# 1 – Making Declarations Is Not Enough – the measure of your commitment to your declaration for change is what you do after your declaration. Leaders always go first to role model the change.
# 2 – New or Revised Cultures Need Behavioral Expectations – people need to know exactly why they are doing something new, what it looks like when it is done well, and how it will benefit them.
# 3 – Culture Change Requires Consistent Positive Reinforcement – To drive your culture (or sub-culture) intentionally, provide consistent positive reinforcement. Repeated, positive recognition is much more powerful than negative reinforcement.
Three New Ideas
I want to discuss three things that affect leadership effectiveness. Each of these items could yield a massive return on your investment of time and energy – development leverage.
# 1 – Stop Being Crazy Busy
The number one challenge for many of us is being “overwhelmed.” Many of us are in a chronic state of ‘too much to do.’ In some cultures, prioritizing has become almost useless. Longer-term, essential items such as strategic thinking & planning continually get put off because of ‘firefighting.’ It’s easy to become discouraged and wonder if it will improve in the future… Can you relate?
Many leaders can do a lot of work. However, there is no way you can do it all – everyone eventually hits the wall. Great doers who run in the ‘hamster wheel of busyness’ eventually learn that no matter how fast you try to go, there is always an overabundance of emails, meetings, projects, and people issues.
Success is not attending all the meetings and cleaning out your inbox every week. Taking back your life means prioritizing the priorities – identify the top 3 ‘A+’ priorities. Blocking out time to commit to doing important but not urgent work. Protecting that time as if it was your vacation or a meeting with the CEO. The allure of being crazy busy is that the more you do, the more valuable you will be – it’s a lie!
Start with deciding to be less busy and commit to doing high-impact work. Commit yourself to finding a way to pivot this week!
Ask Yourself: What can I do to lessen my busyness?
# 2 – Commit to the ONE THING
Focused concentration is difficult when you are crazy busy. Tim Gallwey suggested that Potential – Interferences = Performance. When you are doing a lot of firefighting, it seems like your environment has a lot of interruptions or interference. Maybe most of your job needs to be responsive, but what if 20% of your week was blocked out for focused work?
This is where ‘One Thing’ comes into play. When you know the most important thing for you to be doing, you feel much better and experience progress. Additionally, when each of your team members has identified their One Thing, you can create higher performance. Create a new habit of journaling at least weekly (daily) to determine your one thing.
Why not establish One Thing for your team as well? One focus, one rallying cry, and one thing for the team collectively to focus on creates better teamwork.
Ask Yourself: What is ONE THING I need to do to be a better leader?
# 3 – Create a Deeper Emotional Connection
Let me suggest something that may seem counter-cultural or outside some leader’s comfort zones. Make a deeper emotional connection with your team and peers. Even if you have strong relationships, I suggest that the deeper you connect with people, the better they will perform on your team.
Making strong emotional connections enables you to inspire and motivate people in a new and better way. The deeper your relationship trust with someone, the more they will trust you. The deeper the trust, the more you can engage to become the best version of themselves.
I love Patrick Lencioni’s model about “vulnerability-based trust.” If you don’t know what that is, you should check it out.
Ask Yourself: How can I create a deeper emotional connection with others?
Want to Know More?
- Vulnerability Based Trust video by Patrick Lencioni on YouTube
- 5 Ways to Make Deeper, More Authentic Connections Psychology Today by Natalie Kerr, Ph.D.