Category Archives: lateral leadership

Yes, But Can They Trust You? (Part 1 of 3)

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As a leader in today’s widely dispersed work around the globe and around the clock, you must align people, processes, and projects to help achieve your organization’s goals and objectives.  Yet, simply announcing the financial and operational targets is insufficient.  Do you find yourself asking a question like:

  • How can I gain greater commitment from my team members?

Earning your team’s trust is one critical factor to aligning your team and driving for results. One of my colleagues, Dr. Roger Mayer, at North Carolina State University‘s Poole College of Management, has focused his research on growing trust within organizations.  He’s found three key trust factors (ability, benevolence, and integrity) that can increase your organizational velocity and improve bottom-line results.  I’ll outline these three factors in this and the following two posts.

Factor 1: Ability: Ability focuses on one’s critical job-related skills.  As you start your career, these are your technical skills (degrees, patents, articles, or industry certifications). Yet, if you focus solely upon growing and maintaining your technical skills as you lead others, you will derail.

You’ve seen technically brilliant individuals derail when they have to lead others on a team to achieve an objective. One of the reasons they don’t engender trust is that they view each interchange or discussion as a contest to show others that their idea is technically superior to anybody else’s. By focusing on “winning” each interchange, the leader gets the well-deserved reputation as one who cannot be trusted. You must shift from purely technical to a blend of technical and interpersonal abilities.

The higher you go in the organization, you must develop other skills as well. This is difficult for many of us. We were promoted because of our technical skills. One fundamental lesson to remember is that we need to shift more from the answer provider to the questioner.  You have a perspective and a point of view. You may want to consider a previous post on the kinds of questions you might want to ask.

The Surprising Science Behind Motivation

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As a leader, one of your primary tasks is to achieve organizational goals through other people.  Since you can’t do it all alone (really, you can’t-I’ve tried that and have failed miserably), part of your job as a senior executive is to motivate members of your team.  In the “bad old days”, managers and leaders relied on their formal authority roles (I’m the boss-do as I say) as the predominant way to motivate people.  That didn’t work, as any parent of a child over 3 years old can tell you. In today’s work world, many times you are working on a team that has people from various parts of the organization who band together in an ad hoc work group to accomplish a goal, then disband.  How do you help motivate people who don’t report to you?

In this 18 minute video from TED, Daniel Pink gives some surprising science behind motivational theory.  Grab a cup of coffee, soda, or water, and listen in on his TED talk. Mr. Pink is a journalist, who has written extensively about people in work, motivation, and trends in human behavior.

What parts from Mr. Pink’s presentation do you agree or disagree with?

 

 

How Great Leaders Inspire Action: Simon Sinek on TED

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I saw this  18 minute TED talk by Simon Sinek on  how great leaders inspire action.  When I listen (and listen again), I am inspired on how this three circle concept that he articulates helps shape and guide decisions on a daily basis.

When you are either leading or a key contributor to any improvement effort, you want to maintain your core values in your daily decisions.  What I see as important is that the three circles help you  frame and guide decisions you make on a daily basis.  Whether you are working in a non-profit or commercial organization, this model can help serve as a filter for the decisions you make, especially when you are trying to improve in certain areas of your work or personal life.

Which key point from Mr. Sinek’s talk do you find most powerful?

How have you seen this work (or not work) in your work?