Jul 20, 2022
Things Leaders Should Be Doing
There are tons of things leaders should be doing, so it becomes a bit of a blizzard white out mentally, because we are overwhelmed by the volume. It is a good thing to isolate out some key ideas and just remind ourselves of their importance. Here we go.
- Focus attention chiefly on results to be achieved rather than things to be done. Everything that is happening should lead to the desired results.
Sounds obvious except when we analyse our diary and look at what we are spending our time on, often we are shocked that so few items are actually directly propelling results.
- Plan and organise effectively to achieve these desired results, then coordinate the efforts of everybody concerned with these results to do their best to achieve them.
How good are our plans? Do they need to be updated because the market has changed or circumstances have run over the top of us? Are we still organised properly to achieve the results we have set for ourselves? Is the balance between individual responsibility and teamwork correct or are we off center?
- See that major objectives are divided into bite-size pieces and properly communicated with time targets for achieving expected results. Objectives must have an established measurement and accountability system to prevent deviation from what is expected.
Covid has thrown many of us under the bus and business as normal is no longer a reality. Order and calm pursuit of targets has been replaced with scrambling to survive. How do we measure performance in this situation?
- Establish effective performance standards (expectations) so all people will be geared toward attaining profitable action and will know what is expected of them and how their performance will be measured.
Again, how do you set realistic performance standards during a pandemic, which constantly buffets your industry with wave upon wave of infections, like kamikaze pilots attacking a battle group? The textbook answers have to be thrown out the window and we have to work it out by gut feel and raw grit, rather than philosophy.
- Build a results-oriented attitude in the organisation so people will develop self-reliance and achieve their goals and confidence.
Certainly working from home has shifted the visibility of people producing results and a lot of it now comes down to numbers on a spreadsheet. Also, the opportunities for direct supervision and teamwork have been reduced in the remote world. For some people this is not an issue but not everyone thrives in that garden. What do we do about that?
- Motivate people to peak achievement.
Try yelling “be motivated, be motivated, be motivated” over and over again at your team members and rapidly discover you cannot motivate anyone except for yourself. The best we can do is provide the environment where individuals feel self-motivated to succeed. The trick is to know what that means person by person and then delivering it for them one by one.
- Be creative and help others develop their creative potential.
Creativity can be learned but when and where are we taught how. How many leaders make an effort to study how to be more creative? If you have no clue, how on earth can you teach it to your people? Also, take a cold hard look at the way your organisation functions and see if it is actually designed to stifle or kill innovation rather than encourage it.
- Track all progress so that what is planned is achieved.
How hard could this be right? Except we are often lost in the weeds or we are being pulled hither and thither and coming back to round up results gets overtaken by constant urgencies.
- Maintain coordination of the efforts of all personnel both within and outside your organisation so the interaction of these people will be focused on desired results.
This was certainly easier when everyone was in the office. I find that there is a lot more coordination work required now that people are separated from each other and me and are working from home. A lot of time and energy gets expended now on making sure things are known to people who need to know them and that things are being done, when they need to be done.
- Know and strive to reach your own and the organisation’s continuing purpose and build this into your job and the jobs of those with whom you work.
Often, we pontificate from on high about the purpose of what we are doing and imagine everyone is on board, that everyone got the message and they all understand what needs to be done. It is always a shock to discover not everyone got the message or understood the message properly. We learn we need to keep communicating the same thing over and over again and we always need to check for understanding.
- Exercise and display the kind of leadership skills that will cause people to rally around the plans and grasp with enthusiasm, the concept of teamwork to get things done.
Are you ready to fire your top performer who is not a team player? This is where the rubber meets the road of leadership. If you say one thing about the divinity of teamwork but tolerate the outlaw, the corporate libertarian, who persistently does their own thing at scale, then everyone gets the message about how things really work around here.
So how did you go? Are you giving yourself a perfect score on all of these levers of leadership? I certainly couldn’t do that and it was a painful reminder of my failings and imperfections. The point is self-awareness is the key starting point and often busy work effectively masks our view of what is vital and we get tied up in stuff. Let’s get back to basics and remind ourselves we are not divine after all and we still have work to do on ourselves.