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“There are two types of people in the business community: those who produce results and those who give you reasons why they didn’t.” —Peter Drucker
Colin Powell asserted, “You can issue all the memos and give all the motivational speeches you want, but if the rest of the people in your organization don’t see you putting forth your very best effort every single day, they won’t either.”
That’s how it is in leadership. Productivity puts people at the head of the class.
The Production level of leadership communicates the vision through action, which helps people understand it in ways they may not have before.
Leadership is defined by what a person does with and for others. It is established by making the team better and more productive. It’s measured by what the entire group accomplishes, not by the individual efforts of the person in charge. Good leadership is never based on what someone does by and for himself.
Organizations all over the world make the mistake of putting high producers into leadership positions only to watch them fail to lead well.
I’ve seen someone make things happen, and I thought, Wow, this person is going to be a fantastic leader, only to have that person continue to make things happen for himself but ignore and demoralize his team. That’s not leadership.
Productivity is measurable. Organizational growth is tangible. Profitability is quantifiable. Leaders who fail to increase them are held accountable.
effective leaders understand that the cost of leadership is carrying the responsibility of their team’s success on their shoulders.
Production Leadership Requires Making Difficult Decisions
On Level 2, leaders often have to start making difficult people decisions. On Level 3, leaders continue to make
those but also add difficult production decisions.
Today as I look back, I regret the decisions I failed to make more than I do the wrong decisions I did make.
Be successful before you try to help others be successful. Hold yourself to a higher standard than you ask of others. Make yourself accountable to others. Set tangible goals and then reach them. Accept responsibility for personal results. Admit failure and mistakes quickly and humbly. Ask from others only what you have previously asked of yourself. Gauge your success on results, not
intentions. Remove yourself from situations where you are ineffective.
Going first may not always be easy or fun, but it is always a requirement of leaders.
Moving up through Level 3 based upon solid Level 2 relationships is no small feat for any person. Many people find themselves incapable of achieving it.
There is a strong relationship between giftedness and effectiveness as a leader on the Production level.
The more focused you are within your talents, the more rapid the rate of growth and the greater you increase your overall potential to be a productive leader.
“Do what you do so well that those who see you do what you do are going to come back to see you do it again and tell others that they should see you do what you do.”
Vision casting is an integral part of leading. Fuzzy communication leads to unclear direction, which produces sloppy execution.
The commitment of the team begins with the commitment of the leader.
Teams don’t win unless their leaders are determined to do everything they can to succeed, to dedicate their productivity to advancing the organization toward the vision.
When you get to Level 2 with people in your organization, they begin to like being together. But when you get to Level 3, they begin to work together.
“The job of a leader is to build a complementary team, where every strength is made effective and each weakness is made irrelevant.” —Stephen Covey
As you lead people on Level 3, don’t take for granted that they know what you know or believe what you believe. Don’t assume they understand how their talents and efforts are supposed to contribute to the mission of the team. Communicate it often.
Believing the best in people usually has a positive return, but sometimes it doesn’t.
The Law of the Edge: The Difference Between Two Equally Talented Teams Is Leadership
Most of us lead busy but undisciplined lives. We have ever-expanding “to do” lists, trying to build momentum by doing, doing, doing—and doing more. And it rarely works. Those who build the good-to-great companies, however, made as much use of “stop doing” lists as “to do” lists. They displayed a remarkable discipline to unplug all sorts of extraneous junk.4
As you lead your team, your goal should be to help every person get to the place where they are doing their should-dos and love-to-dos, because that is where they will be most effective.
Vision: When the vision is similar, you can bet that the people are standing together and they have the same view. If their vision is similar to yours, you all see it clearly, and everyone has a strong desire to see it come to fruition, you can probably work well together. Values: It’s difficult to travel with others very long if your values don’t align. Find out what others stand for and try to meet where you share the same standards. Relationships: Great teams have people who are as committed to one another as they are to the vision. If you’ve done the work on Level 2, you should already
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Good leaders have an orientation toward results. They know that results always matter—regardless of how many obstacles they face, what the economy does, what kinds of problems their people experience, and so on. They fight for productivity and are held accountable no matter what.
“Make your future plans so long and so hard,” Ford advised, “that the people who praise you will always seem to you to be talking about something very trivial in comparison with what you are really trying to do. It is better to have a job too big for popular praise, so big that you can get a good start on it before the cheer squad can get its first intelligent glimmering of your plans. Then you will be free to work and continue your journey towards even greater success.”
When you’re working to gain relational credibility on Level 2, the positive results are often intangibles, such as morale and trust. In contrast, the results of good leadership are highly tangible at Level 3. People see better organization, increased productivity, and higher profitability. The result is that they see your strengths and understand what you can do.
The best leaders on Level 3 find ways to win. They always do. They produce!
People buy into the leader, then the vision. That buy-in comes from two things: the relationship you have with them and the results you demonstrated in front of them. They want to know you care about them, and they want to know you can produce. They learn both of those things from watching you and seeing your example. When they enjoy you as a person and perceive you as a producer, then they have what they need to buy in.
Growing Leaders Is the Most Effective Way to Accomplish the Vision
Everything rises and falls on leadership. The more leaders an organization has, the greater its horsepower. The better leaders an organization has, the greater its potential. You cannot overinvest in people.
Every time you increase the ability of a person in the organization, you increase the ability to fulfill the vision. Everything gets better when good leaders are leading the organization and creating a positive, productive work environment.
If you want a pleasant work environment, win Level 2. If you want a productive work environment, win Level 3. If you want a gr...
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Just because you have a history of being a productive individual doesn’t necessarily mean you are a Production level leader.
System one tools team leads
Take some time to define each team member’s area of contribution (including your own), and figure out how they all work together to make the team most effective.
Great tool / technique...Charlie and his team.
When was the last time you cast vision to your team? Unless it was today, you’re probably overdue. Team members need you to describe the vision and define its success.
Here to there topic.
Charlie and his team.
Plan to meet with your team daily (or at least weekly) to give feedback on performance. Do not penalize risk taking. Praise people’s effort, help them learn from their failures, and reward their successes.
Good technique...Charlie with his team
Momentum Makers (Producers who make things happen): • Momentum Takers (People who go along for the ride): • Momentum Breakers (People who cause problems and hurt morale):
Good technique
the momentum makers and place them strategically in the organization so that they make the greatest impact. And enlist their aid to help lead the momentum takers as you motivate them. Meanwhile, have candid conversations with the momentum breakers. Give them a chance to change their attitude and become productive members of the team. However, if they fail to rise up to the challenge, get them off of the team. If that is impossible, then isolate them from the rest of the team to minimize the damage they can do.
Strategy
Be forever on the lookout for ways to improve the team and initiate them. Start today by setting aside an hour to think of five ways to change things for the better. And if things go wrong, take responsibility for that as well.
Technique
to reach the upper levels of leadership that create elite organizations, leaders must transition from producers to developers.
Good leaders on Level 4 invest their time, energy, money, and thinking into growing others as leaders.
Making the right people decisions is the ultimate means of controlling an organization well. Such decisions reveal how competent management is, what its values are, and whether it takes its job seriously. No matter how hard managers try to keep their decisions a secret—and some still try hard—people decisions cannot be hidden. They are eminently visible. Executives who do not make the effort to get their people decisions right do more than risk poor performance. They risk losing their organization’s respect.1
