

Leadership is not a mere concept. Companies can measure the success of their leaders based on results. The best companies don’t wait to have a leader fail. These companies have experienced leaders who can teach new leaders how to succeed.  An ounce of foresight is worth a pound of hindsight.

These leaders must develop styles and practices that make their team as effective as possible. Training, hands-on management, greater feedback, asking questions that provide useful information are some of the methods companies can teach new leaders.

Increase Responsibility

For leaders to continue to grow, their responsibility must increase.  Companies promote new leaders into bigger positions.  These positions have a higher pay grade.  Additionally, they have the greater responsibility.

However, companies cannot always promote leaders. But they must keep the leaders growing and engaged.

What companies can do is relieve experienced future leaders of bottom rung responsibilities.  At the same time, companies can give them responsibilities that will prepare them for greater responsibility.

Toxic personalities create stress that spreads throughout an organization.  What are the skills that you can develop to survive and even change toxic people?

Know What You Can Control

If you have the authority to act on the people with toxic personalities, it is your responsibility to change the behavior of these people or remove them from the workplace.

If you do not have authority over these people, there are steps you can take to steel yourself and even change their behavior.

Additionally, if you can in no way change the conditions of working with toxic personalities, you might consider changing jobs. Dealing with the daily stress of working with difficult people is painful in ways that can affect your mental and physical health.

Anger

Acting out of anger can just make the problem worse. The person with the toxic personality can become offended and defensive. They see you (your actions or personality) as the problem in the relationship.

On the other hand, you must prepare to be firm. I have dealt successfully with toxic behavior by confronting a person with the facts and consequences of their actions. However, changing a person’s personality is difficult. The process takes more than showing the facts of their behavior. Personality change, especially with toxic personalities, takes a commitment from the person with the problem

Skills for Surviving or Even Growing around Toxic Personalities.

Toxic people: When you can’t fight them, don’t join them.  However, make yourself healthier.

When I can’t change the behavior of toxic people or avoid these people altogether, I focus on the changes I can make in myself to become a healthier person.

Here are some things that work for me.

1. I write about my feelings.

When I write about my feelings, I cut the sting of painful emotions.

In writing about my emotions, I name my feelings.  Fear, anger anxiety, insecurity, and resentment are common feelings that people have around toxic people. You may have other bad feelings. When I experience these feelings, I write about them.

2. I write about my actions.

In this step, I can see what things I can change in my own behavior to reduce the damage in a toxic relationship.  For example, if I act out of anger, I can change my actions.

3. I discuss what I am feeling with a mentor.

One of the problems with writing about my feelings is that I have trouble seeing solutions.  Instead I focus on how people have harmed me.

However, I have close friends I can trust.  These people keep what I tell them a secret.  These friends are mentors who show me how I can grow and improve my behavior.

4. Avoid the Poison: When I can’t change the behavior of toxic people, I avoid them. If there is no reason to have to deal with them, I don’t.

Habits: The things we don’t do are as important as the things we do to be a winner in the workplace. Here are eight things to avoid as you work to build a successful career and become a leader among your peers.

Often, it’s the things that we don’t do that count the most. ~ www.jaywren.com

The Pitfalls to Winning Behavior

Some of the pitfalls to winning behavior are habits that seem normal, but annoy others and detract from our accomplishments.  I have been guilty of some of the things I am going to discuss.  Seeing the harm of these habits has helped me become more engaged with other people and more mindful of their needs and interests. In ways that I can’t measure, avoiding these behaviors has help me build relationships and increase my professional network.

1. Using Long, Uncommon Words

Building your vocabulary is a good practice. However, using big words to try to sound intelligent and impress people is phony and annoying.  Furthermore, using long or uncommon words confuses people and detracts from your point.

It is narcissistic to throw around words that few people know or that people know as pretentious. You become like a person who poses in front of the mirror in a public restroom.

As a lesson about my own use of words that meant little but I used to impress others, my Mother once said to me, “You are so bombastic and I am so illiterate that you will have to elucidate for me to comprehend.” Lesson delivered; lesson learned.

2. Using Facilities and Parking for the Handicapped

People who need handicapped facilities have no choice.  They need them when they need them.

Abusing the use of handicapped parking is not only annoying, it is illegal.  Most states have stiff fines for using handicapped parking without legal authorization.  Furthermore, most people have no tolerance for people who abuse the use of handicapped parking.

Restroom facilities become more challenging, because some locations only have one or stalls.  I have been in a one-stall restroom when a person in a wheelchair was waiting in line. The situation was awkward even though I had no choice. The best practice is, whenever possible, to defer to people who might need the handicapped facility.

3. Yacking on Your Cell Phone

There is something odd about strangers carrying on a conversation on a cell phone when they are next to you.

They have entered your space and are holding a conversation that doesn’t involve you.

I have been guilty of using a cell phone in a supermarket.  As my wife gave me instructions on the things that she wanted me to buy, I passed one shopper three times.  The third time he suggested that I stop walking around talking on my phone and make a list.

This was an awakening to me just how easily cell conversations annoy the people around us.

Around the office, it is good to be aware when you are carrying on cell phone conversations around people who aren’t involved in the discussion.

4. In Meetings, Act Like You Belong

Texting and sending emails on a phone at the wrong time can be just as annoying.

At work, you can quickly annoy people, including people you need to impress.  Look at the situation.  You are in a meeting, and everyone is discussing the topic of the meeting.  Your mind wanders from the discussion, and you suddenly feel the urge to send a message or read your email.

You mind tells you that you must deal with your priorities. However, you are creating a distraction for everyone in the room.  People who are in a meeting are mentally like members in a marching band.  They are in coordination. When you start texting or sending emails, you break step and become a distraction.

5. Habits of Blocking the Exits

Blocking the exits or any other passageway is annoying.  Some people do not know how to navigate blocked hallways or aisles.  Other people feel awkward asking to get past.

People often gather at the entrance to meetings or at the door when leaving.  If this is a problem in your office, I recommend that the senior person in the room ask people not to block the door when they are leaving.

On the other hand, if you do need to get past people in a blocked passageway, simply say, “Pardon me.

6. Constant Complaining

Negative information creates bad moods.  A constant flow of negative information destroys morale and increases turnover.

Everyone has problems.  Solving those problems makes you look like a leader.  Whining about those problems not only is annoying.  It soon makes you look incompetent.

Instead of complaining, especially constant complaining, focus on solutions.

7. Self-Reference

Receiving credit for your work is a crucial step in the path to success.  However, constantly talking about yourself is annoying and makes people see you as shallow.

If you are not receiving credit for the work you are doing. talk with your managers.  Having them reference your accomplishments is far more effective than when you are doing it.  Furthermore, avoiding this behavior has helped me build a strong network.

Additionally, give credit to other people for their accomplishments.  People not only enjoy receiving credit.  They often remember the people who helped them receive credit.  This type of winning behavior will help you build a powerful network.

8. Habits – Trying to Be Funny

I remember an article that helped me know that not everyone understands the impact of their failed attempts at humor.  The author started his article with religious jokes.  These jokes were off topic.

The jokes weren’t clever.  They were flippant.  Furthermore, they distracted from the point of the article.

The author was undermining his own work, by not practicing winning behavior.

Leadership Skills: 7 Steps to Creating Powerful Teams.  Ways to interact with teams to create engagement and understanding.

Smart Leaders Share Their Ideas with Others

It takes time and patience to share ideas and train team members. Leaders who invest this time to show team members shortcuts and special skills increase the success of the individual members of the team and the success of the entire team. Moreover, these members become more engaged as they implement the new ideas that smart leaders have taught them. Working on these leadership skills empower leaders to connect with their teams in meaningful ways.

Leadership Skills to Delegate Responsibility

Caught in the daily cycle of handling routine responsibilities, managers can procrastinate working with team members to take on additional responsibility. However, as team members take on new responsibility, they increase their abilities to take on greater roles. Delegating authority is the first step in succession planning and in increasing employee value. Not just having responsibility, but taking responsibility for the success of a project creates instant engagement.

To delegate responsibility requires the leadership skills for working with and trusting employees.

Develop Leadership Skills to Become a Big Picture Person

Good leaders know that a minor slight or small loss today often has no significance in the big picture. These leaders can respond from a point of view that their employees are assets.  Keeping perspective with a view of the long-term, leaders can see employee mistakes as opportunities to teach the people who work for them.

A case in point, I once became impatient with a secretary who was hesitant about helping me schedule a flight. When I pressed her on the matter, she confessed that she had never scheduled a flight. She had never been on an airplane. The fact was awkward for her. She was so bright and capable in so many ways. I apologized for my impatience. I explained the simple process to her. She booked the flights. A little bit of patience from me helped us both move on to the important things we needed to do that day and to helping her develop a new skill.

Each new skill enables employees to do more and opens the door to engagement. Using leadership skills, for me, was not always automatic.

Leaders Can Improve Their Communication Skills

Everyone can work on this basic skill every day. For me, the single best way to improve this skill is to become a sponge and not a waterspout. I can read more than I write. I can listen more than I speak. When I read and listen to effective communicators, I reinforce good habits that make me a more effective communicator.

Additionally, I can add to my vocabulary by finding the definition of words that are new to me. Expanding my vocabulary is especially important today.  New technologies require new words as well as a better understanding of words that writers use in a different way in different context.

For example, writers have used the word “protocol” about procedures governing state or diplomatic matters. With the emergence of computer networking, tech writers use the word to refer to rules regarding transferring data across an Intranet and the Internet.

The leadership skills for effective communications is the framework for being a successful leader.

Leadership Skills to Know How to Allow Others to Take Center Stage

Smart leaders can encourage others to take the lead.  By increasing how often team members take center stage, these leaders can increase the confidence and skills of team members to take on greater responsibility and increase their value to the team.

Show concern for people who are struggling to move to center stage.  Many wallflowers are quietly waiting to receive recognition. Giving them opportunities to take small steps to greater roles can turn wallflowers into leaders.

Giving Credit to other People is a Leadership Skill

Saying, “Thank you” is easy to do. People appreciate it when leaders say, “You did a good job.”

Additionally, it is important to recognize the correct person. When leaders give credit to team members for the work of others, the team suffers.

Leadership Skills: Walk the Talk

It is very easy for leaders to criticize people for their shortcomings. Likewise, it is easy for leaders to take the easy path of not rising to the standards they demand of their employees.  and ignore my own. For the people around me to respect me, I can’t say one thing and do another. I must walk the talk.

Leadership Qualities: Some teams have a manager but still suffer from a lack of leadership.  What qualities help leaders raise the team standards and increase team success?

Four Leadership Qualities that Create Great Teams

Leaders have many qualities that make them more effective.  For example, a leader with charisma easily draws people to them and creates focus on what these leaders do and say. Leaders who are more intelligent and have greater experience help the team make better decisions.

Here are leadership qualities that you can claim today.

Self-honesty

Not just honesty, but self-honesty.

Self-honesty is about you recognizing and correcting your mistakes.  It’s the honesty to recognize your weaknesses.

It is burying your ego so that you can accept the truths that stand between you and success.

To be successful takes more than overcoming lying, cheating, and stealing.  For that matter, there are successful liars, cheaters, and thieves.

But even successful thieves benefit from honesty about their mistakes and their weaknesses.  Otherwise, they will never become more effective, successful thieves.

Open-mindedness

A closed mind is the wall between ignorance and learning.  It is also a wall between the shared intelligence of the team and the mind of a boss.

Of all the leadership qualities, open-mindedness might be the most important quality for creative, responsive teams.

Emotional Intelligence

First, learn to understand ourselves. Then we can begin to understand others.

Emotional Intelligence (sometimes abbreviated “EI” or referred to as Emotional Quotient “EQ”) is the ability to understand our own emotions as well as the emotions of other people.

People who have emotional intelligence know how to read people.  They have an intuitive sense of why people do things and how to motivate people to do things. With a combined understanding of themselves as well as an understanding of others, these leaders can make decisions and take action with greater intelligence.

Ability to Grow

A final quality in this discussion is the ability to grow.

Leaders who continue to grow become a source of continuous growth for the team.  Developing knowledge and skills, these leaders bring greater value to teams and increase the value of these teams to the organization. Effective new as well as tried methods, when introduced to the team, create both a greater understanding as well as more efficient ways of using new methods.

Leaders who develop the quality of continued growth can clear the clutter of methods that reduce the effectiveness of a team. Just knowing to evaluate procedures as time passes makes for greater effectiveness.

Teams that grow make the leap from short-term survival to long-term success.

Meeting Agendas can empower you to set and control the purpose of a meeting as well as the agreements reached during the meeting.

Are you tired of meetings that accomplish nothing? These lessons from sales training might help.

Case Study

During lunch, a field sales manager of a major consumer goods company told me about an experience he had had during a day in the field with his company’s chief executive officer. He said that he went through the day will a well-planned series of meetings. Each meeting was important to the success of the company’s brands. And he felt that his day was a success.

However, the CEO showed him how he could have made each meeting more successful by entering the meeting with a prepared agenda.  He pointed to instances of the meetings getting off track and failing to obtain commitments that were there for the asking.

Preparation for a Sales Call

In my training at a major consumer products company, I learned how to plan a sales call. The night before, I would create a presentation for each call. The presentation included the objective of the call, the benefits to the buyer, and the quantities of products I planned to sell. Interwoven into the agenda were possible objections I might anticipate from the buyer and how I would handle them.

A Status Board as a Meeting Agenda

When I entered the recruiting industry, I first worked for a search firm that had a former pharmaceutical industry executive as CEO.  The only thing that he asked of us recruiters is that we sit down at the beginning of every day and go over a single sheet that contained a list of search assignments and prospects, code the status of the assignments, and update that sheet every day. From there he asked to see a copy of the sheet at the end of every week.

Each morning, we recruiters met to review our “Status Boards,” which were the agenda for the meeting.

In having us create this simple “Status Board,” the CEO established more than a plan. He created an agenda for our daily activity. We not only had to present the names of the hiring companies and the name of the applicants; we had to state our progress in the process. For potential candidates, we put no number after their name. If a candidate agreed to an interview with a company, we put a “1” beside the name of that candidate. When we had a candidate scheduled for an interview, we put a “2” beside the applicant’s name. A “3” meant that the candidate had an offer.  A “4” meant the candidate had accepted the offer.

What this CEO accomplished was to require each recruiter to know the details and progress of each search assignment. He called this sheet a “Status Board.” Implicit in this activity is that this CEO laid out the details of an agenda that kept us recruiters on track and kept him informed.

Meeting Agendas Across all Industries.

So began my practice of having an agenda for my daily activities.  I add to my agenda as new events arise. Again, this agenda is more detailed than scheduling a task. The agenda contains the objective, progress, and completion of the task.

A second example, is how I manage visit to the doctor’s office.  I state the purpose of the visit. Then I add a list of questions I plan to ask. I include a section for next steps. This simple method makes my appointments more meaningful, and I don’t leave the meeting with regrets for not asking the right questions or frustration on over not understanding the next steps.  Therefore, I can then take the steps for more successful action for my health.

Toxic Behavior: Sometimes companies develop a culture based on conflict and anger. The problem often starts at the top and works its way down and throughout an organization.

In other cases, companies hire individuals with a toxic personality.  These people survive based on their performance and, at times, manage well up within the organization. They know the politics of relationships.  They hide their toxic behavior from their supervisors.  However, their coworkers and the people who work for them suffer.

Despite your best efforts, you may never be able to get along with these people.  They have a critical, judgmental, negative personality.

The Pain of Toxic Behavior

Dreading having to work around toxic people is normal.  You are not alone. Additionally, don’t blame yourself for their behavior.  Blaming yourself can keep you in toxic relationships. Furthermore, no matter how well you attempt to adjust to accommodate these people, truly toxic people will not adjust to your efforts to accommodate them.

During the jobs I had in college, my service in the military, and my career in consumer products, I had over a dozen supervisors. Additionally, I have worked with dozens upon dozens of coworkers and clients.

For the most part, I have worked with good people. On the other hand, I have worked for and with some very difficult people.  In most cases, I found that there was very little I could do to change the nature of my relationship with these difficult people.  However, in some cases, I did find ways to improve relationships with even the most difficult people.

The Causes

In some cases, the relationship problems result from simple differences between two people.  For example, you and the person with whom you have difficulties may simply have different ways of approaching work.  In other instances, you may have a different way of seeing the world. You may have different values in your life and your work. A simple conflict in values can create conflicts and can sour relationships.

Abusive Behavior and Discrimination

Beyond the problem of toxic environments, regrettably, abusive behavior and job discrimination exist. Even more regrettable is that some companies ignore the problems and their employees continue to suffer. When you are a victim of abuse or when you are the target of racial, sexual, political, or religious bias, you are dealing with difficult problems.

I recommend that you speak with mentors, professionals in the areas of abuse or discrimination, and perhaps with an attorney.  Biases of race, gender, politics, and religion may seem normal to the person who is biased. People see their unconscious bias as the truth, even as facts. Before you charge at the people who have harmed you, consider the issues for the long-term good of your career.  Remember, you may be dealing with people who just can’t see the truth in things that don’t align with their biases. Again, I recommend that you get the best advice possible before acting.

Document Your Experience

If you are receiving abusive emails or letters from people in you company, save those documents.  If you must reply to those emails, don’t respond out of anger.  Make your reply factual and professional.

Make notes on a private calendar of things that happen to you. Include the date, time, and circumstances.

If your company has human resources or other professionals in place to help you, explore the possibility of discussing the issues with those people. Keep in mind that in toxic cultures the very people who are in place to help you may play roles in perpetuating the problem. Develop a relationship with these people.  Get to know them.  Try to learn of other issues they have resolved within the company.

Confrontation

You have personal boundaries.  Everyone does. Additionally, you owe it to yourself to protect those boundaries.  When possible, let people know when they are crossing those boundaries.

You should be firm but not act angry. Anger, in many cases, can only make matters worse.

In confronting the person, select a place and a time that will help you work out your issues.  Perhaps, make an appointment in the person’s office. Select someplace private where you both can be candid and yet feel safe.

Until you work out your issues with the person, whenever possible, simply avoid the person.

Job Change

Workplace Relationships: Accept, Change, or End

If you believe that a job change is the answer, clarify in your mind the symptoms of toxic relationships. Make a list of your personal values. Empower yourself to make a career move that will enrich your life in your workplace relationships.

Furthermore, research as well as possible the people for whom you will be working.  Ask to speak with people who are currently working at the company.  Ask general questions about what they like and don’t like about the company. From these discussions, you may learn a great deal about the culture and the people around whom you will be working.

If the person who will be your supervisor is not in the interview process, ask to meet that person prior to signing on with the company.

Leadership Styles: There are as many leadership styles as there are different personalities and different points of view. Why does this matter? These traits create bias that colors a leader’s judgement.

The Effect of Leadership Styles

The leadership style that you use will affect the morale, productivity, engagement, and, ultimately, the success of your organization. Here are some ideas to help you rise above your emotions and your prejudice to create a leadership style that will lead to a successful organization.

Moods

We all have high moods and low moods.  When we are in a low mood, we can become impatient and abrasive. Additionally, we can lose confidence and become less effective as leaders.

On the other hand, when we are in a high mood, we can become generous with our time and the company’s money.  We can become less demanding than required for success team effort.

Whether we are in a high mood or a low mood, we must focus on the performance of the team.  Before we start to lead, we must level out our moods. Great leaders establish an understanding of what they expect of an entire organization. A bad mood can undermine the understanding an organization has of the leader and the mission. Trying to follow a leader who is up one day and down the next is confusing.

Consistency

Some leaders are inspirational teachers. Other leaders are practical teachers. There are leaders who micromanage. Some leaders delegate. Still other leaders leave all the decisions on how to do things to the people who are doing them.

There are countless leadership qualities that lead to success. Throughout my career as a recruiter and business owner, I have made notes on leaders I admire.  One of the things that I most admired was consistency.  Once I knew what to expect from a leader in terms of their expectations in our relationship, I could manage my style to meet the leaders approach to business.

For example, I worked with a senior vice president of sales who wanted to speak with me at 6:00 PM on a regular basis. She wanted an update on each recruiting assignment and my plan to complete each search.  I prepared before the call and gave her the information she wanted. Therefore, our calls were short, to the point, and productive. The consistency made working with the person simple.

Leaders who let their personality control their leadership often fail to focus on the organization’s mission.  Therefore, as a leader, ask yourself whether you are acting in the best interest of the organization or to feed your ego.

Photo by Silas Baisch on Unsplash

Giving credit to other people is a no cost way to boost morale and reduce turnover.

Leaders who have the humility to give credit inspire others to become future leaders. ~ www.jaywren.com

A Memorable Experience

Saying, “Thank you” is easy to do.  People appreciate it when I say, “You did a good job.”

Furthermore, people not only enjoy receiving credit.  They tend to remember the experience. Giving credit is a type of winning behavior that will help you build career-long relationships and an ever-growing network.

Humility to Inspire

Leaders who give credit are an inspiration to an organization.  They encourage positive behavior with positive reinforcement.  Inspirational leaders are not afraid to say, “You did an excellent job.”

Gaining Respect by Giving Recognition

People respect leaders who give credit.

For several years, I have published a newsletter. Two people have regularly given me thanks for my work in creating and publishing that newsletter.  One of these people is a senior executive at The Walt Disney Company.  The other person was the Vice President of Sales at Nestle at age thirty-two and today places more C-level executives than any other corporate recruiter in the country. I remember and I respect these people for responding to my efforts to keep them up to date on career and industry information.

The Simplest Form of Recognition

I have read several times that the words people most like to hear are the words in their name.  When I first meet people, I repeat their name during my conversation with them.

Whenever I greet people, I say their name. Of course, when I want their attention, I say a person’s name.

Name recognition is very powerful, especially with people you are getting to know.

The Real Winner in Giving Credit

The real winners in giving credit are the people who are giving the credit.  These people attract people to them.  I remember people when they take time to give me recognition. I find that especially is the case when I have done a large job.  Furthermore, I find that I remember people who have repeatedly thanked me for my work or told me that I did a good job. I feel good about myself and about those people.

Workplace Winners: How do people set the tone and take the action to become a winner in the workplace? Here are four steps I have seen that separate workplace winners from the crowd.

Workplace winners show respect for the people who respect them.  ~ www.jaywren.com

Respond Intelligently to Criticism

When someone criticizes me, I can easily criticize him or her for things that they have done.  This type of response does not lead to solutions.

The best thing I can do is to listen to the person. I can create space and time until I can understand what the person is saying.

The person may have information I need to do a better job.  Even if the person has suggestions that will not help me, I can listen and avoid tension.  I can focus on the situation at hand.

Let Other People Have Their Say

I have two ears and one mouth.  I need to learn from other people.  If I am talking all the time, I will never learn anything from anyone.

If a person has gone off the subject, I can direct them back to the point of the discussion.

Moreover, Pay Attention to What People Are Saying

When my mind is elsewhere during a conversation, people will notice that I am not paying attention.  I need to wake up and pay attention.  People respect me for the attention I give as much the attention I get.

Show concern for people who are struggling

I once became impatient with a secretary who was hesitant about helping me schedule a flight.  When I pressed her on the matter, she confessed that she had never scheduled a flight.  She had never been on an airplane.  The fact was awkward for her.  She was so bright and capable in so many ways.  I apologized for my impatience.  I explained the simple process to her.  She booked the flights.  A little bit of patience from me helped us both move on to the important things we needed to do that day.

Workplace Winners

In Conclusion, workplace winners don’t focus on what is wrong in other people. Rather, they show respect and learn from others in the workplace. As a result, these winners gain respect and build their own success.

Tyranny: Leaders can become cruel. They can use their power to oppress, abuse, and cheat workers.  Ultimately, tyrannical leaders can destroy an organization. On the other hand, great leaders lift their workers to create great organizations with people who enjoy professional success. What elements create great leaders who instill confidence and workplace engagement?

Tyranny in leadership infects the brain of an organization and creates destruction as it spreads throughout the entire organizational body.
~ www.jaywren.com

Leadership

Leadership is a trait that can start from any place in an organization.  Usually leadership starts at the top and runs throughout the entire organization.  By picking and developing winning teams, great leaders create great organizations.

Tyranny in Leadership

However, bad leaders, especially leaders who practice tyranny, can create failure in any organization. The Caine Mutiny is a novel about a commanding officer, LCDR Philip Francis Queeg, whose endless mistakes and tyrannical command create such desperation among the officers that they commit mutiny.  Herman Wouk, the author of The Caine Mutiny, drew upon his knowledge from World War II experiences aboard a similar vessel, the USS Zane.

The book dramatically portrays leadership failure.  The mistakes, tyranny, and dishonesty of Captain Queeg result in mistakes among the officers and crew and create dangerous and embarrassing situations for the ship under his command, the USS Caine.

As I said in an earlier post, there is a saying in the United States Navy, “So goes the captain. So goes the wardroom. So goes the ship.”  A bad captain creates bad performance among the officers who in turn create bad performance among the people who work for them.  On the other hand, great commanding officers raise the performance of their officers and in turn their crew.

The same principle applies in any organization.

Brilliance Exists at All Levels

Great leaders know that brilliance exists at all levels of their organization. Furthermore, great leaders have left great quotes to instruct us on leadership.  During World War II, Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz was the Commander-in-Chief, US Pacific Fleet.  Additionally, he was Commander of the Pacific Ocean Areas for U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces. Here are two quotes from Nimitz that show his view of leadership.

“Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.”

“Some of the best advice I’ve had comes from junior officers and enlisted men.”

Rather than abuse the people who work for them, great leaders see these future leaders as sources of creativity and inspiration.

My Experience with Excellence in Leadership

The greatest leader I have known is Admiral Sylvester R. Foley, Jr., who, like Nimitz, was Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. I knew him earlier on when he was my captain aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Midway.  He would say things to encourage and to simplify the job for the people under his command. He clearly stated what he expected of you.  Furthermore, he gave you credit when you performed with excellence.

Great leaders like Nimitz and Foley influence lives. The leadership I experienced under Admiral Foley gives me confidence and direction to this day.  Tyranny destroys leadership.  However, the best leaders create great leaders to follow them.

Impact writing: In a digital world, everyone is a writer. However, not everyone entered the digital world with the same writing skills. How can you engage your readers for action and interest?

4 Ways to Engage Your Reader with Impact Writing

• Don’t Add the Word, “Very.”
• Don’t write “Is, Was, and By.”
• Use Words that Show Commitment.
• Verify Your Quotes.

Don’t Add the Word, “Very.”

Adding the word “very” to a sentence makes it weaker.

There are three options to more impactful writing.

1. Just cut the word “very.”
2. Create a comparison for impact.
3. Use stronger wording.

For example:

Weak: “Susan is very intelligent.”
Comparison: “Susan is more intelligent than her friends.”
A stronger statement: “Susan is brilliant.”

A second example:

Weak: “Bill ran very quickly across the yard.”
Better: Bill ran quickly across the yard.
Stronger wording: “Bill sprinted across the yard.”

Don’t Write “Is, Was, and By”

These three words create longer, weaker sentences.

Weak: “This play was written by Shakespeare. ”
Stronger: “Shakespeare wrote this play.”

Notice that the first sentence is longer.  It has two more words than the second sentence.  The extra words weaken the sentence.  Additionally, effective sentences show action.  They start with the person, place, or thing that acted.

Weak: “The city was flooded by the storm.”
Stronger: “The storm flooded the city.”

Use Words that Show Commitment

Weak: “When I get to it”
Stronger: “I will finish it and have it back to you at 3:00PM.”

Weak: “Maybe I’ll work on it later.”
Better: “I will start on this project at 8:00AM and have it back to you by 11:00AM.”

Verify Your Quotes.

For example, Mark Twain didn’t say,

“If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.”

Winston Churchill didn’t say,

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Abraham Lincoln didn’t say,

“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

You can do a web search to verify quotes. I start with sentence like this, “Benjamin Franklin didn’t say…”

For example, you can search the Internet for “Benjamin Franklin didn’t say a penny saved is a penny earned.”

Character traits for leadership are more than a leader’s personality.  These traits are a leaders’ moral, emotional, and mental makeup.  What character traits empower leaders to excel?

Leadership Character Traits

They are many character traits that make leaders successful.  Here are four of those traits.

1. Accountability
2. Authenticity
3. Commitment
4. Humility

Accountability

President Harry Truman said, “The buck stops here.”

Leaders hold themselves accountable.  I was a lieutenant in the United States Navy.  My commanding officer (that is, my captain) held me accountable for my actions.  Additionally, the Navy also held my captain accountable.

Successful leaders accept accountability for the failure of their organization.  These leaders can’t do everyone’s job.  However, they can build and train an organization for success.

At the end of the football season, the fans may blame the quarterback for the failures of a team.  However, a head coach with the authority to lead is accountable for the team’s results.

That coach can try to place the blame on the players.  But the coach is the person who hired and trained those players.  The coach is the one who is accountable.  Therefore, successful leaders must hold themselves accountable.

Authenticity

By playing politics, you may be able to gain support from people above you and around the office.  However, if you focus on politics and not performance, you will fail in the long-term.

Furthermore, authenticity is the bedrock of innovation.  When you focus on pleasing people instead of better ways to help you company, your creativity dies.

“If you copy other people, you are an impersonator. When you remake the work of other people in ways that it becomes your own work, you are authentic. When authenticity leads you to break the rules and change the world, you are a rebel. With authenticity, rebels change the world.
~ www.jaywren.com”

Commitment

The failed expectations of others undermine leadership as much as any other event.

Failing to fulfill your commitments weakens the trust that people have in you.

To be more effective, do these things in honoring your commitments.

• Act Now.
• Exceed Expectations.
• Arrival early.
• Work through the finish of the day.
• Be honest about your abilities.
• Don’t over commit in the first place.

Humility

The best book I have read on humility as a leadership trait is Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins.

If you personalize to your own experience, how much do you enjoy having other people take part or all of the credit for your efforts?  The people you lead are no different.

Great leaders have the humility to give credit to the team. To quote President Reagan, “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

Creating Future Leaders:  How can companies hire and train future leaders? Here are four steps companies can take to strengthen their leadership for the long term.

The Four Steps to Creating Future Leaders

Creating future leaders is critical to the long-term growth of a company.  ~ www.jaywren.com

1. Hire for leadership
2. Establish Authority & Responsibility
3. Teach for leadership
4. Increase Responsibility

Hire for Leadership

People in any organizations have specific levels of responsibility.  Some of those people will stay in same job for which the company hires them.

Other people come into a company as developmental candidates.  These people may start in entry-level jobs.  However, the company has a plan to move these people into bigger roles.  Their responsibilities increase as they master each job.

Teach Authority, Responsibility, and Accountability

For new leaders to become successful, they must know their authority.

They must know what they can do.  Additionally, they must know when to notify their supervisors.

Furthermore, they must know their responsibilities.  Knowing the boundaries of their responsibilities makes them more engaged and focused.

Last, future leaders must learn accountability.  They are not only accountability for their own mistakes.  They are accountable for the mistakes of the people under them.

Accountability is a great teacher. ~ www.jaywren.com

Train for Leadership

Authoritative leaders criticize. They control the people who work for them.

Ordering people around teaches them the things what not to do.

However, future leaders must learn more than what not to do.  Mentoring leadership builds confidence and skills in future leaders.  Without this mentoring, a company is not creating future leaders.  It is creating people who follow orders.

Increase Responsibility

For leaders to continue to grow, their responsibility must increase.  Companies promote new leaders into bigger positions.  These positions have a higher pay grade.  Additionally, they have the greater responsibility.

However, companies cannot always promote leaders. But they must keep the leaders growing and engaged.

What companies can do is relieve experienced future leaders of bottom rung responsibilities.  At the same time, companies can give them responsibilities that will prepare them for greater responsibility.

Open-Ended Questions: What are they? How do they create opportunities for greater understanding in solving problems and creating leadership?

One of the most important skills in leadership is the ability to answer open-ended questions. ~ www.jaywren.com

Examples of Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions enable a person to give meaningful, well-developed answers.  The person uses knowledge, feelings, creativity, and skills of self-expression.

Furthermore, these questions show how well a person can think . That is, to see not just one solution, but multiple solutions.

Examples:

“What are business problems that you have solved? How did you solve them?”

“What would you do if you never had to work again?”

“Why should I hire you?”

Examples of Closed-End Questions

People use convergent thinking to answer closed-end questions. Additionally, closed-end questions have one answer.

“What color is your car?”
“Blue.”

“How many fish in the bowl?”
“Three.”

“Did you leave at 4:30?”
“Yes.”

The Importance of Developing Skills for Open-Ended Questions

Some brilliant people have very poor skills for answering open-ended questions. They have vast amounts of knowledge.  They know the facts and can solutions.

However, their careers falter, because they cannot express their knowledge and their ideas.

For example, financial executives must have skills to know the accuracy of their calculations.

CFOs must be able to explain to a board what the numbers mean.  Additionally, they must be able discuss how the company got into a financial position and how to manage the company’s finances going forward.

Presentation Skills

The place to start learning how to answer open-ended questions is presentation skills.  Developing these skills with help you do many things.

• Sell more effectively,
• Interview more effectively,
• Become a more effective public speaker,
• Be a leader in workplace meetings.

In short, you will be more successful when you develop your skills to answer open-ended questions.

In conclusion, here are articles that will help you become more effective in answering open-ended questions.

Triggers are anything that cause negative emotoinal response. Everyone feels stress. However, the degree that people experience stress, the things that create stress, and the way people respond to stress varies.

Different Triggers for Different People

We all have individual triggers.  I say individual triggers, because different things create different feelings and different responses in different people.

For example, heights frighten some people. For other people, heights are thrilling.  Furthermore, the amount that people feel fearful or thrilled varies from person to person.

In the case of bungy jumping, some people are fearful of leaping off a high place to the extent that they cannot even walk out to point where other people jump with glee.  Between these extremes are people who have more intense or less intense feelings about jumping off high places.

How Powerful are Triggers?

When triggered, we experience the impulse to act.

Emotions are not thoughts.  And, under some circumstances, our emotions can fire faster than our ability to think before acting.

For example, two people see a person fall.  One laughs.  Another one winces.

Neither person thought about how they would respond to what they are seeing.  Instead, they are impulsively responding to a visual experience.

Becoming Smart to Avoid Triggers

In many cases, we can recognize patterns in the emotions governing our thoughts.  These patterns are circumstances that increase the likelihood that we will respond emotionally rather than mentally. However, we can become smart to avoid triggers.

When we recognize these patterns, we can make changes in our behavior that affect our ability to deal with stress.

For example, in rush-hour traffic on the freeways, there are miles of cars.  The way that each driver experiences the drive varies from calm awareness to rage.

Rage can lead to dangerous actions.  If we recognize the patterns of behavior that precede the rage, we can change that pattern.  For example, caffeine, hunger, fatigue, and starting late increase anxiety before we even get on the road.

Additionally, anxiety can press us to try to drive faster than the flow of traffic.  When we become frustrated with drivers who slow us down, our anxiety increases further.

The solution is to eliminate or change our behavior before we get on the road.  In this case, we avoid the stimulates, eat, take a break, and start early.

Once we start our drive, we can decide to be part of the flow of traffic and not an intimidating threat to our own safety and the safety of others.

Toxic people create stress that spreads throughout an organization. What are the skills that you can develop not only to survive but to grow around destructive personalities?

Change What You Control

If you can control the actions of toxic people, your first step is to stop what these people are doing.  The way that I have ended toxic behavior is confronting these people with the facts of their actions.  From there, I have shown them the price they will pay if they continue their destructive behavior.

Avoid the Poison.

When I can’t change the behavior of toxic people, I avoid them. If there is no reason to have to deal with them, I don’t.

Skills for Becoming a Healthier Person

Toxic people: When you can’t fight them, don’t join them.  However, make yourself healthier.

When I can’t change the behavior of toxic people or avoid these people altogether, I focus on the changes I can make in myself to become a healthier person.

Here are some things that work for me.

1. I write about my feelings.

In writing about my emotions, I name my feelings.  Fear, anger anxiety, insecurity, and resentment are common feelings that people have around toxic people. You may have other bad feelings. When I experience these feelings, I write about them.

2. I write about my actions.

In this step, I can see what things I can change in my own behavior to reduce the damage in a toxic relationship.  For example, if I act out of anger, I can change my actions.

3. I discuss what I am feeling with a mentor.

One of the problems with writing about my feelings is that I have trouble seeing solutions.  Instead I focus on how people have harmed me.

However, I have close friends I can trust.  These people keep what I tell them a secret.  These friends are mentors who show me how I can grow and improve my behavior.

Simplicity: As situations become more complex, simplicity is a powerful tool. How do leaders eliminate the clutter to create success?

Simplicity creates clarity and empowers leaders to remove the roadblocks to success.   www.jaywren.com

The Clarity of Simplicity

Simplicity creates clarity.

• When leaders speak with simplicity, their message is easier to understand.
• Simplifying their schedule creates clarity on the things that leaders must do to be effective.
• Creating simple strategies clarifies the mission and reduces mistakes.
• Simplifying product mix and services creates clarity in the purpose of the company.
• The clarity of simplicity throughout an organization empowers the organization to do the big things that count the most.

Simplicity and Priorities

The most important things don’t automatically become visible.  Simplicity helps leaders see what is important.

To speak effectively, leaders eliminate the words and ideas that are not important.  Therefore, the only thing left to say are the simple things that effectively make the leader’s point.

Likewise, leaders must know the actions that are distractions and the actions that are essential.  They eliminate everything that is a waste of time.

On a grander scale, leaders of large companies simplify product mix to the products that guarantee the greatest success in sales, market share, and profits.  Simplifying successful product mix by eliminating the products that detract from the company’s successful products is one of the greatest and most important challenges in leadership.

Stating the Purpose Increases Simplicity

Employees must know what to do.  Without stating the purpose, leaders leave employees to find their own purpose and to work on projects that take them further away from the goal.

In product development, the first step is to state the purpose of not just the project but, also, of the product.

Case Study Statement: “The purpose of the project is to create a hand soap.  The purpose of the new hand soap is to increase market share through increased product effectiveness.”

This step simplifies the focus and makes developers stick to the mission.

From there, developers and project managers must use this focus to create a project plan.  With this plan, developers and project managers can stay on task and measure progress against milestones.

Simplicity Reduces Stress and Increases Engagement

Focused people have a present-moment experience that eliminates the stress of a cluttered mind.  Furthermore, a focused mind is more engaged in work and less engaged in distracting thoughts that create fear and regret.

People: What are the steps for building teams? How do you know which person is best for the work you need done?

If a company has great people at all levels, great goods and services will follow. ~ www.jaywren.com

The Challenging Work of Selecting Great People

As a recruiter who worked with wonderful human resources people and hiring managers, I know the challenges people face in making great hires.  Over the years, I built a check-off list of traits I considered when making referrals.  Using this list, I increased my placement to referral rate.  Furthermore, I increased the long-term success of the people my clients hired.

Here is that check-off list that you as an HR or hiring manager may want to use.  If you believe that anyone in your company will find this list helpful, please share it with them.

1. Intelligence

I believe in hiring smart people at all levels.

As a junior Navy officer, I had a petty officer working for me who had an MBA.   He edited the ship’s newspaper on the carrier USS Midway.  Although he was intelligent to do my job, he didn’t want to pressure of a Navy officer.

Every secretary I hired had the intelligence to do my job.  These people just didn’t want a job with the responsibilities I had.

However, their intelligence gave them the ability to make decisions and recommendations.  I was fortunate to have these bright people work for me.

2. Professional Skills

There is very little exception to making great hires without fundamental skill sets. If you are hiring a coder, the person must know how to code.

If someone already has the skills to use the applications and processes that your company uses, the person will become effectively more quickly. Furthermore, this person will save your company money from lost time in training a new hire.

3. Soft Skills

I have three articles on this subject. If you are not familiar with soft skills, these articles might be helpful.

15 Leadership Soft Skills that Create Greatness

The Top 6 Soft Skills

Job Searching: Hard Skills and Soft Skills

4. The Ability to Grow

Ideally, you are hiring someone who can grow into a bigger role and expand into dissimilar roles within your company. The ability of employees to grow helps a company make long-term hires.

5. Current Compensation

Hiring someone who is at a pay grade lower than you are paying will allow you to reduce costs. Furthermore, you will be able to give the person raises for a longer time without having to promote the person into a higher pay grade.

6. Cultural Skills

A person who has cultural skills is someone who can work with people across diverse cultures.

As companies grow, the challenge in dealing with diversity becomes greater.

For great long-term hires, human resources managers and hiring managers must hire people who can adapt to changes within the company. Often those changes involve cultural diversity in the workplace.

7. Team Skills

People who have team skills, know their own role as a team member.  Furthermore, they can support other team members when needed.

If you look closely at a baseball game, you will see that players work in pairs.  The pitcher knows when to race behind home plate to back up the catcher.  The right fielder knows when to move behind first base to back up the first baseman.

If you have ever watched a base runner caught between two bases, you will see players from several positions form a team to trap the runner.

Each player knows what to do in their primary role and their back up role.

8. Mental Stability

Hire people who can make sound decisions in their work and in their personal lives for the long-term.

In an interview process, you are looking for examples over the course of years of how your prospect has made solid decisions in a variety of rolls.

9. Commitment

People who have commitment can make things work in challenging times.

Jobs are not always fun.  Sometimes, they are stressful, challenging, and demanding.  Every job brings its own set of problems.

However, people who start with a commitment will find ways to adjust and still be healthy when riding out difficulties.

10. Flexibility

Some people are naturally flexible. The boss tells them they are working late on Friday.  They think nothing about working late on Friday.

However, in the alpha society of the competitive organizations, strong leaders make decisions based on what they believe is in the best interest of the company.  Their flexibility stops where the interest of the company begins.

11. Motivation

Motivation generates the energy to create a positive mind set in even the toughest times.  When the job is easy and exciting, motivation is easy and exciting.  However, when challenging times come along, the best people find the motivation to rekindle their own spirit and encourage other people.

12. Resilience

The resilience issue centers around situations in which the prospect had stumbled and bounced back.  Ask the prospect about tough times and how they worked through them.

13. Reliability

This trait appears easy to check when doing references.  However, the evidence of reliability is readily available in the prospect’s resume.  Has the person worked for a company for ten years and had progressive responsibility? The logical conclusion is that the prospect is reliable.  On the other hand, if the prospect has ten years of moving laterally through several companies, you should see a red flag on the person’s reliability.

14. Integrity

Once, in the evening after my secretary had left the office, I went to her desk drawer to find a pen.  This drawer was also where she kept the stamps.

When I opened the drawer, I saw a note that read, “I owe Jay 2 stamps.”

The note reinforced what I knew every day.  My employee had solid integrity.

15. Punctual

Before making a job offer, you must know without a doubt that the prospect is punctual.  Nothing damages morale more than having to deal with people who are always late.

16. Presentable

Defining presentable is part of creating a company culture.  The players on Wall Street dress differently than the leaders in Silicon Valley.

There are no universal standards.  The people you hire must be able and committed to adapting to the standards of your company.

17. Work Ethic

People who love to work, make a manager’s job much easier.  It is easier for a manager to turn off the lights and tell an employee to go home than having to plead for a worker to stay late.  Make it easy on yourself. Hire people with a magnificent work ethic.

18. Love of the Job

Hiring people who will love their work is one of the wisest decisions in the hiring process.  There is no greater motivator than passion.  People who love their job can make up for shortcomings in some of the other areas.  These people intuitively focus on doing their work to the best of their ability.

Complaints are a grievance issue, not a management feedback issue. Knowing the difference is important to becoming a strong manager.  www.jaywren.com

Why do weak managers confuse complaints with reporting a problem? How can we train managers to build teams with an effective flow of information?

The Difference

Reporting a problem is feedback that something isn’t working or conditions are deteriorating.  At the same time, complaints are feedback that something is unsatisfactory, but complaints come more in the form of a personal grievance or personal criticism.

People who report problems seek to prevent or correct problems.  Complainers seek an audience for their issues or resolution to personal problems.

Weak Managers

One trait of weak managers is that they don’t want to hear anything negative. They are too busy, too distracted, or too emotionally off-balance to deal with problems.

This management style lends itself to negative, sometimes hostile management relationships with people reporting to these weak managers.

Furthermore, these managers don’t learn about the information they need to know to manage their responsibilities.

How to Train Managers to Deal with Complaints and Problems

Strong managers create a list of conditions that they need to know.  When I was a bridge officer, my commanding officer had a list of standing orders.  These were the things that the bridge officers needed to tell the captain to keep the ship safe.

In other conditions, the commanding officer had temporary orders for a scheduled event.  For example, call the captain when the admiral arrives today.

However, complaints were never in the plan of the day.  The captain didn’t want to hear that the soup was not to your satisfaction or that someone cut you off in line at the ship’s store. He welcomed feedback.  However, he wasn’t interested in personal, negative issues.

In a business environment, managers may want the production supervisor to contact them when they first see a sign that production may start to fall behind.

Another condition might be that a manager wants to know as soon as anyone sees that a project might come in over budget.
A key part of notifying management is to tell them before it is too late to make corrections.

Have a Format for Reporting Problems

Employees need to know how to report problems.

Some managers simply want a notification when a potential problem appears. Other managers may want recommendations when a person is reporting a problem.

In every case, smart managers train employees how to present problems effectively.

Keep It Simple.

When reporting a problem, don’t jumble the report with other information. Just state the problem and, when expected, a solution to the problem.

Have Priorities for Problems

Smart managers may have conditions on when and how to present a problem.

Highest priority are the wake-me-up problems. In the middle of the night, wake me up before the roof starts leaking or before the equipment breaks down.

Wake-me-up directives typically apply to potentially catastrophic problems.

The Safe and Open Environment

Managers should show an open, receptive attitude.  As a business owner, I tried to create as free and safe an environment as possible.  My employees felt safe in knowing when they could make decisions and solve problems.  Also, they felt safe to tell me when a problem would arise.

The best managers assure that employees no one will criticize them for making a mistake in calling out a problem.  Everyone has 20/20 hindsight.

Leadership soft skills: What are the leadership soft skills that create great employees and successful companies. How can you develop these skills?

The most successful leaders not only develop technical skills; they also develop powerful leadership soft skills.
~ www.jaywren.com

15 Leadership Soft Skills that Create Greatness

“That some achieve great success is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

There are countless leadership qualities that lead to success.  Throughout my career as a recruiter, I have made notes on leaders I admire.  These leaders have these soft skills.

1. Confidence During Periods of Uncertainty

The ability to build trust is the single most important leadership soft skill.  Furthermore, without trust, morale fails, engagement and commitment fail, and turnover rises.

Maintaining confidence in periods of uncertainty takes personal courage.  Furthermore, leaders must focus on their mental and emotional balance to restore their own confidence in periods of uncertainty.  This leadership soft skill takes maintenance as well as continued growth.

2. Integrity that Creates Trust

Without Integrity, leadership fails.  Relationships fail.  For example, integrity in water tightness keeps ships afloat.  Structural integrity in a bridge is makes bridges safe to cross.  Personal integrity among the people in an organization builds trust in working for an organization.

Furthermore, ensuring integrity takes honest appraisal. In the case of structures, it takes regular inspections. In the case of an organization, integrity is part of regular reviews.

3. Skills to Create Greatness in Others

Leadership is not about creating personal greatness.  What good is a leader if that leader can’t create greatness in the members of the team?  A lack of this ability to create greatness in the others undermines the long-term future of an organization.

4. Command Skills to Lead

There are many ways people can take over a group.  Charisma, boldness, persuasiveness, dominance are just three characteristics that people use to take command.  However, without commands skills, leaders cannot exert control.

With command skills, the actor can become the director.  Likewise, the secretary can become the office manager.  The vice president can become the CEO.

Command skills are leadership soft skills you can develop.

5. Enthusiasm to Inspire Energy in Others

Being around people without enthusiasm can turn optimism drain the energy from the entire team.  On the other hand, people with enthusiasm can create energy in the people without them.  Sometimes somethings as a smile can inspire energy in others.

6. Ability to Walk the Talk

Insisting that workers arrive on time while the leader is unpredictable about the time they arrive to work creates resentment in the workplace.

Furthermore, any instance where leaders don’t follow the rules harms employee morale and trust.

7. Realistic Optimism to Accept Change and Avoid Costly Mistakes

Being optimistic about the direction of an organization is important to motivating employees.  However, not being realistic about a failed project wastes time and money.  People who are unrealistic about the need to change are like people swimming out to sea.  If they have optimism, but keep the right perspective of the practicality of an idea or a project, their realistic optimism gives them perspective on what will work and what will not work.

9. Open-mindedness to Listen to Others

Some leaders just can’t listen.  They don’t understand the proverb that two heads are better than on. In so doing, they do not gain the collective wisdom of the team. The best leaders hire people who can expand the intelligence of the company.  Furthermore, these leaders listen to people who can make the company smarter.

10. Stamina to Endure Extended Periods of Demanding Work

For some people, stamina seems to come naturally, especially for young people.  However, people who do healthy things can increase their stamina. These people reduce or cut alcohol and tobacco from their lives. The eat foods that help them store energy.  They exercise.

Furthermore, they take breaks to rest to restore cover their energy.

11. Instincts to Know When to Trust Their Inner Voice

This inner voice exists in most people.  Additionally, learning to listen is a skill most people can develop.  Many top-level executive have said that their inner voice guides them through decision-making better than analytical thinking.  They can make bolder steps and continue to have confidence when they have listened to their inner voice.

12. Emotional and Mental Maturity to Keep Perspective

“The sky is falling” mentality is dangerous.  This mentality of thinking of is the theme in the famous children’s folk story, “Chicken Little.”

There are many versions of the story. According to one version of this folk story, a nut falls on Chicken Little’s head. The chick becomes hysterical and goes on a quest to alert others and gather followers on his trip to notify the king. In this version, a fox joins the group, leads them to his den, and eats them.

Hysteria leads to panic.  From there, panic incinerate the clear thinking to handle problems in perspective.

13. Courage to Speak Out

The captain might become disturbed to know that the ship is leaking.  Having to disturb the captain, especially an intimidating captain, takes courage.  However, the consequences of not telling the captain that the ship is leaking has catastrophic consequences.

14. Humility to Give Credit to Others.

Having to work for leaders who selfishly takes credit for everyone’s work becomes quickly annoying, even demoralizing.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins discusses the results of studying 1,435 good companies. From those companies, Mr. Collins and his team of researchers selected 11 companies that had gone from Good to Great over a 40 year-year period.

In the end, Jim Collins and his team of researchers found that humility is critical for successful leadership.

15. Flexibility to Work with Others

People who can’t work with other people have no value as a leader.  Some people play important roles in a company without working with others.  However, these people can’t lead teams.

Trust: What makes this trait so valuable to leaders? What is the role of this trait in the relationship between leaders and their teams?

Building trust can take years; losing trust can happen in an instant. ~ jaywren.com

Creating Trust

There several traits that make leaders great.   Intelligence.  Emotional maturity.  High energy.  Decisiveness.  But the foundation of leadership sits atop the confidence between leaders and their teams. Leaders must have confidence in their teams. Team members must have confidence in their leader. Furthermore, team members must have confidence in each other.  Through training and direction, leaders can help team members build relationships based on trust.

The Benefits

Confidence in leadership strengthens a team.  Every organization has periods of greater challenge.  These periods create uncertainty.  Furthermore, periods of uncertainty create stress.  However, people will tolerate greater uncertainty and pressure in an organization where there is confidence in the reliability of leadership.

The Pillars of Trust

Guidelines

For people to trust their leader, they must know what leaders expect them to do.  Furthermore, they need to know how to do their job.  They must know the deadlines and what methods to use.  Guidelines must be specific and clear.  Furthermore, guidelines help team members engage and trust the process for completing their work.  The clarity of guidelines creates confidence that team members are doing the things leaders expect of them.

Relationships

Relationships in management run uphill and downhill.  It is not enough that team members have confidence in their leader.  Great leaders must have confidence in all the members of their team.  Furthermore, these leaders must remove team members who are not trustworthy.

A Safe Open Door

Team members must know that they are safe in giving feedback that is vital to the operation of the team.  Furthermore, team members must know that the door to management is open.

The guidelines must specify which things team members take to the team leader.

Confidential and Personal
This is the way that I treat confidential and personal information: 1) Qualified to know. 2) Need to know. For someone to receive information, they not only must have the qualifications to know. They must have a need to know. These requirements reduce the risk of leaders saying things that necessarily exposes their confidentiality between themselves and their employers. Compromising the trust of employees over confidential or personal information can undermine the stability of an organization.

Winning Teams: How is it that some teams continue to win while other teams continue to lose?  What are the things that winning teams do differently? Here are some traits for team success.

The power of winning teams exceeds the power of the individual members. ~ www.jaywren.com

Winning Teams: 5 Traits that Lead to Team Success

All teams must have a common purpose or a mission.  Furthermore, even though team members have diverse skills, great team members have common traits.

1. Team Members Own Their Mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes.  On winning teams, the members admit them and do not repeat them.

Additionally, members of winning teams quickly correct their mistakes and move the team along successfully.

2. Winning Team Members Know Their Job Description.

Members of winning teams know their job description.  They read it with their team leader.  They discuss the goals and responsibilities of their jobs openly with each other to collaborate effectively.

Furthermore, they are conscientious.  They know how to do their job, and they do it correctly.

3. On Winning Teams, Each Member Allows Others to Do Their Own Job.

Being a team player and helping other people occasionally is one thing.  However, on winning teams, each team member must let other members do their assigned work.  Like a team of horses, team members empower the team by allowing everyone to do their job.

4. The Most Talented Team Members Know When to Lighten Up.

Learning how to lighten up about the efforts of the team boosts morale.  Not everything that a team does is perfect.  Team members make mistakes.  Team efforts don’t’ always meet expectations.

Talented team members know to lighten up and not take team frustrations personally.

5. Winning Team Members Give Credit to the Team.

Team members deserve credit for their effort.  However, team members bond and become more powerful when they celebrate as a team.

Authenticity: Why are rebels so appealing?  Why are they so successful?

Authenticity – The First Step to Greatness

If you copy other people, you are an impersonator. When you remake the work of other people in ways that it becomes your own work, you are authentic. When authenticity leads you to break the rules and change the world, you are a rebel. With authenticity, rebels find greatness.
~ www.jaywren.com

Rebels Don’t Just Try to be Different.

Rebels don’t just try to be different.  They have the courage to develop what is great and unique in themselves.  Through the authenticity of what is true in them, they do original work that appeals to followers in any field: entertainment, consumer products, business leadership, and so on through all endeavors.

Therefore, do what rebels do.  Don’t try to be different. Try to be yourself.  Through your authenticity, you will find greatness.

Recognize Your Uniqueness

We tend to see greatness as coming from a common set of abilities.  People who have greater talent become more successful.
However, greatness takes many forms.  Your gifts for greatness are unique to you.

Michael Jordan is a historically great basketball player.  He has a competitive mentality that lead him to try to become equally great in baseball.  But baseball was not a sport where he had skills for greatness.  Rather, he was uniquely great in basketball.

However, everyone has a unique set of natural skills.  Focusing on developing the skills that come to you naturally enables you to become the most successful person you can be.  Assuming the courage to stick to develop your natural skills, sparks the authenticity of your natural greatness.

First, Seek Authenticity.

Copying other people makes you an impersonator.  However, building on the work of other people until it becomes true to your authenticity will free you to be an original, a rebel.

Great Teams: Why is it that some organizations always create great teams?  Additionally, why is it that other organizations never create great teams?

Creating the foundation for great teams is fundamental to the management of any organization. ~ www.jaywren.com

4 Traits that Form the Foundation of Great Teams

On every list that I read, Google, and on a broader scale, the parent company, Alphabet, is the number-one rated place to work.

This rating is not by accident.  Google gives services and support that include free food and on-site doctors.  The services make it easier for employees to stay at the Google offices during the work day.

However, Google has taken successful steps to do more than give conveniences to workers at the workplace.  The company has conducted studies to fine tune the composition and the management of teams.

Team Spirit

Team spirit or esprit de corps is the feeling of enthusiasm, commitment, and loyalty to the other members of a team.

Feeling team spirit binds your desire for success and the team’s desire for success.

Brawls in the office or between business competitors are not anything anyone welcomes.  However, an example of the power of team spirit becomes in in competitive sports.  It is this element that causes bench clearing outbursts to come to the defense of other team players.

In the office, team spirit brings the team together to overcome challenges and frustration.  The power of team spirit instills confidence from the support among team members.

When there is conflict in a team, esprit de corps enables teams to tackle problems without attacking each other.

Engagement

There are two points at which great teams engage.  One point of engagement is in the work.  Team players engage to collaborate on the work of the team.  At the second point, team players engage each other for feedback and contributions to projects.

Great teams have members who engage with their work and with other members of the team.

Trust

When team members trust each other, they don’t focus on the negatives of personality.  Instead they focus on helping each other achieve successful results for the team.

For example, Jim doesn’t like Bob.  Every time Bob says something, Jim says something critical of Bob.  Therefore, Jim does not trust Bob.  He feels unsafe around Bob.  Bob may shut down and stop helping the team. Furthermore, he may retaliate against his team member, Jim.

However, when team member build trust, they feel safe and support each other.

Love of Purpose and Working Hard

One of the characteristics and great teams is love of purpose.  Another is working hard as a team.  New England Patriots coach, Bill Belichick, is famous for signing veteran role players who become successful main players for the Patriots.  I remember one interview in which a sports reporter asked Coach Belichick how he managed to find so many players who were minor players across the league and yet became major players for his team.

His response was that he looked for players who loved football and who worked hard.

The most valuable assets of any company walk out the door at the end of the day.  Ensuring that those assets return the next day is the obligation of all managers. ~ www.jaywren.com

Reduce Turnover with These Powerful Steps.

With these steps, you will reduce turnover and increase the value of your employees.

Match Jobs with Job Skills.

Matching skills and tasks increases employee self-esteem and job satisfaction.  Furthermore, matching skills with tasks increases the success of the company.

Make Leadership Available.

Regular feedback helps employees adjust and focus. People who feel support from leadership have more confidence. Additionally, the presence of supportive leadership increases the bond between leaders and team members.

Resolve Problems Quickly.

Quickly resolving problems reduces stress.  Furthermore, it accelerates the progress of the work.

On the other hand, letting problems drift along reduces the progress of the team’s work.

Set Clear Goals and Deadlines.

Employees must know the goal of the project.  Knowing what they are trying to do allows employees to solve problems effectively.  Furthermore, it reduces stress from uncertainty.

Before the project starts, set milestones. These milestones keep teams on track with a sequence of deadlines.  Setting milestones ends procrastination.

When goals and deadlines are clear, employees become more engaged in their work.

Train and Retrain.

Encouraging employees to complete scheduled training increases their value to the company.

Additionally, reviewing skills development increases a sense of value to the company.

People who grow in skills in a world of evolving technologies carry the company through changes over the long-term.

Keep Commitments.

Never make promises.  Don’t promise pay raises or promotions.  Things change.  Pay raises and promotions don’t always happen as scheduled.

However, make commitments you can keep.  If you schedule time to meet with employees, keep that commitment.  Additionally, if you make a commitment to support an employee, keep that commitment.

Show Employees That You Value Them.

Make employees know that you value them.  Show value for their time.  Express your interest in their health and their family.

Feeling valued increases loyalty.

Synergy: How do companies create teams that produce greater results together than the total results of the team members working separately?

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” ~ Aristotle

Collaboration and Synergy

Synergy is the process of combining the efforts of individuals or organizations to produce greater results together than the total the combined results from working alone.

For example, let’s say that companies X, Y, and Z earn a total of $5 million working separately.  However, by merging their efforts, these three companies earn $10 million dollars working together.

“The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

Firsthand Experience

There are multiple reasons why synergy is so effective.  One of the reasons is that synergy fills in the gaps of knowledge among individuals or among individual organizations.

A simple example is my experience in teaming up with other recruiters to share work. Together, we each made more money by combining our resources than each of us would have made working alone.  I had recruiting contracts and job applicants.  The other firms had different recruiting contracts and different job applicants.

By working with each other, we could accelerate filling jobs by helping each other find job applicants for our recruiting contracts.

Synergy in Project Teams

In most companies, departments work separately to do their jobs.  Sales planning does sales planning.  Marketing does marketing.  Manufacturing does manufacturing.

But some projects require knowledge from each of these departments.  Collaboration empowers teams from separate departments to produce greater results by filling in the knowledge gaps.

 Synergy in Working with Specialists

Collaborating with specialists helps people focus on what they do best. For example, writers know how to write.  Some writers can do a reasonable job of editing their own work.  Also, most writers can figure out how to copyright their material.  However, writers can produce far more material by just writing and having experts handle the other tasks in publishing a book.

Empowering Teams: How Leaders Create Success. When a team performs below the sum of its members’ abilities, has leadership failed?

“The greatest leaders empower the people they lead.” www.jaywren.com

Empowering Teams: Leaders use different methods to create powerful teams and reduce turnover. Here are some simple steps that any leader can use.

Empowering Teams: How Leaders Create Powerful Teams and Reduce Turnover.

Leaders use different methods to create powerful teams and reduce turnover.  Here are some methods that simply work.

Keep an open door with your team members.

It is one thing to ask your team members to respect your time.  It is quite another to block them off just because you can’t be bothered.

Encourage your team members to give you feedback and updates.   Set up a list of things that they must tell you about no matter what.

Give directions that can’t be misunderstood.

Tell the people what you want them to do.  Then ask them to tell you what they understand about what you have told them.

Having your team members do work that does not achieve the goals, only to have to do it again, frustrates them.

Giving them clear direction helps them be more successful and feel engaged and successful.

Text and Email with a Purpose.

Before you send a text or an email, write down the purpose of the message.

Use Critiques to Increase Competence.

Finding fault just discourages your team.  Take a minute to make sure that they understand what you expect them to do.

Criticism creates stress.  Helpful, clear direction creates engagement and increases competence.

Give Progress Updates and Interim Encouragement.

Check the progress your team is making on projects.  Update the team members with changes and corrections as work progresses.  Encourage team members to continue the good work they are doing.

Delegate, but don’t abdicate.

Empower team members to make decisions.  State clearly how much authority that they have and how you expect them to use that authority.

However, don’t just assume that they will do everything the way you expect.  Check in with them often to encourage them and to keep them focused.

Use Emotional Intelligence as a Tool for Success.

Emotional Intelligence is the process of responding with intelligence and giving direction based on the best interest of the business.  It is easy to let your ego take over and run roughshod over your team members.

Sometimes, you must be firm.  However, angry outbursts don’t work effectively with every team member.

Carefully gauge how you respond emotionally based on the conditions and based on the emotional intelligence of the team member.

Isaac Asimov: What are the things that Isaac Asimov did that enabled him to become a professor, writer, and success story throughout his life?

Isaac Asimov: The Power of a Lifetime of Learning

Continuing to learn is fundamental to success for a lengthy career.  Industries change.  Tools change.  Opportunities disappear. New opportunities are not always available for a particular skill.  Furthermore, creativity that is critical to solving problems needs occasional resets to solve new and unique problems.

On this point, successful people continue to learn and grow as the world changes.

Eleven different companies publish the books and essays of Isaac Asimov.  Amazingly, he wrote over 1600 essays and hundreds of short stories and books.

Here is a list of his bestselling books:

The Naked Sun
I, Robot
Foundation
Second Foundation
Prelude To Foundation
The Caves Of Steel
Foundation And Empire
The End Of Eternity

“I couldn’t possibly write the variety of books I manage to do out of the knowledge I had gained in school alone. I had to keep a program of self-education in process. My library of reference books grew and I found I had to sweat over them in my constant fear that I might misunderstand a point that to someone knowledgeable in the subject would be a ludicrously simple one.”  It’s Been a Good Life, Isaac Asimov

In another famous quote, Asimov stresses the value of continuing to study after you finish school.

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.”

The Principles of a Lifetime of Success

In conclusion, the principles that Asimov followed apply to success in any career.  For example, Bill Gates’ website “Gates Notes” shows Gates’ belief in this principle.  The site is a blog about the people he meets and the books he reads to continue to learn and grow. Specifically, the subjects in his blog include

• Agriculture
• Foreign aid
• HIV-AIDS
• Polio
• Toilets/Sanitation
• Vaccines
• Saving lives
• Energy
• Big History
• Education

For Asimov, Gates, and other people, the joy of learning creates a life of success that far exceeds the life they might otherwise have had.

Poise: You can have it, and it’s free!

Poise: It’s inside you. ~ www.jaywren.com

Some people have a graceful balance.  They exude confidence.  Their presence is dignified and reassuring.  They have a quiet command presence.  They have poise.

Inner Calm

Poise begins with an inner calmness.  This calmness radiates outward.  Here are some things you can do to develop the inner calmness that gives you poise.

Compassion

Not everyone who has poise feels compassion.  But everyone who feels compassion have poise.

People who have compassion are not self-conscious.  They are not thinking about themselves.

On the other hand, self-absorbed people focus on what’s going on inside their head.  They think about how unfairly the world treats them.  These people build anger and intolerance.  They lack the grace and balance of a person with poise.

People with poise release the insecurities that come from thinking about ourselves.  Their insecurities dissipate like clouds.
When we feel compassion, our thinking goes outward to the real world.  We are not thinking about ourselves.  We are we thinking about other people and the world around them.  Additionally, we are thinking about people in kind of and positive way.  We become gracious and our minds create emotional balance.

Compassionate people have a gracious interest in the world where they live.  They have poise.

Breathe

Conscious breathing creates focus in the present moment.  It assists us to do at a higher, more natural level.

Professional athletes in all sports take a deep breath to focus and gain composure.  Watch a basketball player on a free throw line.  They take a deep breath to relax.  Baseball pitchers do the same thing.  Before each pitch, they settle into position, select their pitch, and then they take a deep breath.  Batters also regain focus and clear their mind by taking a deep breath before stepping into the batter’s box.

Watch swimmers on the starter’s stand.  They take a deep breath.  The extra oxygen burns off adrenaline.   Their mind goes from internal insecurity to the water in front of them.

Body Language

Put your shoulders back.  Uncross your arms.  Relax your muscles.  Allow your body to send signals of balance and confidence.   Your body language will help other people feel confident and happy around you.  It will also transform your mental state to a balanced confidence.  You will exude poise.