STANDING BEHIND YOUR LEADERSHIP

When you think of the word “leadership”, a few different definitions come to mind and people will describe it in many different ways.  BUT, have you ever thought of leadership as:

• Stepping Back
• Transparent
• Behind the scenes
• Delegation

If not, step back and take a different look at leadership. 

From my experience, leadership is providing the vision, goals, responsibilities, and accountability to your team.  When the leader communicates a clear vision with stated measurable goals and distributes responsibilities to their team members, the rest is a piece of cake.  The leader’s main responsibility is to assist the team with keeping the stated vision and goals in line as well as ensuring the team has the best tools to get the job done.  In a nutshell, leadership is the supporting role of the team.

Many in leadership positions make their job very difficult by withholding information and placing a low priority on growing their team (i.e. education).  Withholding information and providing limited growth opportunities provides these “leaders” with a feeling of power and importance.   How can this be true?  Because their team members have to continuously ask them for information and direction.  These “leaders” are in high demand thanks to the dependent team members, so they are perceived as a very valuable entity within the organization. 

So, what does this “leadership” behavior really impact?  Team performance deteriorates, productivity decreases, frustration builds, and team members look out for themselves rather than the team as a whole.  This behavior also feeds the self-esteem and confidence that the “leader” lacks, and ……

Nobody Wins!

Setting the clear expectations and supporting the team is what real leadership is all about.  When team members are empowered and rewarded, leaders are pushed ahead of the pack and become more powerful.  Under supportive leadership, team members grow, share knowledge, maximize performance, and accomplish more than they ever dreamed possible.  The result of happy teams are happy clients, happy leaders, great working environments, maximized profits, and …..

Everybody Wins!

If you think the team will leave you behind after empowering them, I challenge you to just try it.  I promise you will have followers for life.