Lee Ellis's Blog, page 25

Coaching Blog – 5 Practical Results of Team Collaboration

If you are a highly Results/Mission-oriented personality, perhaps collaboration is a challenge for you. But in almost every role in business (and sports), to be successful, you need the help and support of others. Chapter eight in my book, Engage with Honor, is entitled ���Develop a Mindset for Collaboration��� and addresses this topic head-on.

 

Collaboration in the Camps

In life and death situations at the Vietnam POW camps where leaders were typically tortured the most, and often in isolated cells, collaboration was a leadership essential. Even the most confident, experienced, mission-focused warriors among us realized that they couldn���t dominate the group or withdraw and operate independently. Instead, they risked added torture and exposure reaching out to others to connect and collaborate. Senior leaders knew that their success depended on a team effort of ���courageous collaboration��� with their followers���it was essential for survival and success.

Caption: This is just one example of courageous collaboration in the POW Camps. They had to muffle their voice to communicate through the prison walls without getting caught.

 

Competing at the Expense of Collaboration

Collaboration isn���t easy for everyone. In our early careers, we are often competitively focused on developing our own expertise and competence more than collaborating with our peers. But like the POW camps, today���s environment for success is more dependent on a team effort. With cultural challenges of working with five generations and rapidly changing technology, leaders are often not the experts. And, like the POW leaders, they���re managing things that they have never done. Using collaboration is now a required ingredient in building a winning model of accountability and performance.

Collaboration can also be a challenge because it requires a leadership balance that starts with both confidence and humility.

 

“Today���s honorable leader must trust their people and confidently delegate power and coach them as needed to get them back on course quickly while humbly listening and learning from them.” [Tweet This]

 

This leadership balance is always a challenge because it requires two major spheres of natural talents (innate traits): results/mission talents (strategy, tasks, and accountability) and relationships/people talents (valuing, encouraging, supporting, and coaching others). The clincher is that we���re naturally wired to favor one over the other. Balance between these two mindsets must be learned.

This coaching clip expands on this idea. Please watch, and then continue reading the blog below ���

 

Developing a Collaborative Mindset

The entire concept of courageous collaboration is anchored in the fact that people want to succeed.�� They want to be a part of something larger than themselves, they want to be valued, and they want to count for something. When the collaborative leader assumes goodwill, treats others with dignity and respect, and believes in them, they will be inspired to respond with their best. You can see that adopting this mindset as part of your leadership strategy requires confidence and courage to get past the fears that would cause many of us to control and dictate more than collaborate. That���s why courage provides the steel backbone of the Courageous Accountability Model.

 

Practical Benefits of Collaboration

Five proven, important benefits of collaboration are that it –

 

Facilitates alignment. When individual talents are aligned and working in concert, there���s a unity of effort that brings synergy and astonishing levels of execution. Picture the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels aviation demonstration teams or a perfect performance by the Radio City Rockettes.

 

Promotes three-dimensional, 360-degree leadership and performance. When leaders collaborate with their peers, it frees their direct reports to collaborate at their peer level, breaking down silos and working more efficiently and effectively.

 

Gets better results. If you look at high-performing organizations, you���ll find alignment, good communications, and leaders that trust their people to execute the mission. At the beginning of this chapter on collaboration in the book, we used this great quote by friends Bob and Lyn Turknett of the Turknett Leadership Group here in Atlanta.

 

���The key to holding others accountable is to be actively engaged with them.��� [Tweet This]

 

Builds teamwork and develops people. Collaboration builds trust. The better you know each person, the more effectively you can work with them or lead them. More understanding means more trust, which means stronger teams that are growing as they learn from each other.

 

Helps minimize risks. In the POW camps, our covert communications depended on collaboration. While I was the lead communicator in my cell, I was totally dependent on my cellmates and the guys next door to ���clear��� for me. Their eyes and ears and danger signals made it possible for me to do my job. Likewise, working together as a team reduces risk in every workplace. Think about the operating room in a hospital. If the team of doctors, nurses, and support specialists don���t collaborate, the risk for tragedy and malpractice suits is high.

 

The Collaboration Payoff

If this mindset of collaborative leadership is new to you or seems hard or a bit scary, let me challenge you to consider the benefits. The payoff for your hard work is going to be better results, higher morale, better engagement and retention, and a bench of next generation leaders who are ready to step in.

What has been your experience? As a leader? As a follower with and without collaborative leadership? Please share your comments here.

 

LE [Tweet This Article]

(EDITOR���S NOTE: This month���s insights on the importance of Collaboration are highlighted in two chapters of Lee���s award-winning book Engage with Honor: Building a Culture of Courageous Accountability. ��The book is built around the Courageous Accountability Model and provides a step-by-step plan for building the culture that you want as a leader. Accountability continues to grow as one of the biggest challenges in our culture. The good news is that when you relate to your people and collaborate with them, you can help them develop���and let them know that they must be responsible and accountable. Please check it out at your favorite retailer or read more reviews at www.engagewithhonor.com.)

 

Robert L. Turknett & Carolyn N. Turknett, Decent People Decent Company: How to Lead with Character ����at Work and in Life,�� �� 2005 Davies-Black Publishing (CPP) Page 135

 

Save 30% when you Buy the Two-Book Honor Package!

Purchase these award-winning books from Lee Ellis and FreedomStar Media in one package. Leading with Honor outlines the 14 leadership lessons learned in the POW camps of Vietnam. Then, Engage with Honor applies many of the original leadership lessons into a practical Courageous Accountability Model. (includes 1 ��� Leading with Honor Hardcover book, 1 ��� Engage with Honor Softcover book)

Purchase Your Honor Package in the Leading with Honor Store

Purchase Your Honor Package on Amazon.com

 

Online Team Development Training

With over 20 years training and coaching leaders, we know that the most effective development comes in community. And our mission has shifted toward leaders developing their people���the most efficient way���growing and taking others with them. The challenge is that many leaders don���t feel qualified to conduct training, and it���s expensive.

With this Courageous Accountability online development course, we���ve created an online platform using the latest, real-time collaborative learning technology to ensure the best learning environment possible.

Request a Quote to have your team experience the Courageous Accountability Development Course.

 

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Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day from Lee Ellis and the Leading with Honor Team ��� we���re grateful for all of the hard-working leaders and teams who inspire us every day.

 

 

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Leadership History Lesson for September 1st

On this day in leadership history in 1986, Jerry Lewis raised a record $34 million (equal to $95 million today) for Muscular Dystrophy during his annual telethon for Jerry���s kids over the Labor Day weekend.

What���s the leadership lesson? What vision or dream are you trying to fund, honorable leader? Keep pressing forward to see your vision become a reality and bring as many people as you can with you!

 

 

 

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Leading with Honor Wisdom for Today, August 30, 2024

���As you have probably seen in your own experience, personal values inevitably drive organizational and team values.��� ��� Lee Ellis

 

#courage #leadership #accountability #employeeengagement #lcharacter #integrity #buildingculture #keynotespeaker

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Leading with Honor FAQ on Accountability

Leading with Honor FAQ ��� ���My boss is hesitant to hold people accountable and we have folks on the team that don���t carry their weight. What can I do?���

 

Lee���s Answer ��� ���Your manager probably lacks courage to deal with the issues. How can you encourage him or her? By approaching your manager in a respectful way, you may be able to help them see the impact of the problem as well as how to address it. Your manager might be relieved to have someone help them come up with a firm and respectful way to deal with the person.

This situation highlights why relationship capital and professional respect are so important. Looking back I can now see that in the POW camps I had much more influence over my leaders than I ever realized. They listened to my suggestions and often acted on them. That���s what we now call ���leading up��� and it���s very important. As a leader I unashamedly allow my team to influence me. They often see things I don���t and I���ve learned to listen to them and let them help me lead better.���

Read more FAQs at www.leadingwithhonor.com/faqs

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Latest Book Recommendation – “The Road Less Traveled”

The Latest Book Recommendation from Lee���s Bookshelf ��� ���The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth��� by M. Scott Peck ��� Having just read this book for a fourth time, this book has a special importance to me. ��

In it, he���s courageous enough to suggest that “life is difficult” and personal growth is a “complex, arduous and lifelong task.” His willingness to expose his own life stories as well as to share the intimate stories of his anonymous therapy clients creates a compelling and heartfelt narrative.

Learn more about the book and read reviews on Goodreads.

Have you read this book? If so, please share your comments about it in this post ���

 

 

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Leadership History Lesson for August 25th

On this day in leadership history in 1998, a survey released said that 1/3 of Americans use the Internet.

What���s the leadership lesson? What product, service, or idea do you use in business that has the potential for explosive growth? Honorable leaders should be creators of ideas that serve people.

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Leading with Honor Wisdom for Today, August 23, 2024

Adapting to others is the essence of The Platinum Rule ��� ���Do unto others as they would like to be done unto.���

 

#courage #leadership #accountability #employeeengagement #leadershipbehavior #teamdevelopment #buildingculture #keynotespeaker

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What are the Ingredients of Resilience? See Enclosed

Who doesn���t need more resilience right now?? This simple graphic below is designed to show what it takes to build a strong resilience attitude. Check this out and then go deeper at the link displayed below –��

 

#courage #leadership #accountability #employeeengagement #leadershipbehavior #teamdevelopment #buildingculture #keynotespeaker #resilience

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Quick Advice on Making Others Feel Important

Honorable leaders recognize that people have different talents, and they learn to adapt their interactive behaviors to make the other person feel accepted and valued. This principle of adapting to others is highlighted in The Platinum Rule ���

���Do unto others as they would like to be done unto.���

Please read that again and reflect on it for a few seconds.

The Platinum Rule may sound like a conflict with the Golden Rule (���Do unto others as you would like to be done unto���), but they complement one another. The Golden Rule is talking about valuing, appreciating, and respecting. To capitalize on each person���s unique talents, leaders must make others feel valued and important by interacting with people the way that they want to be treated.

It���s crucial for leaders to coach themselves to observe people and uniquely connect based on their talents. Whether it���s at work or at home, adapting the way that you interact with people is one of the most powerful ways to gain respect and influence with others.

You can read and watch the entire coaching blog on this topic – “Are Independent Thinkers a Recipe for Team Success?”

 

 

#courage #leadership #accountability #employeeengagement #leadershipbehavior #teamdevelopment #buildingculture #keynotespeaker

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