How Do You Improve Your Leadership Skills?

Have you ever worked for a supervisor that thought they knew everything? They are normally the ones that balk at anyone making a suggestion or dare to point out a better way to do something.

It really doesn’t matter what industry you work in whether it is healthcare, manufacturing, public service, law enforcement, or any of the service categories. You can never learn enough.

I guess it might be possible to learn everything about a piece of machinery or about servicing a copier until the next update or model is released. Where most leaders think they have arrived is in their people skills.

Look folks, people have the most updates, revisions, and new models then any piece of equipment or computer, yet this is the most neglected “skill” in every industry in the world.

Understanding how people think, what makes them tick, how to push the right buttons, and more importantly, how not to push the wrong buttons is the key to successful relationships.

I am so thrilled to be working for Character First! This ever changing relational part of leadership is what we specialize in. We are currently working on a motto like “we grow people’ or “transforming the way we do business by transforming the way we do life.”

Look back at many of my posts and you will see the different ways we accomplish this. I do plan to share a more comprehensive version of those posts so keep your eye on this blog.

Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is a bestselling business book by consultant and speaker Patrick Lencioni. It describes the many pitfalls that teams face as they seek to "row together." This book explores the fundamental causes of organizational politics and team failure. Like most of Lencioni's books, the bulk of it is written as a business fable.

It is popular with sports coaches because the issues it describes are especially important in team sports.

"This gripping fable centers on Kathryn Petersen, an old-school CEO who comes out of retirement to accept the monumental task of transforming a dysfunctional group of high profile, egocentric executives into a cohesive and effective team. With an amazing gift for building teams, Kathryn forces her colleagues to confront the behavioral pitfalls that destroy most teams and adopt the five characteristics of a truly cohesive one.

The five dysfunctions are:

Absence of Trust

The first of the dysfunctions, absence of trust, stems from teams unwillingness to be vulnerable within the group. Team members who are not genuinely open with one another about their mistakes and weaknesses make it impossible to build a foundation for trust.

Fear of Conflict

This failure to build trust is damaging because it sets a tone for the second dysfunction: fear of conflict. Teams that lack trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered passionate debate of ideas. Instead, they resort to veiled discussions and guarded comments.

Lack of Commitment

A lack of healthy conflict is a problem because it ensures the third dysfunction of a team: lack of commitment. without having aired their opinions in the course of passionate and open debate, team members rarely, if ever, buy in and commit to decisions, though they may feign agreement during meetings.

Avoidance of Accountability

Because of this lack of real commitment and buy-in, team members develop an avoidance of accountability, the fourth dysfunction. Without committing to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven people often hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive to the good of the team.

Inattention to Results

Failure to hold one another accountable creates an environment where the fifth dysfunction can thrive. Inattention to results occurs when team members put their individual needs (such as ego, career development, or recognition) or even the needs of their divisions above the collective goals of the team.

What Motivates a Leader to be a Great Leader?

It has always been my intention to focus on the actions, thoughts, words, and attitudes of leaders. One that I have been thinking of lately is the question, what motivates a leader to be a great leader?

I remember working in an organization that trained young men with the goal of preparing them for future leadership. It was an intense program with great pressure as well as instruction with strict evaluation. During a graduation one of the father's asked me a profound question, why do you think so many of these young men fail when they return home? I had a quick response but years later realized it was an accurate one.

The reason they failed was a lack of accountability!

Think about it, what was going on in your life when you had a failure? This is an easy answer from my own life experience. Failures usually where proceeded by a period of little or no accountability.

Why does a sport team need a coach? For the most part it to ensure each individual trains beyond their complacency, to push a person into new areas of growth and learning.

So I ask you, where is the accountability for today's leader?

Oh, I know there are production quota's, performance evaluations, and promotion steps that in their own way hold authority accountabile, but where is the accountability of the most important part of real leadership?

I am talking about how a leader treats their most valuable resource. their people.

More to follow in my next post.

A Disappointed USAF Veteran

Let me open this post with a brief statement: I love the Air Force and thing it is an amazing organization. I highly recommend this branch as a launching site for any young persons career. All organizations have their faults. Please understand that I respect the USAF.

When it comes to taking charge of your life I understand the need to take things into your own hands but I also believe the things I highlighted in RED should be handled by the supervisor.

Please notice the last "red" highlight, even the military needs to learn how to be encouragers.

5 Steps to Improving Your EPR "SCORE"

Although the Air Force Performance Evaluation system is designed to observe and report your performance, there are 5 steps you can take that are virtually guaranteed to improve your evaluations.

Step 1. Start out by reading AIR FORCE INSTRUCTION 36-2406. Understanding how the process works is key to making it work for you. Pay particular attention to appropriate evaluation form for your rank.

Step 2. Communicate. Talk with your evaluator (supervisor) about your performance report. You should go over the form line by line to determine their expectations. Ask your evaluator for their advice on how to improve your EPR and get the highest score possible.

Step 3. Be Opportunistic. Take every opportunity you can to demonstrate the level of performance that your evaluator suggested. Be sure to take the initiative and show that you're committed to performing at the highest level.

Step 4. Record your personal performance. Keep a performance diary, noting the times and situations when you demonstrated the skills, initiative, leadership, and performance your evaluator suggested.

Step 5. Evaluate yourself. Complete your own evaluation report including documentation and support information. After all it is your career, and you are the only one who knows exactly what you have accomplished during the evaluation period. Submit your EPR and documentation to your evaluator.

Your evaluator has a rough job, he or she has to monitor you and your coworkers performance throughout the entire evaluation period. It is nearly impossible for an evaluator to remember every detail about your performance. In fact evaluators tend to remember negative situations more often than the positive ones. By following these 5 steps you will make your evaluators job easier, and when you make their job easier it can't help but to increase your EPR SCORE.