Step 10 - Becoming Super Leaders - Share your success

STEP 10: Share your Success with Team Members

I feel like we have come full circle today starting from Step 1, which said - Think differently and rapidly move to action. The last step is about how to share our success with others.

The Challenge: Leaders are not necessarily villains that don't want to share. But spreading out the good stuff takes special effort, well thought out communication, and public displays of appreciation.

The Key: Start small. Do what's important on a daily basis when it comes to giving credit. Doesn't take half an hour to share success - just two minutes. Literally.

3 Practical Ideas
Mean what you say: Sharing successes with team members is certainly not about what we say, but how we say it and if it means much. I valued my boss sticking his head in my cubicle and giving me one sentence of positive feedback. It made my day. I didn't necessarily grudge him not naming me the employee of the month. The fact that he believed what he was saying had a strong effect on us as a team.

Create informal channels: Often, leaders create a bulletin board with employee of the month pinned on it, or send a mail to their team applauding that one member who contributed significantly. It brings the spotlight on the right person, and creates a healthy environment in the team. That is - if you picked the right person to appreciate. This is also a powerful idea. You can send a brief mail about how one or more than one team member added to the success of an initiative. And cc important people on the mail.

Praise in Public: I love this thumb rule someone taught me ages ago. Praise in public, criticize in private. While we make team members a greater part of team success, it's really important to keep this tip in mind as well. If we have a kind word to say, might as well say it within hearing shot of others!

These and many other ways that I am sure you will devise on your own lead to SUPER LEADERSHIP on a daily basis. It is the excitement of doing that which is not garden variety leadership. I wish you all best luck and many great milestones on the path to super leadership.

Cheers to being leaders!

Step 1 - Becoming Super Leaders - Think differently

STEP 1: Think differently and rapidly move to action. 

A while back I wrote about not doing what's popular. The first step here resonates with that same idea. Try not to toe the line, follow the herd, try too hard to conform, or blend in with the crowd. Trying to be just like others means we are trapped in our comfort zone. That's why it's called a comfort zone, because stepping out of it is like walking out in a dress you are uncomfortable wearing and not used to. Super leaders pave the way - first of themselves, and by example, for others.

The Challenge: Comfort zones come naturally to human beings. However, comfort zones are dangerous places to be in today's rapidly changing times. The skill you are great at today might not be needed three years down the line, or there might be too many others who can do what only a few can do today.

The Key: Innovate around your core strength and come up with a new application for what you are great at. That's a potent combination for a leader.

3 Practical ideas:  
Get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Seriously. This sounds like a cliche, but I have experienced it in my own career. Try not to shy away from things you have never done before. If you don't do them now, you might find it even tougher to do them two years down the line. Maybe, the latest promising initiative in your team is not your cup of tea. Ask yourself, why not? What's holding you back from doing something that might mean your future success and growth. You might still choose to not participate, but at least know your reasons clearly. 

Step up on innovation. We often get lazy about innovation because it's so much easier to do what we are already good at. If it helps you to motivate yourself, then let me say - it's a dangerous to  not change. A young, bright person bursting with new ideas might make you redundant before you know. Let's say, you give a stock presentation to your customer. And that's what you are supposed to do. Even then, what might be the results if you sat in a quiet place with the boring presentation and did two things: a) Figure out three recommendations to make the presentation engaging, more relevant, and a better sell to the client, and b) Sincerely ask yourself what can you do personally to make the job less boring and repetitive for yourself. Could you gather more data on the client and customize it as you spoke? Is there space for some quick anecdote to engage the client than point at slides endlessly?
 
Get moving. Let me underline this point. Nothing changes in life as long as we only talk about it during our tea-time huddles. My mantra is to act on what appeals to me greatly. I felt from my heart that I wanted to express myself through more than one medium, and this blog came about. I am not doing anything very difficult when I write this blog. But the decision to create this a/c, understand how it works, decide on my themes and actually write around them....took some real effort. Though it was all enjoyable because this is what I wanted to do.

Action is so much easier when we commit to bring our ideas into reality. And action that is innovative and adds value is a mark of a person leading themselves well.

PS: It will be great to hear what you think about this first step. Please feel free to write a comment in the space at the bottom of this blog. And I promise to respond.

Coming up tomorrow - Step 2: Create successful partnerships in your immediate team

Super Leadership

I am very excited as I sit down to write this blog. It just fills me up with awe what new knowledge can do to our performance. Let me introduce you to a new term, 'SUPER LEADERSHIP'. I like to define super leadership as leadership that goes beyond traditional definitions of leadership. It is a trap in today's turbulent times to stick to the age old idea of leadership and try to accomplish just that at the workplace. No wonder so many good managers/leaders find themselves failing at their good attempts at great team work. Super leadership requires 10 distinct behaviors 1) to think differently and rapidly move to action 2) create partnerships in your immediate team rather than treat them like follwers 3) exhibit unquestionable integrity 4) create business in tough times, come up with revolutionary streams of business 5) treat your department as your own business venture 6) be entrepreneurial than just an employee 7) forge unimaginable tie-ups with competitors and rivals 8) have a life of your own and personal space 9) have wisdom about not just your own area, but about your organization as a whole, and lastly 10) make every single person on your team benefit from success. Lookout for my detailed blogs on each step! Happy leading until then...and do give a thought to what I wrote here.