How Do You Measure Yourself as a Leader? - Christian Business Round Table

Topic: “How Do You Measure Yourself as a Leader?”

Kalamazoo – Thursday, October 8, 2015

You measure yourself against…peers, expert speakers and authors
By the people that follow you.
Matthew 6; Did I touch someone today? Engaged and advancement of the Kingdom?
Strong Culture (not having politically lower standards)
Feeling engaged to the mission
Unity in the circle you develop
- Humility
- Compassion
- Build relationships (Men in the Bible got in trouble when they became arrogant.)

Development

Core Values
Integrity
Supportive leadership vs. “Or Else” Following in fear is not sustainable.

Skill sets

Critical thinking – connecting the dots
Front line leaders – Everyone has a following. Get with them so they are aligned and don’t lead others astray.
Being a good leader is developing the next leader. (Preparation for succession)

Executive Margin

You can do it in 5 days vs. 7
Time, finances, relationships
Gratifying family life
Good Health
A Fair wage
Fulfilling career path
Develop those around you

Take a way:

You should genuinely care about others’ opinions.
Make sure they are aligned
Focus on Values. Live them out.
Integrity – Employees want to emulate.
Develop people

John Maxwell: “He that thinketh he leadeth, and hath no one following, is only taking a walk.”

Kalamazoo – Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Challenges and Solutions:

We sometimes confuse Management and Leadership
- Leadership is:
  - Working on the business
  - Setting a clear direction
  - Thinking vision
  - Create Opening
- Management is:
  - Setting clear expectations
  - In the business
  - Great communication
  - Doing/execution
- Staying on it and not managing it.
- Building Trust
  - Building trust both inside and outside of the workplace.
  - Your reputation
  - Do people trust you?
  - How are you viewed?
  - Are people coming to you?
- Proper Perspective
  - Sometimes you are your worst critic. How do others measure you as a leader?
- Balance
  - Are you involved?
  - Solving problems and not letting them be part of the solution or figuring it out with your direction.
  - Support vs. taking it away from them.
  - How do you step in?
- Multiplication
  - Do your employees feel empowered?
    - The book “The Multiplier” has a great analogy. When someone comes into the room of the leader, does the person leaving feel empowered by the leader or do they feel the leader is the only one who can make things happen?
  - How do we monitor how our team feels?
  - You need three basic things:
    - Have a handful of rules (Core Values)
    - Repeat yourself often (7 times for someone to get it)
      - Don’t get angry if it is the 3^rd time and you “think” they should have gotten it.
    - Be consistent – both with yourself and team.
  - Treat others like you would like to be treated.
  - Discernment:
    - Know when to get in or get out.
    - Find the root problem.
    - Groom, equip, help, support and build for lasting success.
      - “Clock building not time telling.”
    - Aim to always be growing people, including ourselves.
    - Remember the analogy of “Footsteps in the Sand”
      - God didn’t do the work, he carried and supported.
    - Ask more questions. Ask 85% of the time and make statements 15% of the time.
      - Seeing confident employees seems confirming.
    - Know where to start.
    - Recognize when you and others have done it right and have a clear direction.
      - Do your employees know what to do?
      - Know your people and what they know.
      - Are your employees at the level to make the decisions you are asking them to make?
    - Transactional vs. Transformational
      - Transactional: Going in, doing it, just getting things done in that moment and time.
      - Transformational: Giving opportunity to grow people, they are well trained and supported.
      - You have to let them fail in small things sometimes.
    - You only fail for three reasons:
      - Wrong person
      - Wrong seat
      - Poor Management
    - Delegate

Take-a-way:

Give clear direction, tools, delegate, think of the greater good, get out of the way.
Train/Equip
Ask Questions
What are our Core Values? Do we align with them?
- Skill sets, critical thinking, connecting the dots.
- Margin – Executive Margin
  - A healthy relationship with yourself
  - A gratifying family life
  - A fair Wage
  - Good Health
  - A fulfilling Career Path
  - Respect for others
  - Contentment with your (brag-free) lifestyle
- Good mirrors – the way people see us.

Kalamazoo – Friday, October 9, 2015

How Do You Measure Yourself as a Leader?

When you get the title/promotion, it doesn’t end there
It takes self-discipline
Be present in your conversations & situations that you need to deal with; be where you’re at

3 Silos = Values / Skills / Personal Margin

How do you measure leadership?

Have an open platform to get feedback
Have accountability partners
Give permission to others to give feedback and let you know
Our view is different than how others view us
You’re not really a leader unless others follow you
Constant communication of the vision/goal so the team is moving in the right direction – communicate often and in different ways
What kind of culture / environment do we have? Positive energy? Conflict?
“What gets measured, gets done.”
We all need a follower to be able to give us strong feedback (not a friend or a faux)
Need to have self-awareness – need to know ourselves
Self assessments to help you learn your strengths and weaknesses
Connect with your teams to know who to go to for specific things to improve on
Give focused attention
- “Nobody will know how much you know until they know how much you care”
Challenge of managing vs leading
How are the leaders growing around you and what are you doing to impact their growth?
Lead Like Jesus Conference: measures the Heart, Head, Hands & Habits

RECAP so far

Self-awareness
Self-discipline
Transparency
Communication
Build trust with others
Am I reproducing leadership with those that I’m leading?
We need to take care of ourselves as leaders first – create margin for ourselves
Take the time to reflect
Slow down to go faster
Need to continue to calibrate / make our own course corrections constantly

TAKE AWAY

Go away with one thing that we want to do and take what we learn today and improve ourselves
Measure myself against Jesus
Reproduce leadership & transcend vision & make communication meaningful & engage all from the top down
Train & reproduce others
Get feedback from someone other than a friend or faux – followers
If we’re not applying the same principles in work as we do in our home lives we’re a fraud
Leadership encompasses you in every day life
Driven vs. called people = Driven people own everything;

Grand Rapids – Thursday, October 8, 2015

Key Challenges
Trust matters greatly. And, trust is usually harder to build than it is to destroy.
Since leadership involves both tangibles and intangibles, AKA people and things, AKA performance and intentions… there is no single scale of performance metrics that can suffice.
Sometimes you can build relationships with everybody you lead, sometimes that’s just not feasible because of the numbers involved. So sometimes you have to measure your leadership through the leadership of others.
Fear is a formidable enemy, for leaders and for those being led. To lead better address and conquer your and your people’s fears.
It is hard to lead people who are only mildly vested (or less) in the vision of the organization. I.E. If I’m really only here for the money, I’m only following you if you’re paying me more and more.
Sometimes, we don’t discover what ulterior motives someone may have for being a leader until after we’ve made a significant investment, promotion or other delegation of authority to them. Then when we find out, we have to go backwards in order to move forward.
Key Solutions
Great strategic tactics, superb delivery performances, and good leadership of people are all important, but different skill sets. So, identify and separate these attributes, and measure them accordingly.
Embrace conflicts, problems and issues when they occur, because growth happens through healthy reconciliation and collaborative solutions.
Joyfully invest in succession planning; it models and inspires good leadership.
The second tier of leadership matters a lot; tend to it with a sense of urgency.
Choose somebody to follow. (Jesus is good…)
No matter how well we think we are communicating, we must always be working on communicating better.
Key Takeaways
Good leaders identify and differentiate between good tactical strategists, high delivery performers, and inspirational leaders.
Good leadership requires articulating a vision in a way that answers the big “WHY”, and then inspires people to want to join in.
Good leadership begins with good core values. Leaders’ values create organizational culture. The culture of an organization reflects the effectiveness of its leaders.
Be humble. Do your best to inspire others. Do what’s right. Be consistent.

Grand Rapids – Tuesday, October 13, 2015

CHALLENGE:
What does the measurement even look like. How do you measure “it”, how often and whom?
Is the measurement limited to only the performance of the team?
Is it better to be respected versus loved?
Poor delegation
Lack of really wanting to know, trying to protect position versus, “am I a good / great leader” and why or why not?
Lack of wanting to ask peers, fellow board members, people from outside the organization – afraid of the real answer
What happens if I am truly a poor leader…..then what?
Lack of getting honest feedback from teammates
Lack of a good objective measure
What does success look like? Or can I quantify success, in all aspects of the business
Lack of any true metrics
Hard to measure certain things……..vision, culture, engagement, etc. (financial performance much easier to measure)
Company maybe too small to create a safe haven for a real discussion
SOLUTION:
Define success (even in the broadest terms) – start with something
Acknowledge that measuring leadership is tough (not perfect)
Do it, ask and get input (360 degree reviews)
Ask your board to give you a formal review / ask your team to give you feedback
Receive feedback constructively, not defensively (you are not always right)
Measure employee engagement with surveys
Measure customer satisfaction with surveys (do you know what your customers really want……or is it what you really want)
Find good balance in life with work, family and faith (in reverse order)
TAKEAWAY:
Start and do not be afraid to ask for input (with no ramifications)
Be open and transparent
360 degree reviews a nice place to start

Continue to measure and improve the measurement (Excellence is a process not a destination)

Holland – Wednesday, October 14, 2015

CHALLENGE:
What do you measure?
Do you really want to measure and do you really want to know?
What is the health of the organization?
How do develop a overall approach to measuring leadership?
Lack of wanting to know (I know the answer and I really don’t want it validated)
SOLUTION:
Walk around and engage (less formal, but could be great feedback)
Develop a formal review process – with board with teammates (document and share with your team)
Answer the question – How well do I serve (servant style leadership)
Practice the gift of presence
Take a long term view of leadership versus just the now
Ask for input and give grace for that hard to take input (and if you don’t want the input, ask why?)
TAKEAWAY:
Leadership is influence
Have a long term vision