Dave Anderson's Blog, page 2

Rebounding After You Lost Faith in Your Leaders

“I’ve lost faith in my leaders. How do I get it back?” Great question! What do you do when you have lost faith in your leaders? They’ve let you down? They’ve broken your trust? They’ve fallen short of who you expected them to be?

This question came from a former supervisor of mine who called for some advice. Unfortunately, this is a common theme in today’s world. I hear it after doing keynotes with Fortune 50 companies, with law enforcement officers during multi-day training seminars, or when people start talking about politics at parties.

To rebound after you’ve lost faith in your leaders is not easy. We want to believe in them. We want to trust them.  We want them to live by a higher standard than everyone else. But now your disappointed, angry, and/or cautious.

Changing My Mindset

At a certain point in my corporate career, I had a good friend call me out. I felt betrayed by certain leaders in my company and my attitude stunk.

After my friend had a tough talk with me, I realized I had a choice to make.  I could wallow in my bad attitude and focus on the pain others had caused me – or I could change my mindset.

Changing Your Mindset after You Lost Faith

Changing our mindset is not dependent on our circumstances changing. To change our mindset, we have to make a decision.  In fact, we have to make three decisions.

Decision 1:  What’s in Our Control?

We can’t control what our leaders do or say. There will always be situations – large and small – when our leaders disappoint us.

The shift in my mindset began with focusing on what I could control. I stopped focusing on what my leaders weren’t doing and shifted to what I should be doing. I had things in my control. I needed to stop waiting for my leaders to change, and start taking control of my own responsibilities.

When I changed my mindset, I decided “I may not love my company, but I need to love my people.”

Decision 2:  What’s Our Duty?

Andersons’ 12 Word Definition of Duty

Taking action based on our assigned tasks and moral obligations.

It was my Duty to make that team the one everyone else wanted to work for and the one everyone wanted to do business with.  That was my moral obligation as a leader. I needed to do everything I could to help everyone on that team reach their short-term goals and their long-term potential.

Our Duty as leaders is to stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing on others. Our moral obligation is to make sure they grow, not to make sure our leaders our are perfect.

Decision 3:  Where Do We Place Our Faith?

My faith was misplaced. I always wanted to trust in my leaders. But, there is always risk involved when we trust. That is why trust is an act of Courage.

To believe that a leader or a group of leaders will never make bad decisions or break our trust is ignoring the human condition. We are not talking about simple mistakes. We are talking about mindful choices that demonstrate a character flaw.

Nobody has perfect character. Even people with strong character, make choices that let other people down.

Yes, we all want to have faith in our leaders and trust them. But, poor character choices are part of who we are, and how we grow. No one is immune from making bad choices.

Therefore, if our faith is in the inerrancy of people, we will always be disappointed.  Yes, we should have the Courage to trust.  But, we also need to evaluate where we place our faith so we can rebound faster after our leaders let us down.

The Bottom Line:

When we’ve lost faith in our leaders, we have two choices. We can stay discouraged, angry, and/or cautious. Or we can decide to change our mindset.

Those leaders and those circumstances may never change. Admitting to that reality should spur us on to move forward with our lives despite having lost faith in our leaders. It’s not up to them to change, it is up to us to change our mindset.

Question:

What can you control?

Where do your moral obligations lie?

Where are you placing your faith?  

You can purchase Dave’s best seller Becoming a Leader of Character through Amazon here: bit.ly/LOCBook

Or get a personalized signed copy here:  Signed Copy

The post Rebounding After You Lost Faith in Your Leaders appeared first on Dave Anderson.

America’s Leadership Crisis and The Treatment

There is a leadership crisis in our culture. Politics. Business. Sports. Families. Wherever you turn the results of this crisis are evident.

Some of the symptoms are political stalemate, lack of trust, dysfunctional teams, cheating in athletics or broken homes. There are a lot of approaches to fixing these symptoms. But the problem is we are treating a PNEUMONIA patient with cough medicine!

The Disease

There are a lot of people who write books and speak about leadership and offer some quality treatment plans. But, treating the symptoms of the the leadership crisis and hoping the disease gets better is not working. The root cause of the disease that many well-meaning authors, consultants and academics are ignoring is:

CHARACTER

Let’s face it. We do a pretty good job at evaluating and measuring someone’s competence. For politicians we can look at elections won and bills passed. For business leaders we can look at stock prices, quota attainment, or cost controls. For coaches or athletic departments we can look at wins and losses. For families we can see the size of a house or the child’s grades.

But the disease of poor leadership continues. Look at some recent leadership failures in politics, business, sports and families:

Any political scandal of the last decade
Wells Fargo’s deceptive practices
College athletic recruiting issues or USA Gymnastics abuses
Parental neglect due to careerism or disrespectful children

The  failures above are rarely the result of someone not knowing HOW to do the job or knowing WHAT they should be doing.

Don’t misunderstand me.  Incompetence in any of these roles is damaging. But if that is the case, training departments, schools, and the self help sections of bookstores provide plenty of resources to educate us.

So why aren’t they more competent if there is a bevy of resources? Is pride keeping them from continually learning? Is it fear? Either way, it is a character issue

These leadership failures can almost always be traced back to a character issue not a lack of competence.

We don’t need more savvy politicians. 
We don’t need more MBA’s in business. 
We don’t need more coaches who know the X’s and O’s. 
We don’t need more affluent parents. 

We need more Leaders of Character

Until we begin to put the proper focus on character development in ourselves and the people we are responsible for developing, the leadership disease in America and the rest of the world will not get better.

Do you want a snapshot of your character? Take the Quick, Free and Private – My Mirror Character Assessment here:

www.MYCHARACTERTEST.com

The Treatment Plan

Many authors and consultants will mention the word character and tell you that you need to have it. But very few of these people actually tell you HOW YOU DEVELOP CHARACTER!

In a nutshell, you develop character by practicing character in the small things and the big things.

You have to do what you want to be!

Unless you begin doing the hard work that is required to build up your character, you will never develop those critical habits a Leader of Character must have.  Character is the most critical area to develop and it is 100% in our power to do so!

This is not a quick fix. It is not a crash diet that will suddenly get your character in shape. Developing character takes work. It takes consistent effort. And you are never done!

It takes understanding that the little daily decisions we make impact our character. Each decision we make either put us closer to the person we are meant to be or further away from it.

Our book Becoming a Leader of Character – Six Habits that Make or Break a Leader at Work and at Home goes into detail about HOW to develop the Habits of Character that are causing so much of our leadership crisis.

Courage, Humility, Integrity, Selflessness, Duty, and Positivity.

Imagine if our political leaders, our business leaders, our coaches and athletic departments, and our fathers and mothers all developed these Habits of Character. Would there still be a leadership crisis?

The Bottom Line:

I consider myself a Character Evangelist. I am passionate about treating America’s leadership disease with more than just cough syrup. We must treat the root cause in order to beat this disease! We (that means you and me) must do a better job of developing our character and the character of the upcoming generations.

That has been my father’s cause for most of his 85 years on Earth. He has passed that passion on to me. I am looking for leaders to join me in leading a character revival in our culture.

Question:

Will you join me?

You can purchase Dave’s best seller Becoming a Leader of Character through Amazon here: bit.ly/LOCBook

Or get a personalized signed copy here:  Signed Copy

The post America’s Leadership Crisis and The Treatment appeared first on Dave Anderson.

Eliminating the Blame Game

Don’t play the blame game. Problem finders are everywhere. It does not take a PhD, a MBA or even a GED to be a good problem finder. It takes no skill or advanced education to point fingers. Problem finders usually wallow at the lower levels in organizations and rarely make it past middle management.

However, problem solvers are rare. Problem solvers get great jobs and earn good money. Problem solvers are what companies need in leadership. Leaders of Character who are great problem solvers always use the same tool when diagnosing a problem – A Mirror.

Blame Game – What Average Leaders Do

People who are mere problem finders are excellent at pointing fingers. Problem finders love to use the word “They”.  A leader who starts with “They” will likely never rise higher than middle management.

An average leader usually begins looking at a problem by looking at the people on his team or the leaders above him. An average leader begins the diagnosis process by looking around him to see who is to blame.

“Who screwed this up?”
“Who is responsible for this?”
“Upper management is out of touch.”

When anyone, especially a leader, begins the problem solving process by looking at what outside forces caused the issue, the solutions are usually inadequate or short term at their best.

What Leaders of Character Do

A Leader of Character sees a problem and begins diagnosing the issue by utilizing the mirror. She begins with the understanding that she is ultimately responsible, and therefore she starts by analyzing her role in the issue.

“What did I do or not do that caused this?”
“Where did my leadership fail my people, my company, or my family?”
“How do I get better so I don’t do this again?”

The mirror is probably the most powerful yet underused tool in a leader’s problem solving kit. It starts where all problem solving should start if I want to be a leader of character. It starts with analyzing myself.

The Bottom Line:

The blame game is easy for anyone to play. At two years old, my twins were able to point the finger at each other when confronted with an issue. Unfortunately, many adults still won’t look in the mirror when confronted with a problem.

Spending my time fixing others is a lot less painful than fixing myself. It is also a band-aid approach that often avoids the bigger issue inside of me:

Pride

By starting my problem solving process with a mirror, my pride quickly takes a back seat to growth.

As leaders who aspire to be Leaders of Character, we must begin by looking in the mirror. I must look in the mirror when:

A subordinate misses a deadline.
A spouse arrives home later than expected.
A child fails to mow the lawn on the day I specified.

In each of these cases, the subordinate, the spouse, or the child may have screwed up. But a Leader of Character does not start with that assumption. A Leader of Character will pause before laying blame on others. First, she will look in the mirror to determine what her role was in the issue.

A Leader of Character understands that being the leader means she is ultimately responsible for the behaviors of the people she is called to lead. By beginning in the mirror, the Leader of Character sees beyond the current issue and identifies a lasting solution versus a temporary band-aid.

By starting in the mirror, the Leader of Character also creates a problem solving culture on her team or in her family and models Humility for those she leads.

Question:

What other tough questions can we ask ourself while looking in the mirror?

You can purchase Dave’s best seller Becoming a Leader of Character through Amazon here: bit.ly/LOCBook

Or get a personalized signed copy here:  Signed Copy

The post Eliminating the Blame Game appeared first on Dave Anderson.

Leadership and Dealing with Forgetful Followers

“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” -Samuel Johnson

Is the problem with the forgetful followers or with their leaders? Samuel Johnson is saying that as a leader, we need to be the Chief Reminder Officer. If something is important it is worth repeating. If we find people forgetting what we say, we must remind them. That is the leader’s job.

True learning occurs through repetition. We learned our multiplication tables in this way. It is also the best way to help others internalize concepts they need to remember in order to change their behaviors at work or at home.

Applying The Rule Of Seven To Leading

When we realize our words are not having impact on the team, what should we do?

The Rule Of Seven:  

A customer will change their buying habits only after they hear your message seven times.

As leaders, our customers are the people we are called to lead. If we want them to change their habits, they must hear our message at least seven times. Therefore, our job is to remind more than it is to teach!

Too often our pride gets in the way.  Too often we think that if we say something once, the people we lead should remember what we say. Yet we are disappointed again and again.

Failures In Reminding

Once:  A basketball coach who explains a new defense.
Once A Year:  A business owner who talks about his company’s core values.
Once A Month:  A preacher who speaks on a key doctrine of faith.
Once A Week:  A dad who tells his son to stand up straight.

As leaders, instead of blaming the forgetful followers we need to stop making excuses. When we exam why we fail to use repetition as a leadership tool, these are some excuses people use.

“I’m a good communicator.”

That’s pretty prideful for someone people aren’t listening to or following.

“They heard me the first time.”

They may have heard us, but did they listen?  Remember The Rule of Seven.

“I’m tired of saying it.”

Who cares? Are we here for our enjoyment or for their growth?

“They have to be tired of me saying this.”

Maybe! But it is the things we got tired of our parents saying is what we remembered and learned.

Helping Forgetful Followers

1.  Keep It Simple And Focused

If everything is a priority then nothing is. We must maintain focus on a critical few priorities if we truly want to see a change occur.

2.  Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

If it is important enough to call it a priority, then it is important enough to repeat again and again.

3.  Create A Follow-up Plan

In Ken Blanchards’ book Know Can Do, he says there are 3 keys to an effective follow-up plan:

Structure
Support
Accountability

All three are my responsibility as a leader.

The Bottom Line:

Most people don’t need to be taught anything new.  They just need to be reminded. That is our job as a leader.  Have we done everything to help our forgetful followers?

If we want to see lasting change happen on our team or in our children, we must become the Chief Reminder Officer. We must remember the Rule of Seven if we want those we lead to remember our words and change their habits for the better.

Question:

What is a message you have heard repeated consistently that changed your habits?

You can purchase Dave’s best seller Becoming a Leader of Character through Amazon here: bit.ly/LOCBook

Or get a personalized signed copy here:  Signed Copy

The post Leadership and Dealing with Forgetful Followers appeared first on Dave Anderson.

We Are All Called to Lead

Let’s clear something up. We are all called to lead!

“But, I’m just not the leader type.” Some people say this because they misunderstand leadership. Some people say this because they don’t want the responsibility that comes with being a leader.

But, avoiding leadership is next to impossible. Because leadership is influence and we all have influence. The question is whether it is positive influence or negative influence.

All of us have influence on the people we interact with everyday. Our title or our age has nothing to do with that. 

Who’s Called to Lead?

A mother has influence. She is called to lead.

A father has influence. He is called to lead.

A brother has influence. He is called to lead.

A sister has influence. She is called to lead.

A husband has influence. He is called to lead.

A wife has influence. She is called to lead.

A friend has influence.  The friend is called to lead.

A teacher has influence. The teacher is called to lead.

A grandparent has influence. The grandparent is called to lead.

A volunteer has influence. The volunteer is called to lead.

A teammate has influence. The teammate is called to lead.

A coach has influence. The coach is called to lead.

A boss has influence. The boss is called to lead.

No matter what we call ourselves, we have influence and we are called to lead.

We Have Influence No Matter Our Title

Whether we are in a work setting or sitting in a restaurant at lunch time, we have the opportunity to influence someone’s life positively or negatively.

If we take a second to thank the person cleaning the restrooms in our office building, or take the time to ask our server their name at lunch, both these simple actions can positively influence those people. If we choose to do nothing and walk past them like they are a piece of furniture, our actions can negatively influence those people as well.

It is our choice. But no matter what choice we make, we are influencing them. Therefore, we are either leading well or leading poorly.

We have to ask ourselves:

“Is this person better off now that they ran into me?”

Everything, we do and everything we say can have either a positive or a negative effect on others. If our children are watching us (they are always watching), then we are influencing the next generation of leaders.

The Bottom Line:

We all have influence on the people we meet everyday. It is up to us to decide if we are going to leave the people we meet in a better place or a worse place than they were before we met them.

We don’t need a title like Vice President or Supervisor to lead where you are. We are all called to lead, because we all have influence.

If we ignore that call to lead and to have a positive influence on the people around us, then we are a lousy leader and probably a lousy spouse, parent, friend, child, and/or co-worker.

No one needs a title to have influence on others. The question is what type of influence will we have?

Question:

How can you leave everyone you meet today better off after you meet them?

You can purchase Dave’s best seller Becoming a Leader of Character through Amazon here: bit.ly/LOCBook

Or get a personalized signed copy here:  Signed Copy

The post We Are All Called to Lead appeared first on Dave Anderson.

Demonstrate Self-Discipline and Inspire Others

Don’t be deceived. Self-discipline is not just about ourselves. We often think of self-discipline as it relates to diet, exercise, or other personal goals. But as a leader, our self-discipline effects those we are called to lead as well.

People don’t follow us because of what we can do. They follow us because of WHO WE ARE.

Yes, we must become technically competent at our jobs. But more importantly, we must have the self-discipline to do what needs to be done to become the Leader of Character we are called to be. 

Self-discipline is defined as “doing what needs to be done even when you don’t feel like doing it.”  

Honestly, sometimes we don’t feel like doing the things we know we should be doing. This is especially true when we are talking about areas of our lives that impact our character. Without self-discipline we will never become the Leader of Character our teams and our families need.

Four Ways to Exercise Self-Discipline

There are a lot of places where self-discipline is critical. Too often we focus on things that are just personal goals.  However, here are four ways to exercise self-discipline that also effects the people we lead.

1. Composure

Let’s face it. Leadership can be irritating. A self-disciplined leader is a leader who demonstrates patience even when she is irritated. She is able to demonstrate restraint when her emotions make her want to raise her voice or get personal with her comments. It takes self-discpline to remain calm and be the cool headed person in the room when we are frustrated by other people or the circumstances we face.

2. Focus

A leader who can not keep his eyes on the greater goals of his team or his family lacks self-discipline. Some of us set goals but become distracted by less important things. Therefore, the goals we claimed to be important, become secondary. The lack of self-discipline by the leader, pulls everyone’s attention away from what is truly important.  Everyone begins to major in the minor things, and the goals are never achieved.

3. Excellence

A leader who consistently settles for good enough lacks self-discipline. We must be willing to push beyond good and strive for what is best. We may be tired, or we are doing something we don’t enjoy. But, do we give our best anyway? It takes self-discipline to expect the best out of ourselves and to give our best in all circumstances. It also takes self-discipline to expect the same thing out of the people we lead.

4. Practice

We don’t get good at anything without practice. Malcolm Gladwell points out, in his book Outliers, that to become truly great at something it takes 10,000 hours of practice. That is a lot of time spent practicing one thing! That much practice takes a lot of self-discipline. To achieve excellence, we must practice. We must practice the skills we need to have to do our jobs well, and we must practice the Habits of Character we need to develop to be a Leader of Character.

The Bottom Line

To be a Leader of Character, we must have the self-discipline to maintain our composure, stay focused on what is important, expect excellence from ourselves and others, and practice, practice, practice.

Duty is a Habit of Character we define as: 

Taking action based on our assigned tasks and our moral obligations.

We have certain moral obligations when we are called to lead teams at work or at home. Nobody writes these moral obligations down for us and none of them are easy to accomplish. That is why they take self-discipline.

If a leader is able to keep her composure, focus on what is important, strive for excellence in herself and then in her team, and then practice those things in the small moments and the big moments, she is well on her way to becoming the Leader of Character her work team and her home team will want to follow.

Question:

When else is self-discipline critical for leaders?

You can purchase Dave’s best seller Becoming a Leader of Character through Amazon here: bit.ly/LOCBook

Or get a personalized signed copy here:  Signed Copy

The post Demonstrate Self-Discipline and Inspire Others appeared first on Dave Anderson.

Leadership – Having a People Development Mindset

Some organizations do not have people ready to step into a vacant leadership position. The issue in most of these situations is not a lack of talent, but a lack of people development. And that is the leader’s job.

If you’re people are not growing, you are probably not leading.

People are what make the leader. If we spend most of our time focused on resources, manufacturing schedules, marketing campaigns, or finances, we are managing not leading. You lead people and you manage processes and resources.

The Military and a People Development Mindset

In the military, the only person who is not responsible for developing someone, is the Private who is straight out of basic training. After that, every rank above Private is expected to be developing the people below them. The Corporal develops the Private. The Sergeant develops the Corporal. The Staff Sergeant develops the Sergeant. Etc.

The military has a people development mindset because if someone is wounded or worse, the next level down must be prepared to step up. It is the Duty of the leadership at all levels to prepare the people below them to lead.

This is where most business, and surprisingly law enforcement organizations, fail. They do not have a people development mindset so they have to recruit from outside agencies or worse, unprepared people are promoted.

The Lack of a People Development Mindset

As leaders, training should augment the development that is consistently taking place within our teams. If there are not people ready to step up and lead when a position opens up, we should not blame the lack of bench strength on the people sitting on the bench – that is the coach’s responsibility. 

Unfortunately, too many leaders believe that because they send people to a training class, that is the same as developing people. The training may be the start to development, but in most organizations nobody follows up on that training. Education may happen. But without application, the education has no impact on the growth of the person.

We shouldn’t cop out and expect trainers to do the development of our people. We must have a people development mindset. We must think of every interaction with the people we lead as an opportunity to make them better.

Two Questions a Leader Should Ask Themselves

Developing people does not have to be program based. In fact it works better when people development is a mindset. The mindset only requires us to ask ourselves two simple questions:

After every interaction:  Is that person better in some way because they just spoke to me?

On the drive home from work:  Who did I make better today?

If everyone on our teams asked themselves these questions, our teams would have a people development mindset. 

The Bottom Line

Two out of three people come back from training and claim they got nothing out of it. (DDI: 2015 Global Leadership Forecast). Is the training that bad? Sometimes. But, even an average trainer should have some lasting impact. More often, the employee returns from training and their supervisor is not prepared to keep that training alive.

That is where the system falls apart. Training is a great resource to have at our disposal. However, it is inadequate all by itself.

Who is responsible for the development of the people on our team?

The answer is:  We are! 

Within our teams, the leader sets the expectation that people development is everyone’s responsibility. It starts with leader and trickles down from there. A team who does not have people ready to step up when needed does not have a talent vacuum. They have a leadership vacuum. It is the leader’s job to develop the people.

Question:

Who is ready to step up on your team?

You can purchase Dave’s best seller Becoming a Leader of Character through Amazon here: bit.ly/LOCBook

Or get a personalized signed copy here:  Signed Copy

The post Leadership – Having a People Development Mindset appeared first on Dave Anderson.

The Root Cause of Bad Leadership

Untrustworthy. Poor communication. Poor listening. Micromanaging. Selfishness. Uncaring. Demeaning. Many people believe if you fix these things you will fix a bad leader. But these are just the signs of a bad leader. They don’t identify the root cause of bad leadership. 

The Root Cause of Bad Leadership?

You can go to seminars and listen to podcasts looking for answers. You can read blogs and articles and books about improving in all these areas. “The 12 Skills Leaders Need to…”  But they rarely address what is really the issue. The issue is what is going on inside the leader, not what the leader is doing outwardly.

For example,  a micromanager’s behaviors are often blamed on a lack of trust or lousy listening skills.

YES! I agree! But why?

Why is trust an issue? Why is poor communication an issue? Why is listening an issue? Why is micromanagement an issue? Why is selfishness an issue? Why do leaders seem uncaring? Why do they demean people?

Fear and Pride Are The Roots of Bad Leadership

90% of bad leadership stories can be boiled down to the root cause of FEAR and/or PRIDE.

Trust

FEAR: You must have Courage to take a risk and trust someone. It takes ZERO courage to distrust.

PRIDE: You must be humble enough to trust that someone else may do something as well or better than you do. Otherwise your pride is out of control.

Aside: The topic of building trust has become a niche industry in the leader development business. There are books by Ken Blanchard, the Covey group and Patrick Lencioni that all point to trust being foundational to relationships and teams.  They are great resources on the issue of trust.

Communication/Listening

FEAR: You must have the Courage to engage in productive conflict. Avoiding conflict because it makes you uncomfortable is a lack of Courage.

PRIDE: You must be ready to admit you are wrong in order to reach the best solution. Fighting just to win is a pride issue.

Micromanaging

FEAR: You must delegate and let people make mistakes so they can learn and grow. Not letting people on fail because of how it may make you look bad is a lack of Courage.

PRIDE: You must be willing to let others perform tasks in their own way. The “My way or the highway” technique proves your pride will not allow you to entertain that there might be another way.

Selfishness

FEAR: You must believe that making others look good and giving them credit is the right thing to do. Holding back credit because they might be promoted off your team, or they may take your job is a cowardly act.

PRIDE: You must shine the spotlight on your team at every opportunity and not on yourself. Fighting for the spotlight and recognition is a sad display of pride (and insecurity) run amuck.

Uncaring/Demeaning

FEAR: You must believe that taking the time to add value to others and improving their day is a sign of strength and confidence. Being overbearing, because you want respect, is a cowardly way to pursue the respect you desire. (And it doesn’t work.)

PRIDE: You must believe that serving others is your role as a leader. The mindset that those you lead are here for you, builds compliant people who follow the rules. But, it will never create committed followers.

The Bottom Line:

When diagnosing bad leadership, we often say the problems are the behaviors. If we fix the behaviors, we will fix the leader. But, the real fix runs a lot deeper than training people how to act trustworthy or how to listen better.

Just because you know how to exercise and remain fit does not mean you have the internal drive to do it.  The same goes for the root cause of bad leadership.

Most bad leaders know what they should do to be a better leader. But, there is something missing in their character that prevents them from leading as they should.

Fear and pride are the root of most leadership issues. Conversely, Courage and Humility are the foundation that creates Leaders of Character who build trust, communicate and listen well, avoid micromanaging, serve first, and truly add value to the people they lead.

Question:

What would happen if we focused on developing Courage and remaining humble?  Do you think that would fix these leadership issues?

You can purchase Dave’s best seller Becoming a Leader of Character through Amazon here: bit.ly/LOCBook

Or get a personalized signed copy here:  Signed Copy

The post The Root Cause of Bad Leadership appeared first on Dave Anderson.

Three Ways a Leader Creates a Disengaged Team

What’s a disengaged team look like? Some people are afraid to speak up and challenge the boss. Some people don’t want to put forth the effort. And some just don’t care anymore.

As a result, the leader never hears the truth about himself and his ideas. The people either become silent bystanders or self-serving sycophants.

When a leader has a disengaged team, who’s fault is it?

I had a leader that consistently asked for feedback, but that person’s reaction to the feedback eventually shut everyone down. The leader thought just asking for feedback was enough to get people talking. It wasn’t.

How we react to the feedback of others goes a long way in determining whether they will ever provide us with candid and honest feedback again. There are usually three reasons the leader never receives the real feedback he needs.

The Leader Argues = Disengaged Team

The truth may set you free, but first it will make you angry.

Our pride often gets in the way of truly listening to the concerns of others.  If someone on our team has the courage to speak up, we need to set aside our pride and listen, even if what they say stings.

Too many leaders shut down people by immediately defending themselves or their ideas.  When a leader does that, the people will learn to stay quiet.

As leaders, we must set aside our pride and look for the truth inside the feedback we are getting. The truth might make us angry because it was not delivered well or it hurts us personally, but there is still truth in the message.

The Leader is Distracted = Disengaged Team

If the leader says, “I’m listening.” but the person on the phone can hear them typing on the keyboard, the leader is in trouble. As a result, people will stop bringing their leader their real concerns because they know the leader isn’t really listening. That creates a disengaged team.

People are not something that should be multi-tasked.   They are the only reason a leader is a leader.  

When someone is made to feel unimportant, they will stop challenging the status quo. We must make our people our first priority. If someone has the courage to speak up, we need to demonstate the Selflessness to stop whatever we are doing and be sure they feel heard.

The Leader Does Nothing = Disengaged Team

If nothing ever changes, why should people continue to provide us with honest feedback?

One of the most frustrating things I see in the corporate world is the consistent flow of employee surveys that have little or no impact.

Over time, people stop taking the requests for feedback seriously. They decide swimming against the current isn’t worth the effort. Therefore, the leadership only hears what it wants to hear. The leadership thinks everyone is happy, but the private conversations of the people tell a different story.

If we ask for feedback, we need to be willing to implement changes as a result of the feedback.  It is our Duty as a leader to truly consider the ideas of others and try to make things better.  Most people do not expect everything they say to spark change.  But, if change never happens, candor will die.

The Bottom Line:

Let’s face it.  As a leader, everything that goes on within our teams (or our families) is our responsibility. If we lead a disengaged team, we are to blame.

If our people aren’t speaking up, or if all we hear are accolades, it is usually our fault.  If we hear crickets chirping, or everyone nods in agreement whenever we speak, we are to blame.

Without two way communication between the leader and the led, the leader will stagnate and the team will stagnate.

We will never get better, our teams will never get better, our families will never get better – unless people feel they are able to speak up, their feedback is important, and they have the chance of changing something.

A leader creates this type of environment by demonstrating the Humility to not argue, the Selflessness to focus on the person delivering the message, and the sense of Duty to actually make some changes.

Question:

What other ways do leaders create disengaged teams?

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Negativity Limits Your Ability to Lead

Positivity or negativity? It boils down to making a choice. Choosing negativity limits who will follow us. The attitudes we display go a long way in determining what type of leader we are and how many followers we have. 

Do we choose our attitudes, or do we let our circumstances or other people choose them for us? Do we choose to focus on others or on ourselves? Do we choose to look for solutions or look problems? Our attitudes have been and always will be a matter of choice.

My father once made the now famous comment to me, “Your attitude is a choice. Make a different choice.” 

The truth of that statement should affect the choices we all make when it comes to our attitudes. If anyone ever tells you they can not control their attitude – they have bought into a lie. People in difficult circumstances choose Positivity every day.

Hospice nurses who see nothing but suffering and death yet choose to be a light in everyone’s time of darkness.
Spouses who have a husband or wife deployed year after year, yet choose to cheerfully support the deployed spouse and run a household alone during those deployments.
Parents who lose a child unexpectedly, yet smile through their grieving and recovery and become an example for everyone around them.

Sometimes our circumstances are difficult. But, very few of the people walking around with a negative attitude are dealing with something close to the circumstances listed above. Positivity or negativity? It boils down to making a choice.

Choosing Negativity Limits Our Influence

Positivity and negativity are both habits. Each time we make the choice between them, it makes it easier to make that same choice again. Each time we whine about our circumstances, it becomes easier to do it the next time. Each time choose to focus on what we don’t have versus what we do have, it becomes easier to do it again and again.

Pretty soon, as a result of regularly choosing negativity, we become a Joy Sucker. Wherever we go, whether we know it or not, people stop wanting to spend time with us. Why? Because we suck the joy out of their existence.

People who dwell in the world of pessimism rarely attract enthusiastic followers. They usually attract other Joy Suckers. If a leader is a gifted pessimist, he may spawn more pessimists but few followers.

A Leader of Character exercises Positivity even when things are difficult. That does not mean a Leader of Character lives in a fantasy world.

It just means she will see opportunities where others see road blocks. It means she will choose to encourage people who are struggling instead of adding to their misery. It means she will not let her feelings dictate her reactions to any situation – good or bad.

The Bottom Line:

Negativity is a habit that drives people away from us. If we choose negativity on a regular basis, we are choosing to be a person others wish to avoid. Negativity limits our ability to lead if we are driving people away from us instead of drawing them towards us.

Andersons’ 12 Word or less Definition of Positivity

Displaying a positive and/or can-do attitude in all circumstances.

That type if attitude is a choice that becomes easier each time we make the choice. People who choose Positivity in the day to day challenges of life, will find it is easier to choose Positivity when our teams or our families need it most.

Unless we make Positivity a Habit of Character we consistently choose, we will likely be a lonely individual and an ineffective leader. We decide. Positivity or negativity?

Question:

What circumstances have you chosen to allow to affect your attitude?

 

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