Week 267

Positive post Sunday, April 3, 2022- Week 267.

One of my favorite weekly reads is Friday Forward from Robert Glazer. His March 25th edition titled “Leading Leaders” is excellent. If you are a leader, which we all are in one form or another, I encourage you to read this. Here’s the link: https://www.robertglazer.com/…/evaluating-leadership…/.

Leading Leaders is an important reminder that, for leaders, individual goals or metrics should be secondary to the overarching priority of building a high-performance team. I would add a “sustainable” high-performance team. This is especially important in our current environment where many leaders are experiencing a transient workforce with diminishing loyalty and allegiance.

Glazer suggests that effective team leaders must do three things exceptionally well:

1) Set a competing vision for the team.

2) Help team members set their goals and hold them accountable to those outcomes.

3) Build and maintain an “A Team” by hiring well, developing talent, and managing out underperformers or employees who are a poor organizational fit.

With over 30+ years leading teams at work, in the community and at home, I find this article to be right on target. I have been blessed to lead some remarkable human beings and learn from great leaders and mentors. However, just like in the Wide World of Sports, I have also experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat when leading and being led (and actually in sports as well but I’ll save that for a separate PPS ). I have personally seen and experienced a variety of leaders and leadership styles, some highly successful and others toxic.

My observations, and personal experience over the years, have led me to appreciate the importance and value of soft skills for effective leadership. Successful leaders have transitioned from command and control to true and trusted Servant Leaders who listen and act. They know it takes time and energy and they are willing to invest both because they know it pays dividends on the back end.

Don’t get me wrong, education and hard skills are important and foundational, but I’ve learned that ignoring the people issues and focusing on “just the numbers” is not sustainable and does not build future leaders. The most successful leaders, who attract and develop high potential future leaders, are those that lead from the heart not from their title.

Leaders who lead leaders, listen, motivate, coach and communicate with passion, empathy and action. They have exceptional interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence. They create an environment of continuous improvement and innovation, one that challenges the status quo with the “intent” to develop critical thinking and inquisitive leaders.

How are you demonstrating the behaviors of a leader of leaders, setting a vision and goals, developing talent and motivating the team to innovate?

How are you modeling the characteristics of a Servant Leader and developing your soft skills?

Are you leading with your heart or with your title?