How do positive attitude and leadership principles really work? Being a positive leader who builds TRUST is pretty straightforward and simple, really. You don’t let “things fall through the cracks” or change what you’ve agreed to do by when because you don’t have the spare time. The rule of good leadership: Do what you say you’re going to do.
CHARACTER SPEAKS LOUDEST OF ALL
The rule of good leadership: Do what you say you’re going to do. The fundamental “ACTIONS COMMUNICATING RULE” a positive leader lives freely by:
1. Do what you say you’re going to do
2. Do what you say you’re going to do WHEN you say you’re
going to do it3. Do what you say you’re going to do WHEN you say you’re
going to do it on a DAILY BASIS4. Do the above because it works to build TRUST on your team
and in your romantic and parenting relationships at home5. Enjoy the tangible and intangible profits that sprout
from this garden of trust
WHY 75% OF ALL LEADERS FAIL
In executive coaching, I teach that true leadership effectiveness is keeping one’s word. It builds team esteem and trust. Laconically, in consulting with many different types of organizations and companies, I frequently hear how pep talks and team building retreats and exercises don’t translate into changed behavior back in the work environment. In fact, often awful leaders aren’t “de-selected” but tolerated or worse yet, promoted.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT TRAINING—DO WHAT YOU SAY YOU’RE GOING TO DO WHEN YOU SAY YOU’RE GOING TO DO IT ON A DAILY BUSINESS BASIS…AND SMILE
Yes, you have to manage your level of insecurity and frustration to get results. And yes, you have to do what you’ve agreed to do even when you do feel like it or you’re in a really BAD mood. And being so mindfully mature means you must think about how your actions impact others…and walk in others’ shoes every day to build trusting leadership and follower-ship.
Here are 14 DISCUSSION AND TALKING POINTS for your next leadership development training or executive coaching session where truth talks at power. How would others who work and live with you say you stack up?
1. Positive leaders simply and only focus on delivering and measuring RESULTS.
2. Effective leaders have both PEOPLE SKILLS and have highly developed PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS.
3. Positive leaders are HUMBLE. Effective leaders ask more questions and are able to elicit sincere responses because they listen to tough answers while managing their anxiety-failure feelings.
4. Effective leaders BACK UP WORDS WITH ACTIONS. Negative leaders only talk a good game.
5. Positive leaders INFLUENCE OTHERS WITH TRUTH. Negative leaders only “manage impressions” and influence you to think well when team wise things are sickly.
6. Effective leaders SOLVE PROBLEMS. Ineffective leaders are hard to pin down about why what needs to happen never quite seems to happen.
7. Positive leaders are LIKED AND RESPECTED. Negative leaders are feared, disliked, disrespected due to their intimidation and manipulation political games played.
8. Effective leaders are CONSTANTLY SELF-IMPROVING. Ineffective leaders think they’re great as they are and get mad or huff and puff when you give them negative or corrective feedback.
9. Positive leaders WILL TELL YOU WHAT YOU MAY NOT WANT TO HEAR.
10. Negative leaders are pros at telling managers at a higher level what they want they want to hear and using psychological excuses, while critiquing leaders and managers at lower levels using psychological critiquing.
11. Effective leaders can LOOK THROUGH THE EYES OF THE TEAM. Ineffective leaders only see things from a uni-dimensional perspective—their own narrow-minded viewpoint.
12. Positive leaders LISTEN TO FEELINGS. Negative leaders scold and shame feelings or don’t really care how anyone else feels.
13. Effective leaders DON’T USE PSYCHOLOGICAL EXCUSES. Ineffective leaders always have a logical sounding reason why results have failed to materialize, namely, “It’s not my fault…it fell through the cracks!”
14. A positive leader is a GOOD ROLE MODEL. The acid test of a good leader is: “DO what I do instead of doing what I say you should do but I don’t do!”
CREATING TRUST: SO HOW DO YOU STACK UP AS A LEADER TODAY?
Are you a role model of the behaviors you wish to see exhibited in your team members, family circle and friends or kids? Do you hang around people who deliver positive results…or do you hang with the “wanted poster” outlaws who talk positively but behave negatively and rip off others’ energy? Ultimately, negative leaders say one thing and do another… “I do what I want to do and don’t do what I don’t want to do!”…BECAUSE THEY CAN get away with it. I challenge you to build trust on your team by doing what you say you’re going to do…and doing what you say when you say you’re going to do it…and doing these two ways of doing business on a daily basis.
POSITIVE, ETHICAL AND EFFECTIVE LEADERS IMPROVE THEMSELVES A LITTLE EVERY DAY
The results will happen pretty darn fast…and trust will grow quickly on your team and the mood will pick up pace. Leaders improve themselves a little bit every day. After all, we want to work for positive people we trust to be humble and effective and keep their word when they may not feel like it. Positive leaders hang around other leaders who DELIVER POSITIVE RESULTS.
DAILY…negative leaders just deliver empty promises of future actions rarely taken.
ABOUT DR. DENNIS O’GRADY
Dennis has been using this new approach to effective communication in his private executive coaching and professional relationship counseling practice and with corporate management teams, sales teams, community groups and professional associations. As such, he’s helping them integrate these new communication tools into their companies, personal relationships, family dynamics and business/work-related communication exchanges.
In fact, the Empathizer-Instigator thinking and approaches can be applied to everyday life, and his goal is to give people a new understanding as they drive down the two-way communicator highway. For a synopsis of Dr. O’Grady’s leadership development book, please visit http://www.drogrady.com/web_Mailer.html.