As a leader, how do you share your passion and convictions when explaining your vision to your team? What is the best way to light a "fire" within your team and motivate them to be as committed to the end result as you have become? In the following clip, Eagle's Flight CEO Phil Geldart explains how this can be done successfully! 

Teamwork Begins with Humility

The essence of teamwork is individuals working together as if they were one entity.

Since people are unique, we all bring biases and opinions to all we do. A team of 10, for example, therefore has 10 times as many different viewpoints than if I were to simply “do it myself”.

Each individual viewpoint has worth, has value, and merit. Consequently, each person needs not only to share their own viewpoint, but also be humble enough to respect the contribution of others and patient enough to probe for the full value of that contribution.

When all members demonstrate this level of humility, then the potential contribution of each is optimized, and with that the team then has the greatest potential to be truly great.

The capability within every single human being is huge. Sometimes this capability is immediately evident, and sometimes it’s buried deep within. For a true team to reach its full potential every member must be able to contribute at their highest possible level. For that to happen the first step is for each member to truly master the humility required to value the contributions of every other teammate.

Humility in this context is neither optional nor weak. It is a crucial ingredient in the recipe required to create world class teamwork.

“The year is coming to an end; the targets are already made, so why push it?”

“The year is coming to an end and we’re way behind.  What difference can I possibly make now?”

Finish strong. Even if the targets are met and the goal is assured – don’t coast!

Everything you bring in now, after the overhead is covered and the targets achieved, falls to the bottom line…and is extremely profitable. That adds meaningfully to shareholder value and it’s the mark of the true professional.

A professional is one who starts strong, stays strong, and finishes strong; not one whose approach is dictated by circumstances or who becomes complacent. Professionals make a difference!

If achieving the year looks to be tough, perhaps not even doable, finish strong nonetheless.  Every bit you bring in minimizes the depth of the hole created by the shortfall and can often make a significant difference going forward.  Every minute counts, every sale counts, every person counts. A true professional will not allow optimal performance to be influenced by circumstances or discouragement.

While these are primarily “sales” examples, the principle is a life one.  It applies when we’re in discussions, when we’re working on a project, in a sports match, or completing a hobby.  Let strong finishes become your trademark!

Eagle’s Flight has an experiential activity called Windjammer comprised of 10 rounds.  There is solid profit to be had in that final 10^th round, but it requires teamwork, planning, foresight, and the discipline to persevere after 9 exciting, but very demanding rounds.

By the end, most teams are either too weary or too content to get what’s possible in round 10.  The profit potential there is lost, despite the fact that it could meaningfully raise the team’s overall performance ranking at the end. But human nature - either being weary, or just being content - often steps in and overrides logic (more profit is still available).  When this happens, true professionalism is absent and meaningful opportunities – those only available at the end to those who persevere – are lost. 

The lesson?  In life, as in Windjammer, finish strong and then challenge those you lead to follow your example.

It’s not over until it’s over!

Discussions around succession planning are generally considered safe. After all, we’re talking about potential here; about people, only some of whom may… one day… possibly… be considered for a more senior job. A big deal, yes. But not really that big a deal. After all, who knows what the future will hold?

 

This kind of approach is, in my opinion, dead wrong.

 

It is a big deal. A VERY big deal. These people are, in fact, the future leaders upon whom the company will rely.

 

Succession Planning is essentially a process for ensuring key jobs, usually senior ones, have potential replacements “on the bench”. If we back up a step to look at who gets put on the bench as future talent, often one individual is earmarked as a potential successor for several jobs. This is natural with high performers. The decisions are usually discussed at the senior level, confirmed, and then passed to HR or OD to develop these candidates so the best and most suitable will be ready when positions open up.

 

The approach sounds pretty straightforward; but here’s a problem which often surfaces. When the time comes to move Person A off the bench (usually after a significant training investment) the leader responsible for deciding who to move into the vacant position  “doesn’t want Person A”.  They’re “not good enough”, or “not strong enough”, or “not the right chemistry”, or “should never have been in the Succession Plan in the first place”.

 

This leads to my “Succession Planning Imperative”:

 

“Every leader must agree to every candidate who makes the list for the Succession Plan, and be willing and ready to have them within their department (after the necessary training) to fill any vacancy for which it has been agreed that they are a suitable candidate.”

 

It cannot be an option for a senior leader to reject someone at some point in the future. If they believe that’s going to be their response, they must refuse to include them in the Succession Plan in the first place.

 

And it’s not alright to agree they go in the Plan, but “just not be earmarked for anything in my area”. People are often moved, promoted, or absorbed by other departments, and this may happen with any individual, including the one they didn’t really support.

 

Each senior leader must agree to, and be willing to accept in their group, any candidate they support as someone to be included in the Succession Plan. This direction must be firmly in place, or your Succession Plan will be seriously flawed.

 

Want to learn more? For details on succession planning, along with development tools and examples of best practices, download our guide to Getting the Most Out of Succession Planning.

 

As leaders we are challenged with fully harnessing the talent, energy and potential of our workforce… and at times even of ourselves!

 

Creating engagement is much like creating a superb Caesar salad – there are several ingredients required and the finished product is a careful blend of all; anchovies (yes, really), salt, virgin olive oil, cheese, croutons, eggs…leadership excellence, clarity of focus, priority management, empowering culture, transparent integrity…all crucial components.

 

However, in my judgment, there are two great drivers of engagement – the desire people have to feel that they, personally, are able to contribute in a meaningful way; and the opportunity to learn practical tools which will accelerate this contribution. Not just “training”, but real learning that will maximize their achievement.

 

This is why experiential learning is so powerful, and should be an important part of every leader’s toolkit in today’s world.

 

Experiential learning lets me learn what I need to do differently so I can perform better. It’s not what someone else is telling me to do; it’s not sitting passively through learning situations that don’t involve me viscerally. Experiential learning engages me in the process of my own personal development. It helps me determine what I can do to achieve more and contribute more.

 

Organizations benefit in two ways:

 

1. The learning process is itself engaging - the workforce is being engaged in that which can provide a competitive advantage: a more talented organization.
2. People leave with tangible ways to improve performance, and hence their level of achievement… Which increases engagement.

 

Experiential learning raises skill, which raises achievement, which raises engagement.

 

Is there enough real experiential learning available to your workforce?

In reading Michael McLaughlin’s recent article, Is Your Thought Leadership a Waste of Time?, I was reminded that in today’s flurry of information, people are looking for relevance.

If you believe you can add value in any area - leadership coaching, skill development (like learning to cook), self improvement (losing weight), or any one of a myriad of other topics - you need to provide relevance, which in turn requires three things:

1. Show How

People aren’t really interested in “why”, they’re already motivated to change, or improve, or shift direction.  They want to know “how”.  This “how” must:

• be specific
• be appropriately detailed (not overly long, or unhelpfully short)
• include examples

2. Explain How to Practice

The really top notch performers spend a lot of time practicing – usually when no one else is watching! We play like we practice. Practice ideally requires:

• a safe, non threatening environment
• some feedback method (a coach, a mirror, a video reply, a “test group”, etc.)
• setting time aside, in advance, so practice time isn’t shortchanged

3. Clear Standards

Just “doing” in the absence of standards - that is without knowing “how high the bar is” - is a sure path to frustration.  Relevance comes when performance is at the expected level, and delivers the results being looked for. Clear standards mean:

• some outside input is usually necessary to provide and set expectations
• having a way to assess performance, and hence determine if the standard has been met
• having a good view of the overall landscape (“benchmarking”) to validate that meeting the standard, and the stated expectation, will in fact be high enough to achieve the objective

Applying this “Relevance Model” will set your words and input apart, and provide maximum value for your audience.