A Good Leader Must Inspire Staffs

Today, a good leader is a person who connects and motivates people who want to work for them not because of them.

"Respect vs. Like" or "Respect and Like"

You have probably heard the saying "You want people to respect you not like you", which I believe worked in days gone by with some of the older generations, however, with the younger generations I don't believe it is a "Vs" thing but more of an "And" thing. I think if you only focus on your people liking you than you probably will not win short or long term due to the lack of respect they have towards you. If you only focus on your people respecting you I think you can do well with short term results from their respect, however, you will probably have a fair amount of turn over long term due to them not liking you. I think to win in today's markets we need to focus on achieving the delicate balance of our people respecting us AND liking us, an approach I have used to achieve both short term and long term success. It's almost as if each person has 5 gears they work in and if they only like you they go into 4th gear, if they only respect you they go into 5th gear, however, if they respect and like you it is as if there is a secret 6th gear they get into and phenomenal results occur. You'll know this is happening when you hear things such as "I want to do well myself but I really want to see you do well as my manager" or look for their actions where they tend to do extra things, work later, help others, etc all without being told what to do or any reward being given.

Connecting with each person

I know times are very busy and the pace at which we work is a blur but if you want to win you have to make time to connect with your people. Build it into your day, into your time while you are doing a rep ride along day, schedule it if you have to but make it a priority and you will be amazed at the ROI you will receive from it. In my field rides, connecting is my first priority even over the business since I know we will always talk about where the business is, what is going well, what problems we are having, or who are we focusing on. However, if I did not make connectivity a priority I might not know they are dealing with a sick parent, a child struggling in school, a tough marriage issue, or worst of all just plain boredom. I have also come to embrace the fact that there are different personality types and use this as a pretty good gauge around connecting especially on the amount of touches I have with each of them.

Expectations-just a fancy name for rules

Nobody wants to read the rules of the game we just want to play. I know that reminder hits me square in the face every time my kids get a new game and every time I have to stop the chaos that ensues by stopping to read the rules. Expectations are just a fancy word for rules of the game in the business world and the quicker we get them written down, rolled out so everyone is on the same page, and consistently stick to them the faster we will stop the chaos in order to start making things happen. I start off each and every year going over my leadership principles, which I also recommend you write down and share often with your people, as well as my expectations for the job and how our team will be run. This accomplishes 2 major things. The first thing is that it consistently reminds them of what is acceptable and what is not so that when they screw something up they won't waste their time trying to defend that they did not know what the rule/expectation was. Secondly, if they are the type that needs to be coached out you will be one step closer to making that happen as the first thing HR will ask is "Do they know the rule/expectation?" and "When was the last time you shared the rule/expectation with them?". People who are trying to get away with things don't want you to share the expectations, however, your best people want to know the expectations up front, want you to hold everyone to the expectations, and will probably produce even better since there will not be any games played and they can just focus on results.

Thank you and Great Job

Boy, are these 2 short statements powerful when used with every earned opportunity especially with your best people. It's pretty obvious winning a great trip, earning a huge bonus check, getting on stage to accept an award, etc are all great rewards everyone loves, however, those instances are so few and far between that most of us forget about them, think they are unattainable, they only go to the top 10%, or companies are cutting them back due the tough economic times we are in. What about all the very important little day to day things our people are doing where there is no huge award or bonus attached to it. Ask yourself if you are catching others doing these things every day and saying those 2 powerful statements that mean the world to them: Thank you and Great Job!! It is amazing the response you get from people when you catch them going the extra mile and just recognizing their effort how it seems to light up their day, make them feel even more connected to you, and in return they will want to replicate this pattern again and again, which is all you really want, plus it's free. First of all, start keeping a look out for the extra little things people are doing that will help your business grow. Usually they are small things and hard to spot if you are not looking for them where each one is not going to bring much profit but once you start recognizing them and they happen more frequently when you add them up it usually is the difference between good and great. Once you find them, reward it immediately either tell them thank you/great job or get a system of vmx, email, hand written cards, or whatever is meaningful to them so they know you are recognizing them and they will want to do even more of that extra action.

Rewards

It's amazing to me that as I set out to share my learning's around inspiring people to work for me that rewards actually falls to 5th on my list, however, I know from my own time of coaching so many people that you must have the other four things first or rewards really don't matter. It really does not matter what generation people are from if you don't have trust, respect, honesty, loyalty, and a sense of people skills as your foundation people will never want to follow you as the leader. On my first meeting with a new person to my team I have them fill out a couple of info sheets on themselves. I focus on their motivators, their likes/dislikes, and what's important to them all of which helps me figure out quickly how best to go about rewarding them in their favorite ways. There is no sense in rewarding someone in front of the team when they hate public rewards or just sending them an email when they want the team to see what they have done. Neither way of rewarding is better or worse, however, the key is what is most important to them where they will feel rewarded for what they have done and feel so fired up they will want to go out and accomplish even more because of the reward. It always baffles me how often companies or leaders not only don't reward people in the right way or often enough but more importantly how many times their rewards actually de-motivate more people than they motivate. They seem to put artificial cut offs in place to recognize a certain % of people with the money they were allotted but there are so many free ways to go about extending the list of people rewarded yet many seem to ignore this and wonder why people are not out doing more for the company. The response I hear most often from those that don't focus on inspiration is "Well that's part of the job requirements" or "We want to make sure the very best (top 2%) are getting the most". Last time I checked your job requirement of a leader is to inspire/motivate not the employees and if only 2% are getting rewarded that really means 98% are feeling de-motivated, doesn't it? It only takes a little effort, some scheduling in your day, some info gathering, and a bit of creativity in order to find rewards for specific things people are doing to inspire the 98% of your people.