Engaged Leadership
When I first found myself starting to be successful in the infancy of my leadership career. I discovered that I was feeling increasingly lonely. Like I was all by myself on an island… Many times this was in my office or when in one of my facilities trying to strategize or solve a problem on my own. An issue or problem that I thought only a leader could solve. This is a very destructive, dysfunctional and limited way of leading. A true leader will find themselves surrounded and engaged with not only their followers, but also peer leaders in other organizations, and mentors. Let’s take a look at how we ca design and develop engaged leadership.
Engagement must first start with self. Your self-image is the most important part of you as an individual and as a leader. Self-image and leadership starts from the inside out not the outside in. In most incidences, when I am coaching an executive, I find that if they are struggling or they are stuck. The root cause tends to be their point of view of the situation based on the view of themselves. The trouble with these leaders was in adequate self-image. They label themselves as “I am not a good leader in this situation”; “I’ve always performed poorly in this area” or “I always have a poor visit from my supervisor.” Really what it comes down to, is that we identify ourselves with our failures and mistakes. If we continue to focus in this way, we will end up in the fetal position under our desks not wanting to come out until we feel safe. We must ask ourselves the same question Dr. Robert Schuller once asked, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?” This is a possibility mindset that we all need to have. You need to focus on your successes and not your past failures. Don’t get me wrong… We need to learn from our past decisions that didn’t work out so well, but we don’t need to dwell on them. Focus on how you will succeed in every effort, but knowing you may need to change course when you don’t acquire the end result that you expected in a given project or goal that you have set for yourself.
Engaging our followers is hands-down the most important skill that a leader must have. You must first understand that without followers, you are not a leader. Without followers, you will not meet your customer’s needs. You must start with getting to know her followers. You need to have constant dialogue to ensure you know what motivates them (or de-motivates them), so you know how to best communicate and lead them in this particular moment of their lives. This can be very emotionally draining for a leader, but also can be the most rewarding. When you can lead somebody through struggles in their lives and show them the support and caring that they need in those times. They will follow you to the ends of the earth. I would suggest that every day you carve out time to have conversations with your followers. Conversations that have nothing to do with business, work or improvements that may be needed. Just personal conversations to find out what is important to them in their lives. Then, follow-up with them in the near future to see how that particular situation is going. They will gain more trust for you as a leader and most importantly, you will know the best way to communicate and lead them into their future.
Staying in touch regularly with other leaders in a peer role is critically important. Even though they may be in a different geographical area, business unit or organization. They have most likely gone through very similar situations and struggles in thought that you will be going through. You can share your concerns and ask about their experiences. Most will be more than happy to share with you their original flawed thought processes in the critical thinking processes that they acquired through their struggles. These relationships are vitally important to smoothing out the rocky road of leadership. If you are too proud to reach out to others for the purpose to gain knowledge and wisdom. You will find yourself reinventing the wheel and rarely meeting timelines that you have set for yourself and your organization. All you have to do is call up a leader that you respect an offer to buy them lunch. Go into that lunch with the written agenda to develop yourself through their experiences. That agenda needs to be a simple list of questions that you need for your development. You should go into every conversation that you have with another individual with the goal to learn something from them. No matter how much that lunch costs. It will be worth every penny.
Engaging a mentor is the single most important way that I have developed my leadership knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA’s). My friend John Maxwell says, “If you’re the smartest person in the room you’re in the wrong room.” You may be the president, CEO or the leader in your organization, but you have options to increase your leadership capacity. The only way to do this is to search for a leader that is more successful than you. If you are searching for a mentor within your organization. You need to engage a mentor that is in a position at least two levels above yours. If you own your own business… I would suggest finding a mentor that is a business owner that is producing the brand image and revenue you would like your business to be operating at in the next decade. Always remember that being mentored is not just about a good meal, discussing politics or all the things you see other organizations doing wrong. It’s about developing you and your leadership capacity. You need to go into every meeting expecting to be stretched by your mentor.
Engaging yourself, followers, and mentors is a way to travel down a path of not only increase leadership capacity, but a journey of lifelong learning and a path of engaged leadership. If you would like to learn more about engagement. Contact me at [email protected]
