What do you, as a leader, need to change for your people to change, grow or improve? Our focus as leaders is to work with our teams to get them to execute our focuses consistently and relentlessly. Often, the conversations I hear leadership teams having is how your team members need to change and what they need to do to improve. Don’t get me wrong, that might be the case, but I want you to put some serious thought into the first sentence of this article. When leaders commit to being honest, vulnerable, and willing to make a commitment to improve themselves as a leader, change, growth, and trust within a team can happen quickly.
When I started my companies, I had the opportunity to do a Shark Tank-like pitch to more than 100 influential entrepreneurs and a panel of judges. After my presentation, the feedback was great – until we got to the final judge. A billionaire investor, coach and speaker, asked me what the bottleneck in my business was and before I could respond he stopped me, and he said “do you think the bottleneck in your business might be you? Do you think your leadership is what is in the way of taking your business to the next level?’ I didn’t know how to respond. The fact is this gentleman was right – I had to make changes for my people to change, for my company to change, for our team to get the results we wanted.
Are you getting the results you and your team want and deserve? Are you looking to grow to help take your team to the next level? If you are, then the simple steps below will help you. These are not my ideas or thoughts on the topic of leadership – I have worked with hundreds of industry leaders over the last 15 years and identified patterns in high-performing leaders.
Be responsible for the energy you bring to your space. This might seem like common sense, but it is not common practice. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Tony Robbins, who says none of it matters if you cannot control your energy as a leader. He says 70 per cent of our results are driven by your physical state or energy on a daily basis, 20 per cent are driven by your why and 10 per cent are driven by your actions or tactics. Consistently control your state and energy and you will control your results.
Approaching your challenges through a lense of generosity. Top-performing leaders are not quick to give an emotional response. They respond to manager and staff challenges thinking the person had positive intentions no matter the results. If they are getting positive results, they celebrate, recognize, and reward their people. If they fall short, they approach the situation as a teachable moment without judgment, shame, or blame.
Find an execution-focused mindset. Average teams are busy doing lots of what I call ‘stuff and things.’ It feels like progress is being made but the addiction to overcommitment and the lack of boundaries leaves their people feeling overworked and overwhelmed and they often lack tangible results. Top-performing leaders help their leaders and teams focus and commit to one to three core goals max. Every interaction ends with the questions: who will do what by when, and what does support from me look like for you. Success is not doing more; it’s often doing less with relentless execution. Don’t mistake activity for achievement.
If you want to grow as a leader I would recommend starting with these steps and re-visiting them often. If you do, you will earn trust with your team. Results will follow quickly and you will be sure to continue to grow as a leader, which is ultimately what leadership is all about.
By Matt Rolfe – Matt Rolfe is a coach, speaker, bestselling author and entrepreneur. For support or more leadership insights, email [email protected]
