5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of May 16, 2016
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Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
5 Evidence Based Tips To Mental Toughness by LaRae Quy
Growing up on a cattle ranch in Wyoming, I learned to survive by being scrappy enough to make-do and hungry enough to keep moving. Department stores were big buildings in places 100 miles away, and if a rattlesnake came between me and where I wanted to go, guess who came out on top?
As a kid I learned a lot about mental toughness. When I joined the FBI, I learned even more. My defensive tactics and firearms training drilled one thing into me: never choke when faced with an obstacle that looks bigger, meaner, or uglier than you. In other words, always be game-ready so you can have the mental toughness to rebound from disappointments and missed opportunities. Our coaches trained us to have a hardiness for enduring the downside of a situation.
My Comment: As a leader, you need a healthy dose of perseverance and mental toughness if you’re to succeed. Quy provides five great tips to help you develop the grit and mental toughness that will help you navigate the thorniest of circumstances.
Former CEO of $33 Billion Company Shares the Greatest Leadership Insight He’s Ever Had by Richard Feloni
… During his stay in St. Louis, he met with 12 or so route salespeople, the truck drivers who deliver and sell products to customers, to discuss merchandising. “They all started raving about this guy named Bob at the end of the table,” Novak told Business Insider. The salespeople took turns laying on praise, and when Novak looked at Bob, he noticed he was crying. He asked Bob why.
“And he said, ‘You know, I’ve been working in this company for 47 years, I’m retiring in two weeks, and I didn’t know anyone felt this way about me,'” Novak said.
My Comment: I appreciate Feloni’s description of this CEO’s reflection about his entire career and that the best leadership insight he ever had was how powerful recognition is. You get more of what you celebrate and encourage – less of what you criticize and ignore. For greatest impact, make your recognition specific (about what they did and why it mattered), meaningful to the individual, and relevant to the work and purpose.
How to Move Beyond “You’re Either With Us Or Against Us” by Jane Perdue
“Remove people from your life whose beliefs, ideas, and values aren’t aligned with yours. Make no compromises here.” Wow. That passage from a book a local businessman had written and asked me to read stopped me cold.
As that position was opposite from mine, I wanted to explore his view in more detail. From his perspective, however, there was nothing to discuss. So, true to his beliefs, he removed me from his life because I was unwilling to accept the rightness of his position.
In scanning the business and political horizon, I see this exclusionary polarization happening too often. The proverbial wagons are circled within a “tribe” of believers. There, everything is reduced to black and white or right and wrong, and it’s either “you’re with us or against us.”
My Comment: In this important article, Perdue provides perspective that is incredibly valuable in life and business. There is a difference between ‘weeding your garden’ of people whose negativity or caustic attitudes suck the life out of you and people who simply have different ideas or values. In fact, if you isolate yourself from other beliefs, ideas, and values, you can’t possibly lead well or have the most successful business.
In Winning Well we discuss the importance of leading from humility and actually inviting people to challenge your thinking. As Wrigley Jr. said: In business, if two people agree, one of them is unnecessary. Good ideas thrive in an atmosphere of healthy challenge.
How Great Leaders Value People by Marcel Schwantes
Organizations of all sizes and industries are reimagining work cultures in this relationship economy. It’s all about the people. Consequently, servant leadership quickly is becoming the preferred practice for some of the biggest and best companies in the world.
My Comment: Schwantes provides a great primer on how leaders value people through awareness, responsiveness, respect, trust, and belief. Start here to build your influence right away.
The Real Cost of Mean People in Business by David K. Williams
One of the most important things a CEO can do to create a happy, healthy work environment is to choose and uphold employees who are kind, considerate team players. As Entrepreneur contributor Will Stanley explains, culture is “made up of the work and values of every employee. Each new hire can contribute to sustaining or eroding that culture.” Most employees are team players, but every once in a while, there is an employee who hogs resources, belittles coworkers, and is, well, just plain “mean.”
My Comment: From gossip, to ill-health, and lower morale, the impacts of mean people are legion. Perhaps the most damaging impact of all is the message you send by failing to address these behaviors. When you tolerate the garbage, you tell your performers and the people who treat others well that: you. don’t. care. Accountability isn’t about beating up people who behave or perform poorly. It’s about valuing the ones who do – and your behavior either says you do…or that you don’t. (And PS: no high performer is worth their bad behavior. The culture you create impacts everything.)
David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!
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