February 24th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
I was really inspired by this item in Leadership Ventures Boards 2.0 e-newsletter and wanted to share it.
1. Notice your language and your actions. Emotions are contagious. As authors Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee write in their book Resonant Leadership , “we watch them [leaders] very carefully, and we can smell their emotions a mile away (p. 24).” When you are frustrated, impatient, or project fear, those you lead will react negatively. Likewise, if you are hopeful, enthusiastic, and show concern for those you lead, they in turn have more energy for their work.
2. Understand your greatest strengths, and the strengths of others. Gallup has done fantastic research that proves the value of a strengths-based approach. According to their surveys, individuals who have an opportunity to focus on their strengths each day are 3 times more likely to report having an excellent quality of life. In terms of managing others, when an organization’s leaders fail to focus on individuals’ strengths, the odds of an employee being engaged are only 1 in 11 (9%). But when an organization’s leaders focus on the strengths of its employees, the odds rise to almost 3 in 4 (73%) (Rath and Conchie, 2009).
3. Each person is unique, and should be managed that way. As consultant Steve Roesler points out on his blog All Things Workplace, some people need to feel good about their workplace and job before they can perform. On the other hand, there are others who need to perform and see results before they can feel good about their workplace and job. Seek to understand the unique motivations of your staff or board members, and then lead accordingly.
4. Recognize and dispute your pessimistic thoughts. Author and psychology guru Martin Seligman (2002) argues that pessimism is about beliefs, and those beliefs can be fought. Pessimism is often caused by an emotional overreaction. Learn how to argue with yourself whenever negative beliefs enter your mind. Like a detective, use evidence to show that the belief is factually incorrect. After leading a bad meeting, you may be quick to beat yourself up and wonder if your meetings are always bad. If you check in with the participants, you may find that the meeting was better than you thought, and that 90% of the time, they find the meetings to be highly satisfying.
5. Provide challenging goals and regular feedback to those you lead. Research conducted at Stanford University shows that people’s motivation to increase productivity on a task increases only when they have a challenging goal and receive feedback on their progress (Kouzes and Posner, 1999). Goals without feedback and feedback without goals have little effect on motivation. You probably know leaders who praise and give pep talks all the time - but without challenging (yet attainable) goals, their cheerleading means little.
You can learn more at Leadership Ventures’ free monthly forum, Fridays 2.0 on March 12. The topic is “The Positive Leader.”
Sources:
Authentic Happiness (2002), by Martin E.P. Seligman
Encouraging the Heart (1999), by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
Resonant Leadership (2005), by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee
Strengths Based Leadership (2009), by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie
