Effective leadership can make or break your business. Are you an effective leader?

A few months ago, I wrote a post entitled “Are You an Effective Leader and Why You Should Care” Since that post, one of my Mastermind groups discussed each of the 23 aspects of leadership outlined in this post. This discussion revealed some very valuable nuggets of information! I took a lot of notes during these discussions and the key points I captured are shown below:

Mastermind Discussion on the 23 Elements of Leadership

1. Avid practitioner of MBWA (management by walking around)
   • Read at “Skin in the Game” and get involved in your business.
   • Tata Steel in India has over 35,000 employees. The leader of Tata had a reputation of walking around and talking with all the employees. He had a great feel for the organizational health
2. Fierce listener
   • Fierce listening is about what is being said and what is NOT being said!
   • This requires intentionality. Schedule one-on-one meetings every 6 weeks with your staff. Remember, listening takes priority!
3. Expert questioner
   • “Why” questions can activate the negative or flight and fight response. Rephrase your question to something like “how come?”
   • “The person who is asking the questions is in charge” – Italian saying. “Why” questions are definitely challenging. Proper questions improve your knowledge of the marketplace needs and allows you to propose a proper solution.
   • Fierce listening allows you to ask intelligent questions.
4. Master of social media
   • This is a double edged sword – it can become an addiction!
   • Social media is critical for marketing in today’s world. It gives direct access to your customers. Markets are conversations! Social media allows you to have these conversations and to gain a deep understanding of your market and customers. The CEO must understand social media like he understands marketing. This allows him to leverage all the tools in the business as efficiently as possible.
   • It is a great way to get direct, real time feedback, good or bad, from your customers. Marketing is not a department . . . it is a vital part of the business.
   • Social media must have boundaries so that it is used productively. Pick your social media channel as some are more effective than others depending on the business you are in.
5. Expert at helping
   • People notice when you are willing to listen, help, and roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. This trait is very contagious with your staff!
   • Try replacing “help” with “support.” This can be viewed more positively.
   • “Help” may be perceived as negative similar to a “why.”
   • “Support” is more empowering as opposed to “help” which infers an intervention.
   • “Help” could be replaced with “work” or “partnership.”
6. Fanatic about clear communications that acknowledge individual differences
   • Diversity encourages creativity. So, individual differences must be encouraged to encourage creativity. We need to be intentional about clear communications!
   • Acknowledging differences creates a culture of openness.
   • Leaders need to understand communication styles to reach all people and involve everyone equally and effectively.
   • Cultural diversity is critical for creativity.
7. Expert at building matchless first-line management
   • The higher you get in the organization, the further you get from the front-line staff. You must have great working relationships with front-line staff so they feel safe to report back to you for advice and events. They keep the business afloat and you must be an expert at managing them.
   • This is a challenge that all managers face as they advance in their career. You must develop these skills to be effective.
   • One best practice is using the existing team members to meet and interview a potential candidate in the second round of interviews. This gets relationships established early and gets buy in from the whole team for the new hire.
8. Expert at holding productive conversations
   • Fierce listening is a big component of this. Ask productive and relevant questions to properly engage the person. Hear the person out and work to understand the other person rather than trying to make your point.
   • This depends on how you approach people. Understand their communications styles and adjust your approach to each person
   • Properly and productively handle conflict and check your ego! Take a step up and don’t get engaged in the conflict but work through the conflict. Understand what emotion is driving the conflict. Passion is good! A leader just has to direct this passion productively!
   • A huge part of this is body language. The leader is to absorb all the drama and emotion in the room and use this to properly direct the meeting or the conversation.
9. Master of or obsession with acknowledgement
   • Simple acknowledgement means the world to people around you.
   • Some leaders do not care about getting acknowledged so they must remind themselves to acknowledge those around them
   • We all need to become deliberate at acknowledging people. We need to understand people’s styles to ensure that we acknowledge people appropriately. Even people asking you for help can be a form of acknowledgement.
   • Acknowledgement can come in the form of simple acceptance that what you are doing is going in the right direction. It does not have to be a huge event!
10. Effective at fast, proactive apology
    • This is absolutely key but it is also very hard. We must do this to have credibility with our teams. People connect through being vulnerable which is a deep psychological need!
    • We must acknowledge our mistakes and take ownership for them. This sets the stage for open communication throughout the organization.
    • Being vulnerable is one of the hardest things we can do. A by-product of being vulnerable is a sense of relief or even joy! This builds trust, camaraderie and support.
11. Excellent presenter
    • This goes hand in hand with being a great persuader. You must present and persuade – you must get your ideas and vision across. For others to trust us we must show ourselves as capable and presenting helps with that. It shows our full personality and level of openness.
    • You must be comfortable standing in front of people and communicating. This builds your reputation as a strong leader. It forces the leader to organize their thoughts in a way that influences others effectively.
    • Presenting fosters trust. It forces you to consider your topic from many angles and viewpoints.
    • It is an opportunity bring our passion forward.
    • “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to get something done because they want to do it.” ~ Eisenhower. It takes a great leader and communicator to deliver on this quote. Invest some time and money into public speaking like Warren Buffett did.
12. Conscious master of body language
    • This relates back to the presenter and the passion of the presenter. People see through fabricated body language or passion. A video call rather than a conference call is very helpful as you can see everyone’s expressions and body language.
    • Keep your hands out of your pockets and above the table but don’t be waving around so much you are distracting!
    • Spend time reading everyone’s body language and use this to adjust your communication.
    • Full circle engagement – using your body language and read the audience’s body language to adjust your own communication.
    • Your body language gives you away if your message isn’t in alignment with your true beliefs
    • Non-verbal communication is responsible for over 60% of communication effectiveness. Fierce listening is a critical component to this.
    • Be aware of the signals you are giving off and ensure that you are open to receiving feedback.
    • Videoing yourself presenting can be an extremely valuable tool to improve your presenting skills
13. Master and a student of hiring
    • Get the right people that fit your organization. It is so painful when you hire someone who doesn’t fit your values! Hire slow and fire fast! Hiring the correct people is so rewarding!
    • We must learn a lot from our mistakes and adjust our approach. You never regret getting rid of bad people quickly.
    • The first mistake a leader makes is hiring the wrong people. The second mistake is not taking action quick enough on personnel issues.
14. Master of evaluating people
    • We are evaluating people all day long but do a poor job of providing constructive criticism.
    • People need to be treated the same on one level and then have custom treatment based on their unique needs, strengths and shortcomings. This requires correct and effective evaluation of staff. Feedback must be based on fact and grounded feedback.
    • Check out John Maxwell’s 360 Degree Leadership
    • This is one of the most important qualities for leadership. This is a constant activity and you must call out the good and the bad continually.
15. Time manager par excellence/vigilant regarding overscheduling
    • This is tough when you have poor leadership.
    • Shutdown smart devices and time slice. Set aside time for emails and other communications.
    • Implement an email free zone where you as the leader do not send or respond to emails. Calendar block rigorously.
    • If the company culture is not supportive of personal time, then perhaps you must move on to another company.
16. Avid student of the process/psychology of influence
    • This is obviously a continuous learning exercise. Influence happens in so many ways and, in many ways, we are influenced unconsciously. We must study to understand this and be aware of what you are being influenced by. We must know how to persuade and lead through the persuasion process. This is a vital skill!
    • Be aware why things happen in the organization. Study business and psychology to understand.
    • Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini – read this. It is one of the best books on persuasion there is!
    • Winning others over is critical.
17. Student of organizational politics
    • 360 Degree Leader. Understand the organizational structure and the way the organization works so that you can navigate it positively and constructively.
    • You must study these things. Peter Drucker is a great author. Read the case studies and understand how to deal with the internal politics and situations. Leverage the work that has already done!
    • Work your way through politics but do it in a positive and ethical way. Take the high road.
18. Student of decision-making/student of cognitive biases that derail decision-making
    • You need to know your biases and you need to know when you cannot stay neutral and need some unbiased outside help.
    • Overconfidence based on past successes is one of the most common biases that trip people up! Social Proof is also another bias that trips people up. Read “The Undoing Project” or “Thinking Fast and Slow.”
    • Being a student is critical so you understand the biases and surround yourself with diverse people and not like minded people. Be comfortable with people who will challenge you!
19. Brilliantly schooled student/practitioner of negotiation
    • Read “In Business as in Life You Don’t Get What You Deserve, You Get What You Negotiate.” Look for all the areas where you can negotiate. It is not always about price . . . there are always a lot of factors in play!
    • Chris Voss has a new book out and many podcasts on negotiating.
    • Negotiations are interesting when you understand what you want and what the other side needs, so you can land on a win-win solution.
    • You can’t want it more than the other person or the negotiation will fail.
    • Trump is always one sided and heavy handed and there is no negotiation. You can do this successfully for a while until everyone stops doing business with you!
20. Fanatic about employee development for 100% of staff
    • Read “Situational Leadership.” Some people don’t want to be challenged and just finish their career! Company culture helps set a positive environment for training.
    • Leaders need to help their people create a learning mindset so they continually improve rather than just randomly sending people for training. Some people are super motivated to learn and others are not.
    • Support the staff that want to learn. It is situational and there should not be a “peanut butter” approach where everyone gets the same training budget.
21. Student of the power of diversity on any and every dimension you can name
    • Diversity of culture and backgrounds make for an interesting and creative workplace with lots of ideas. It strengthens the business.
    • Having office potluck lunches to showcase cultures builds company culture and showcases diversity.
    • Diverse cultural environments tend to help employees understand each other better as they are more aware of the differences in the workplace.
22. Aggressive in pursuing gender balance
    • This is very important. A gender unbalanced workplace is not healthy and is missing a certain level of creativity.
    • You need to build an environment that allows the competency for a proper gender balance.
23. Insistent on instilling business sense in one and all
    • Have clear goals and constantly communicate them and their current status.
    • Everyone needs to understand basic finance and where the business is at in achieving these targets

Take Action

Spend some time this week and evaluate your leadership capability against each of these 23 leadership elements. Spend some time discussing these with your peers, leadership team, or mastermind group.

Then determine where you have the biggest gaps and take some specific actions to improve. Pass these leadership lessons on to all of your staff by teaching them and by leading by example!

Finally, review these posts for more information:

• Your Success is Determined by Your Ability as a Leader
• What Makes an Effective Leader and Why is it Important
• H3 Leaders: Be Humble, Stay Hungry, Always Hustle
• 50 Powerful Lessons for Leaders
• Principles
• How to Overcome Fear so It Doesn’t Destroy Your Business

“Leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less.” John C. Maxwell

We help leaders navigate marketplace complexities and build successful and lasting business legacies.

Call or email us today for more information or to book your free business assessment: 

587-227-5179

info@thinkingbusinessblog.com 

Be sure to download a free copy of my new Ebook: 12 Steps to Business Transformation and to sign up at www.thinkingbusinessblog.com for weekly blog updates delivered to your inbox.

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The effectiveness of your leadership determines your level of success in all of your endeavors. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, who your parents are, what your education is, or who you know. You will only go as far as your leadership ability is capable of taking you!

If you don’t believe this, just ask the litany of leaders who have failed publicly over the last number of years. People like Martin Shkreli (Turing Pharmaceuticals), Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos), Martin Winterkorn (VW), or Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini (FIFA).

Your Leadership Ability is the Lid on Your Success

Leadership ability is the lid on your success. If you increase your leadership ability, you effectively raise the level of your success!

Back in the late 1990’s when I started to actively lead large teams I realized that I needed as much leadership help as possible. Fortunately, I met many great leaders who actively mentored me as my career developed.

I also discovered other leaders like John C. Maxwell who provides amazing leadership resources like his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.”

Although I first read this book in the late 90’s, this collection of profound leadership wisdom continues to provide me great insight and guidance to this day! I have never met Mr. Maxwell but I consider him to be an important mentor who has made a huge impact on my life!

Following his 21 irrefutable leadership laws will profoundly impact your leadership abilities! I have outlined each of these laws below.

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Law #1:  The Law of the Lid – Your leadership ability determines your level of effectiveness. Your leadership ability will always be the lid that limits your ability to advance yourself or your business. If you increase your leadership strengths your will increase your effectiveness as a leader and your ability to impact the world around you.

Law #2:  The Law of Influence – Leadership is influence . . . Nothing more and nothing less! You cannot lead if you do not have influence.

Law #3:  The Law of Process – Leadership develops over time. It is not something that you develop instantly! Developing your leadership ability takes time, life experience, exposure to different environments, successes, and failures.

Law #4:  The Law of Navigation – A leader must know how to navigate and not just lead. Without having a clear vision of where to lead, the leader is just wandering!

Law #5:  The Law of E.F. Hutton – Although you may be the “leader”, you would be wise to understand that you may not be the “leader in the room.” Real leaders understand that leadership is situational. They must be humble and confident enough in their abilities to defer their leadership when appropriate to those that are better suited to lead in that circumstance.

Law #6:  The Law of Solid Ground – Trust is the foundation of healthy and lasting leadership.

Law #7:  The Law of Respect – People will follow those they trust and those who are stronger leaders than themselves.

Law #8:  The Law of Intuition – Great leaders develop an ability to sense problems and determine the correct to take to avoid or overcome those problems.

Law #9:  The Law of Magnetism – Who you are is who you attract. If you don’t like the people around you, you need to change yourself first!

Law #10:  The Law of Connection – Great leaders connect with their followers before they ask for anything.

Law #11:  The Law of the Inner Circle – You are an average of the five people you spend the most time with. Great leaders have great mentors. Your leadership ability will be limited by those you spend the most time with.

Law #12:  The Law of Empowerment – Secure leaders feel confident in giving powers to others.

Law #13:  The Law of Reproduction – Great leaders train and raise up other great leaders.

Law #14:  The Law of Buy In – People must buy-in to you as a leader before you can sell them on a vision!

Law #15:  The Law of Victory – Leaders find a way for their team to win.

Law #16:  The Law of the Big Mo – Momentum is critical for a leader’s success. Great leaders understand how to build and maintain momentum.

Law #17:  The Law of Priorities – Leaders understand what activities are the most important and make the biggest and the proper time. These activities are given priority.

Law #18:  The Law of Sacrifice – Leaders will have to make some sacrifices and give things up for their organizations to ultimately grow and be successful.

Law #19:  The Law of Timing – Timing is critical to a leader. Leaders understand that success of their actions is dependent on many factors and the action that was so successful yesterday may result in failure today!

Law #20: The Law of Explosive Growth – Great leaders know that they must lead and train up great leaders to multiply their organizations. Leading followers is not a recipe for a great legacy.

Law #21: The Law of Legacy – A great leader has a strong succession plan.

Take Action

Take a few hours this week for some deep though and self-reflection on your leadership. What is holding you back? Where do you need to improve? Who can you pull into your circle of influence to help you improve? Is your business being stifled because of your limited leadership abilities?

Go one step further and initiate a 360 degree leadership assessment for yourself. Find out where your weaknesses are and where you have blind spots. Then build a development plan to overcome these blind spots and increase your leadership ability and your business success!

Finally, review these related posts for more leadership ideas:

• How to Use Combat Lessons from Iraq to Improve Your Business
• How to Overcome Fear so it Doesn’t Destroy Your Business
• If Your Employees Suck, Chances Are You Do Too!
• What is Effective Business Leadership and Why Is It Important
• 13 Qualities of Successful Business Leaders
• 3 Ways to Protect Yourself from Fatigue and Burnout

“Leadership is influence – nothing more and nothing less.” John C. Maxwell

What are some of your leadership experiences that would help other leaders? Leave your comments below!

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Being an effective leader is critical in any leadership role. Being an effective business leader is foundational to the success of your business! Without effective leaders, your business will never reach its full potential!

I have seen all kinds of business leaders over the years; destructive, bad, subpar, average, good, excellent, nurturing, multiplying, etc.. In each case, the level of success of the business was directly reflected in the quality of the leader.

The destructive, bad, and subpar leaders have businesses that perform at these same levels and most eventually fail. Average leaders have average businesses while good, great, and excellent leaders create good, great, and excellent businesses! There may be cases where a business will perform above its level of leadership but this never lasts long. The level of business success always settles to the level of leadership effectiveness!

So what is effective leadership and how is it defined?

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of hearing criminal justice lawyer Bryan Stevenson speak on effective leadership. What follows is his perspective of effective leadership which applies to any leader, especially those of us in business leadership roles.

Effective Business Leadership

According to Bryan Stevenson, effective leaders must:

1. Get into contact with the people they are leading
   • Get close to the people that you are leading
   • Leadership means proximity
   • Identify with the issues of those we are trying to lead!
2. Change the sustaining narratives that fuel how we think
   • Don’t be driven by fear and anger. Fear and anger destroy countries, communities, people, businesses, etc.
   • Understand the sustaining narrative of the culture – racial tensions, poverty, affluence, etc.
   • Leaders must first understand the sustaining narratives and then work to form new, productive, and healthy narratives
3. Stay hopeful
   • Hopelessness is the enemy of justice
   • Fight against hopelessness
   • There are either hopeful leaders or people in leadership positions who are not leading
   • It takes courage to stay hopeful
4. Be willing to do uncomfortable things
   • Leaders must chose to do uncomfortable things
   • Leaders need to lead and this means stepping into uncomfortable situations and leading the organization out of the situation into something better

Take Action

So, where is your leadership effectiveness at? Take a few minutes and do a honest evaluation and rate your leadership effectiveness on a 1 to 10 scale. Better yet, do an informal 360 evaluation and have your direct reports, peers, and stakeholders rank your leadership effectiveness.

What actions do you need to take from this evaluation and feedback to increase your effectiveness as a leader and to raise the bar in your business?

Finally, take a look at these related articles for more information:

• Your Business Rises and Falls on the Strength of Your Leaders 
• 13 Qualities of Successful Business Leaders
• 8 Ways to Build a High Trust Culture
• The New Gold Standard

 

“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.” John Buchan

 

What is your experience with effective business leadershio? Leave your comments below!

Download a free copy of my new Ebook: 12 Steps to Business Transformation. If you would like a business assessment to help kick off your business transformation, contact me at info@thinkingbusinessblog.com or at 587-227-5179.

Be sure to sign up at www.thinkingbusinessblog.com for weekly blog updates delivered to your inbox.

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Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, knows a thing or two about business success. LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and sold in 2016 for $26B USD. Not a bad rate of return for “only” 14 years of work!

Prior to LinkedIn, Hoffman was involved at Apple, started SocialNet.com, and was an integral part of Paypal’s success and its subsequent sale to Ebay. Hoffman knows business so when he shares some of his husiness secrets, we should all take notes!

Recently, he spoke about 11 components to his success on Timothy Ferriss’ podcast (episode 248). Although he calls them commandments of start up success, they apply equally well to any successful business. I have been able to apply each of these commandments in any business that I have been involved with. Doing these 11 things well will definitely accelerate your business!

I have listed each of the 11 commandments below along with my brief commentary on each point.

Reid Hoffman’s 11 Commandments of Start Up Success

1. Expect rejection. Rejection is a way of life for any entrepreneur, sales person, or business person. Expect it, learn from it, and adjust your approach so you are better because of it.
2. Hire like your life depends on it. Every business leader makes or breaks their business with the people that they hire. Spend the time to ensure you hire to fit your culture as well as to fill the role. As Jim Collins says, get the right people on the bus and then get them in the right seats.
3. In order to scale, you have to do things that don’t scale. Basically, there is a ton of manual effort required in business. Not all of it is scalable but it must be done (e.g., finding your first customers).
4. Raise more money than you think you need.  Potentially a lot more – this does not just apply to businesses that are looking for venture capital. This applies to all businesses and even to projects or programs within a business. Make sure that you have more than enough resources to deliver on your objective. John C. Maxwell says “margins in life create options.” Without having more than you think you need, your options for moving forward are limited.
5. Release your products early enough that they can still embarrass you. This is the concept of releasing a minimally viable product, MVP. See this post for more details.
6. Decide. Decide. Decide. A business leaders job is to make decisions so that their business can continually move forward. When you defer decisions continuously, the business will suffer.
7. Be prepared to both make and break plans. A business leader’s role includes setting strategy and then changing that strategy when market conditions change or when the strategy isn’t working. A leader must have:
   • Patience to wait for the results of their strategy
   • Understanding to know when to change the strategy because it isn’t working
   • Wisdom to know the difference between a strategy that is not working as opposed to one that just needs a little more time
   • Humbleness to admit that the strategy is not perfect and take action to make changes
8. Don’t tell your employees how to innovate. Create a culture that fosters innovation rather than a prescriptive culture that tries to force it. See this post for more details.
9. To create a winning company culture, make sure every employee owns it. VALVE does a great job of this. Check out this post for more details.
10. Have grit and stick with your hero’s journey. It takes perseverance to lead a business. It is not for the faint of heart. Stick with it. Join a mastermind group and surround yourself with other business leaders that can encourage and support you.
11. Pay it forward. Use the momentum of your own success to move the success of others. – Always contribute to other people and other organizations. At the end of our time here on earth, we will not be remembered for how many toys we accumulated. Rather, we will be remembered by the people who we have helped!

Take Action

Do a quick assessment of your business based on the 11 commandments above. Rate each commandment on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 means you are terrible and 10 means you are extraordinary. Any area where you have score under a 7 probably needs improvement!

Where do you need to improve? What actions will you take this week to shore up your weak areas?

Finally, take a look at these related posts for more information:

• 13 Qualities of Successful Business Leaders
• 5 Steps to Turn a Business from Failure to Success
• The Secret to Building a Successful Organization
• The Science of Success
• What Does Ray Dalio Have to Do With Your Business

 

“That the leader’s basic challenge is to do two things. One is to envision the future and to enroll people in making that future become reality, and secondly is to engage people in the business of the business so that they see the organization’s success as the platform for their success.” James Belasco

 

What business start up experience do you have that may provide value to other readers? Leave your comments below!

Download a free copy of my new Ebook: 12 Steps to Business Transformation. If you would like a business assessment to help kick off your business transformation, contact me at info@thinkingbusinessblog.com or at 587-227-5179.

Be sure to sign up at www.thinkingbusinessblog.com for weekly blog updates delivered to your inbox.

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As most years do, 2016 seemed to come and go rather quickly! It is probably safe to say that 2016 was filled with a lot more challenges than usual for many people . . . especially those who rely on the oil and gas market for their livelihood. Many people lost their jobs and many businesses were shuttered.

However, many business also thrived and grew in 2016. It’s not that these businesses were immune from the downturn but rather were nimble, efficient, and able to adjust and change their focus to find new markets for their products and services.

This is what my eBook “12 Steps to Business Transformation” is all about. It describes a business system that will help any business to decrease costs, drive growth and increase profits. You can download it for free using this link or from Amazon using this link.

In addition to higher level concepts outlined in this eBook, I have provided many more details of business transformation in my weekly blog posts. My top five blog posts for 2016 were;

1. How to Build a Powerful Business Strategy
2. How to Use Powerful Goals to Ignite Your Business
3. 4 Critical Rules for Any Business
4. 13 Qualities of Successful Business Leaders 
5. Five Ways to Avoid the Stupidity of “Group Think”

I will leave you with this question: What is it that you need to take responsibility for in 2017 to make yourself and your business even more successful?

Wishing you a happy, successful and prosperous New Year!

“Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.” Zig Ziglar

Leave a comment below on what you are going to in 2017 to make your business more successful.

Download a free copy of my new Ebook: 12 Steps to Business Transformation. If you are interested in a business assessment to help kick off your business transformation, contact me at info@thinkingbusinessblog.com or at 587-227-5179.

Be sure to sign up at www.thinkingbusinessblog.com for weekly blog updates delivered to your inbox.

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