LEADERSHIP TIPS

Ohh my favorite subject that I forget about sometimes. LEADERSHIP. I love every aspect of leadership and what it entails.

Of course, I have to start out with the definition of leadership.

" The act of leading a group of people or an organization"

Picture this, you are promoted to a role where you get to lead a group of people. You now inherit all of their work problems and all the things they are going through OUTSIDE OF WORK. That's right, being a leader means you are not only dealing with their work problems you are dealing with their LIFE problems. Believe me when I say, it is a lot.

However, I always enjoyed this aspect of being in a leadership position. Learning about my employee's life problems allowed me to view them as human beings and not just someone who works at our company from 9-5.

I also enjoyed learning about their goals within the company and outside the company. How could I set you up for success in work so you are also propelling yourself forward outside of work? That was always so rewarding to me.

Today I just want to talk about the one common theme I see that makes a poor leader. COMMUNICATION. If you suck at this??? Then it is time you take a step back and ask yourself if you are in the right position. Unless you don't want to be a leader and you just want to be a manager, in that case, you are fine to suck at communicating.

Communication is everything, it affects workflow, productivity, culture and so much more. I like to reference sports since that's where I learned effective and non-effective communication. I had this girl on my team who liked to be very...vocal you could say. She liked to scream things like "Come on guys what are you thinking? Dude come on pull it together. DUDE PASS THE FREAKING BALL" Those do not seem too harsh but when you are like 13 or 14 and someone is yelling those things at you in front of an entire stadium... it can really bring you down. This reaction, this method of communicating is NOT EFFECTIVE. It never has been and it never will be. I can assure you 99.9% of the time people know when they make a mistake and they do not need to be chastised in front of everyone about it.

You should NEVER correct, discipline, or embarrass someone in front of other people. If you have something to say to them you should pull them aside and address it with just you and that person.

I always had a ZERO tolerance policy for this. NOONE and I mean NOONE has the right to make someone else feel stupid. No one has the right to disrespect and talk poorly to someone. I can assure you this is the quickest way to have high turnover, low productivity, and a horrible culture.

Also, 9/10 people in leadership positions who struggle with communication are also the type of leaders or should I say managers that you have to walk on eggshells around. One day they are nice and one day they are mean. No one functions well around someone like that, I know I don't anyway. So if any of these things are you, or you know someone like this try:

1) Taking a moment, pulling that person aside, communicating with them in a positive way, promoting change, and not making that person feel small or dumb for the issue you are addressing with them.

2) BE CONSISTENT. I did a lot of things I wish I could go back and change. BUT, one thing I am proud that I did was BE CONSISTENT. Every day you knew who you were going to get. No one ever had to wonder if I would snap and be mean, each day I showed up in a positive mood treating everyone with respect. If you want to be an effective leader, these two things are essential.

OKAY, that's the end of my leadership rant for the day. Thank you for taking the time to read and let me know if this helped you out at all!!

Until Next Time,

Lindsey