Irreplaceable

As a teacher of leadership, I strive to always pass along lessons I have learned personally and professionally.  Each of these newsletters communicates something that has been learned through pain, enjoyed as success, or perspectives I have found thought-provoking.

This morning at 5:07 a.m. on 05/07/2014... there must be something meaningful in that "coincidence"... I am changing the focus of today's newsletter because last night I saw the movie premier of Irreplaceable.  In a word, it was overwhelming.

The movie focused on how society worldwide is devaluing sex, which in turn devalues family, which then devalues marriage, which leads to devaluing being a parent, which ends up devaluing, or destroying children.  

Why this cascading devaluation?  We are sold lies that appeal to our natural desire for self-gratification.  (My conclusion, not the movie's.)

Let's apply this to leadership of your business, which is often very similar to being a parent.  I mean, don't you feel like you are running an adult daycare center at times?

1. When we devalue the relationships we have in our workplace, then success and enjoyment are momentary rather than lasting.  We allow busyness to replace purpose instead of having meaningful work drive all that we do.
2. This leads devaluing company culture so employees have different experiences working for us and the majority feel negatively about their managers and/or our organizations.  We become a band of individuals instead of a spirited team striving to achieve common goals.
3. This cascades into devaluing 1:1 management of people who report to us.  We opt for "managing with a long leash," hiring people who can operate without our involvement, or the opposite, micro-management focused only on what they do wrong rather than encouraging accountability while reinforcing what they do right.  We encourage individual self-governance with varying standards instead of responsibly engaging in caring, professional 1:1 relationships with consistent values.
4. This devalues leadership into self-serving activities rather than systematic efforts that help our people become the fulfilled top performers they were designed to be.  Lost leaders consciously or unconsciously act as though "It's all about me, baby!"  We churn through employees instead of being inspiring, nurturing and protecting leaders.
5. Lastly, this then devalues individual employees into commodities who only have value if they meet the leader's needs for self-indulgence.  Make me look good.  Do the work without my guidance.  Do a great job without training.  No accountability, just inconsistent bursts of condemnation.  

We engage employees in moments of time based on conflicting standards rather than systematically leading them to achieve their dreams, and ours.

You are not irreplaceable, yet as leaders we should strive to be remembered as people of character who our employees and peers will miss when we move on to our next challenge. 

3strands LEADERSHIP helps you be the leader you were designed to be.

BE a 3STRANDS LEADER

Systematic Leadership, inspiring others in Meaningful Work, and consistently expressing Sincere Gratitude to people around you.

Meeting Ideas

Just take 30-60 minutes and consider points 1-5 above.

1. Strengths:  What are you doing right?  How can you do more of this?  How can you systematically focus more of your time on your strengths?
2. Weaknesses:  What mistakes are you making?  How can you apply your strengths to overcome a weakness?  Where do you need someone else's accountability, guidance, or to delegate away a weakness?  How can you systematically remove each weakness?
3. People - YES:  What needs to be done to more fully engage your employees?  Top performers do not stay with weak leaders.  Do not assume your superstars are happy.  Improve your systems for full engagement.
4. People - NO:  Do you have people who are not performing?  Work with them to define a 90 day Success Plan.  Strive with them 1:1 daily and weekly to achieve their plan as they develop new habits.  

Or maybe they just will not work out, or are a cancer that are negatively affecting the performance of others.

Work with me or someone else to give them a great opportunity to prove what they can do.  If they cannot meet your standards, then let them move on to other opportunities.

Let me know how it goes.