Overview: Leadership is influence, without our people we are not leaders! There are many great leadership principles in this book. Some of them hurt my pride because I realized that I have allowed some of the habits into my leadership that Mr. Renne is calling out as not so great.
My takeaway and ‘aha’ moments:
- Great leaders aren’t trying to control things, they are trying to make a difference.
- Your attitude affects the entire organization: your effort, work ethic, passion, and energy matters.
- People are messy: there’s no avoiding it, choose to love them anyways – and never forget, you’re messy too.
- Be careful to not get so caught up in plans and tasks that the people who make the plans work are forgotten.
- Employees are the core of the organization and should be treated as such. They are assets, a resource that is indispensable.
- People who feel appreciated stay with their companies.
- Clients don’t come first, employees do.
- Ideas for showing you care that I sometimes let lapse and need to re-focus on:
- Be more present, walking around, say hi to everyone, you cannot lead from behind your desk.
- Focus on them: when you have touchpoints, ask questions about them instead of talking about you.
- Treat them excellently – be polite and kind, smile at them, listen actively, give full attention.
- Send cards: thank you notes for specific performance and behavior, notes of encouragement, get well cards when out sick, etc.
- Attend funerals – I’ve always felt awkward with this one, but I tried it recently and the staff member wasn’t creeped out, she was appreciative of the support.
- Welcome new employees: find a way to reach out and let them know you are looking forward to them being at your company.
- Have a culture of respect – remembering that your actions affect the organization, people will not treat each other with more respect than you treat those under you, set a good example!
- Celebrate employees! I would like to grow in this area. By virtue of our industry we have a high turnover rate so I get easily discouraged from these types of activities with my teaching staff though I do them with the leadership team. I would like to grow in this area and celebrate the teaching staff better.
- Celebration for meeting a milestone, open house events, letters home – sending notes to their house, make holidays special (dress as Santa and give out goodies), wall of fame for specific achievements (we used to do teacher of the month and most improved), team pride – spirit weeks, swag – people like to belong, provide them with company swag, make teacher appreciation week a really big deal!
- Listen more, learn from them, let them contribute!
- Understand the power of your presence and of time spent with your people.
- You know first-hand how things are going, makes you relatable, fosters proper communication, makes you more approachable, and fosters engagement.
- Remember your actions speak louder than your words!
- You are setting an example of what is acceptable in everything you do and say.
- If you do not address something that is not right, you are by default teaching them it is okay.
- Busyness does not equate to usefulness or effectiveness. Influence is our primary objective.
- Poor bosses isolate themselves and never visit their employee’s work areas.
- Instead of telling people how to do things, tell them what needs to be accomplished and let them come up with the ‘how.’
- Have clear expectations.
- There is freedom within boundaries, people like knowing they have met and exceeded expectations – they must know where the expectations are and then they need the acknowledgment that they did meet or exceed them. This translates into showing them how valued they are.
