Credibility, the quality or power to inspire trust and belief, is essential and strategic to career evolution.
Credibility is so difficult to acquire and to maintain but so quick and easy to lose.
Credibility is 45% how you look, 45% how you sound and 10% what you say.
In agreement with McCroskey, scholar in West Virginia University, there are five factors of credibility:
1. Competence
This quality is acquired when an employee has succeeded to champion the company’s vision, engage in innovation, focus on performance and results, and to build a high performance organization.
With competence, an employee is able to explain concept with the appropriate message and to calibrate a message to a specific listener.
Credibility is easily lost if someone:
Is not understanding or is reacting inappropriately to an issue at hand.
Is lacking better judgement in order to make the right decisions.
Reflects too long before making a decision.
2. Character
This quality is acquired when an employee has succeeded to foster a climate of innovation, to foster and model the company’s values.
Credibility is easily lost if someone:
Is lacking passion and drive for their work
Is arrogant. This character flaw can be corrected by changing your words when addressing your colleagues, expressing interest in them, asking for advice, listening more in conversations and sharing your personal weaknesses.
Cannot manage emotions very well.
Has it out for some people in their organization.
3. Composure
This quality is acquired when an employee has succeeded to manage workforce performance and delegate appropriately.
Credibility is easily lost if someone:
Is not timely (not punctual with deliveries, appears frantic and rushing,…).
Cannot manage emotions very well.
Maneuver their body language to manifest their belonging.
Decorate and manage their personal space.
Does not look the part by not applying the company’s dress code, by not grooming oneself when coming to work or even by not working out.
4. Sociability
This quality is acquired when an employee has succeeded to demonstrate interpersonal skills.
5. Extroversion
Extroversion as defined in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
This quality is acquired when an employee has succeeded to passionately drive the company’s strategy.
Review
So Smart But…: How Intelligent People Lose Credibility – And How They Can Get It Back by Allen K. Weiner is a self-development book is very relatable, accurate and was very difficult to read since I have met up with most of the scenarios and possess some of the corporate personality flaws discussed in this book.
Allen N. Weiner, in So Smart But…, provides tips on how to preserve and enhance your credibility in the workplace.
Furthermore, every argument is properly illustrated with realistic workplace scenario and is not gender biased.
According to Allen N. Weiner, to climb the social ladder, it seems that one needs to :
comply to too many non written rules, indicative of a rigid and intolerant society that is the corporate world. Is it possible to apply every single one of these rules to the cost of spreading oneself very thinly?
be likeable to succeed when, in my opinion, likeability can only take you so far. Indeed, in my experience, it is preferable and more effective to be respected in corporate culture because being liked puts you on equal footing with your pairs, constitutes additional emotional work and subjects you to fluctuating and random external opinion. Nevertheless, according to Allen N. Weiner, people who are not liked are trying to find excuses instead of trying to be liked.
Leadership is a collection of skills that need continual improvement, personal growth and learning.
Leadership requires a lot of self discipline and determination. It is important for leaders to open themselves up for improvement to start slow and fight their way up.
4. The law of navigation
Leaders need to effectively navigate their way through life, while knowing people are depending on them.
In order to give themselves the best chances at success, they:
Are realistic.
Have to stay focused and in control.
Have a solid vision for their destination.
Have enough visibility to change course in time if they want to.
Draw their itinerary from their past failures and successes.
Listen to what their team has to say.
Don’t make commitments lightly.
Plan the course of their action.
5. The law of E. F. Hutton
Leaders become real leaders thanks to their character, relationships, knowledge, experience, past successes and abilities. People will not follow you because of your position.
The law of E. F. Hutton helps you figure out who the real leader in the room really is.
To find the real leader, observe the reaction of the people in the room when the real leader speaks.
6. The law of solid ground
Leaders must communicate their character, exemplify their behavior, maintain their credibility and avoid breaking the trust of their followers.
When leaders make a mistake, they must quickly admit it and ask for forgiveness.
7. The law of respect
Leaders who are stronger and better leaders than their followers tend to gain respect.
8. The law of intuition
The law of intuition is a complex part of leadership, relies on instinct, facts and other factors.
Leaders who work with the law of intuition are able to sense a situation, to read people and themselves, to use their intuition to achieve their goals and to solve problems.
9. The law of magnetism
The law of magnetism states that who you are is who you attract.
Leaders who follow this law are able to attract the people who possess the same qualities as they do.
They attract people with same attitude, from the same generation and background, with the same values, life experiences and abilities.
Leaders who observe this law touch people emotionally, know how to communicate with people, connect with them and show that they care.
The more leaders work on the connection with their employees, the more employees are loyal and demonstrate a strong work ethic.
11. The law of the inner circle
The people in the leader’s inner circle will determine the leader’s potential.
Leaders understand that they cannot be a lone ranger and acknowledge the purpose and strengths of the inner circle.
12. The law of empowerment
Successful and secure leaders empower and believe in their team.
Those who don’t create a barrier that their employees cannot overcome.
13. The law of reproduction
The law of reproduction works in a way where only leaders are capable of developing leaders and by teaching them what they know.
Some leaders don’t develop other leaders because they don’t have time or because of their own insecurities.
14. The law of buy in
People buy into leaders who have a vision.
If they don’t like the leader or the vision, they get another leader.
If the leader is credible, then people believe that the vision is credible as well.
15. The law of victory
Leaders who observe this law refuse defeat, dedicate themselves to victory and find a way to achieve success.
16. The law of the big mo
Leaders understand that to create change they need to create momentum.
Momentum is contagious, improves performance and makes the leader look good.
17. The law of priorities
Leaders spend their time prioritizing and recognize that doing more does not equate success.
They use the Pareto principle and the three Rs( requirement, return, reward).
18. The law of sacrifice
Sometimes, leaders have to sacrifice themselves to succeed and to gain opportunities.
The higher you go up on the ladder, the more you have to sacrifice.
19. The law of timing
Successful leaders read situations, recognize when to lead and when to take the right action at the right time.
20. The law of explosive growth
Potential leaders are hard to find and to attract but leaders who develop other leaders multiply growth within their organization.
21. The law of legacy
Leaders who leave a legacy lead with tomorrow in mind, make developing other leaders as part of the culture, sacrifice for future success and pass on the torch.
Review
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow is an easy to read leadership development book.
In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow, John C. Maxwell makes a list of 21 laws of leadership to help people better themselves and their organization.
These laws are the universal foundation for every area of your life. They can be learnt, be in standalone, have serious consequences, be practiced on a daily basis.
Maxwell has spent most of his life in leadership position. So, he entertains us with uncommon, historical and adventurous examples that everyone can relate to.
Finally, he encourages leaders to learn and go apply what they learnt.
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
Leadership is complicated. It has many facets: respect, experience, emotional strength, people skills, discipline, vision, momentum, timing—the list goes on. As you can see, many factors that come into play in leadership are intangible. That’s why leaders require so much seasoning to be effective.
The good news is that your leadership ability is not static. No matter where you’re starting from, you can get better.
The leader finds the dream and then the people. The people find the leader, and then the dream.
MANY PEOPLE TODAY WANT TO CLIMB UP THE CORPORATE LADDER BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE THAT FREEDOM AND POWER ARE THE PRIZES WAITING AT THE TOP. THEY DON’T REALIZE THAT THE TRUE NATURE OF LEADERSHIP IS REALLY SACRIFICE.
Through their actions and decisions, leaders highly impact your overall job experience.
For the most part, they are responsible for your motivation, responsibilities, career prospects, work-life balance, engagement and alignment.
Wondering how leadership can demotivate teams?
Motivation is the combination of traits that drive someone to achieve their goals.
Therefore, demotivation occurs when there is a significant loss of drive, eagerness or willingness to do the work.
The loss of motivation mostly translates itself into:
Increased absenteeism,
Long lunches and breaks during working hours,
Unprofessionalism, distraction and disconnection from the job,
Distance and disconnection from others,
Desire to distract others.
Unfortunately, toxic leaders are often the cause of said demotivation.
1. Toxic leaders are closed to new ideas
Not only are they closed to new ideas, they will gladly criticize and shut others down.
Furthermore, they do not embrace change. They will usually think that they know best and will follow through on bad ideas despite the evidence of the contrary.
2. Toxic leaders encourage toxicity
They let bad behavior go unchecked.
Illegal behaviors such as toxic competition, sexual harassment, prurient curiosity, invasion of privacy, racism, sexism and discriminatory speeches are ignored, celebrated and are embedded in the company culture.
3. Toxic leaders don’t lead by example
They avoid engaging in difficult tasks or challenging conversations.
They also behave poorly but get away with it because they have the power to do so or because human resources turn a blind eye to their behavior.
4. Toxic leaders pressure their team to meet unrealistic expectations
As a leader, ensuring that your team members meet the bottom line is surely important.
However, employees who cannot meet unrealistic goals tend to get demotivated and quit.
5. Toxic leaders treat their team like a commodity
They feel free to disrespect their team members, take advantage of people or play with their team like pawns.
They also feel free to fire people or demonstrate that they are replaceable.
Demotivated perform at their minimal best but not because they lack discipline.
6. Toxic leaders are in constant competition
Competitive and jealous leaders have huge egos and very low self esteem.
In this scenario, high performers tend to go unrecognized and unrewarded.
Even worse, their ideas are stolen and their achievements ignored.
7. Toxic leaders micromanage
Leaders who micromanage lack trust in the abilities of their team members.
They don’t allow their team to make or correct mistakes.
8. Toxic leaders don’t listen
Bad leaders don’t listen to anyone or anything.
By doing so, they don’t understand their team members potential and don’t adapt projects to them.
The reality is that when teams don’t feel heard, they ultimately get demotivated.
9. Toxic leaders don’t believe in work relationships
They are unaware of their team members responsibilities.
Leaders who don’t work on a relationship with their team members rarely notice when a team member gets demotivated.
10. Toxic leaders don’t communicate objectives
When teams don’t see the bigger picture or feel like they are in the loop, they become unable to measure their performance, involvement and their impact.
11. Toxic leaders brew conflict
They pit employees one against the other, play favorites and treat others unfairly.
That way, while employees are occupied fighting, nobody has the time they question their poor leadership.
In that case, motivation is lossed and employees usually quit.
12. Toxic leaders are not flexible
They don’t allow remote working and don’t encourage a healthy work-life balance.
They are oblivious to the fact that motivated teams contribute twice as more than demotivated ones.
Last Words Of Advice
People don’t leave jobs, they leave terrible leaders.
destroy.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
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Leadership development aims to provide leaders with the hard and soft skills needed to execute their job within their capacity and within their organization.
Usually, leadership development boosts employee morale, engagement, alignment and productivity.
1. Leaders demonstrate integrity and instill trust
“Earn trust, earn trust, earn trust. Then you can worry about the rest.” – SETH GODIN
2. Leaders learn continuously
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John F. Kennedy
3. Leaders maintain strong communication skills
“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” – Lee Iacocca
4. Leaders possess good decision-making skills
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” – Theodore Roosevelt
5. Leaders build healthy relationships
A leader’s attitude is caught by his or her followers more quickly than his or her actions. – John C. Maxwell
Last Words Of Advice
There are several leadership programs out there.
It is important that you find the right one for you to gain the ability to inspire, influence, improve your performance and cope with challenges.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
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Powerful leaders remain in communication with their authentic self, are honest with themselves, reveal their true abilities and have developed their personal power.
They are confident enough to have achieved success on their own terms.
Wondering which strategies are mostly used by powerful leaders to achieve success?
Strategy 1: Powerful leaders set intentions
Powerful leaders decide what they want even if they don’t know how to get it.
Then, they do whatever it takes to get it.
Basically, they declare their intentions and commit to them.
To set the best intentions possible, they get to know themselves and learn to deal with their strengths and weaknesses.
Strategy 2: Powerful leaders take risks
To achieve success, powerful leaders tend to let go of what is safe and familiar.
They learn that they have to give up the good for the great and chose what is right for them along the way.
Strategy 3: Powerful leaders focus on winning
At some point, powerful leaders take risks, play the game and play to win.
They focus on winning no matter what.
Strategy 4: Powerful leaders speak up
Powerful leaders speak up for themselves when something goes wrong or something is bothering them.
Speaking allows them not to play victim.
Unfortunately, in modern society, women who speak up still hold a negative connotation. Most of the time, outspoken women are seen as bitchy and are punished for speaking up. Whereas outspoken men are seen as assertive, direct and forceful.
Strategy 5: Powerful leaders stretch their abilities
Powerful leaders don’t stop at what is doable or at what they think they are capable of.
In addition, they take risks, stretch themselves, feel the fear but go after their goals anyway.
Consequently, they often bite off more than they can chew but still manage to succeed.
Strategy 6: Powerful leaders seek support
Powerful leaders surround themselves with people who can individually and collectively believe in their abilities, who can guide them, and who can show them how to succeed.
Last Words Of Advice!
Powerful leaders don’t wait for opportunities to come their way, they create them. Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
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We all have a dream of outperforming ourselves at work and staying consistent and moving up in our career.
However, we have difficulties bringing our wishes and expectations to life.
Furthermore, in the fast and highly competitive corporate world, some of our attitudes, assumptions, values, flaws often render us completely ineffective, come in the way of us being the best version of ourselves, from learning new skills, from developing our talents.
The reality is that, despite our best intentions, we are often our worst enemies, are unable to improve our career, to achieve our definition of success, to satisfy our higher purpose.
We thereby harbor dissatisfaction, self-defeating thoughts and resort to self-sabotaging actions.
Wondering how to become a better performer, a better contributor, a better leader in the workplace and control the self-sabotaging tendencies?
Most of the time, self-sabotage takes roots from collaborators sometimes abusing substance, striving too hard for materialistic success.
Self-sabotage also stems from an inability to control extreme negative thoughts and emotions such as anger, guilt or resentment, and an inability to control other people. Indeed, in the workplace, low performing employees and leaders tend to either:
complain too much about circumstances,
not take action or initiative,
doubt their capabilities,
be addicted to praise,
struggle to live up to other people expectations. Not pursuing your true purpose and implementing somebody else dream cause you to subconsciously rebel against your current situation.
act impatient,
be unable to follow rules or respect authority figure,
be unable to handle the pressures of responsibility;
misinterpret the image they have of themselves
be busy or lack time management skills,
lack conflict resolution skills,
fear the unknown,
fear criticism, looking ridiculous or being embarrassed,
fear change or fear success,
feel rejected or reject their own being,
fear failure. Failures are usually blessings in disguise.
How to improve these bad habits and become an effective member of the workforce?
Becoming a better performer and contributor in the workplace doesn’t end at solely executing your duties and providing acceptable results, it also means working on your character and core values. To enable effective performance in the workplace, it is necessary to:
Assess your strengths and weaknesses and ground them into reality. I cannot stress enough how self-discovery is an important and long life process that allows to:
upgrade your moral compass and create new ethical standards,
accept our unique distinctions,
evaluate your role and contributions at work,
assist, be assisted by coworkers or team members with a complementing set of skills.
Understand your interests and abilities. This way you are able to develop your core capabilities, to choose the work that stimulates you the most, the workplace in which you best fit in and the team that complements you the best.
Keep learning, grow your knowledge and your emotional intelligence that you may increase satisfaction at work, to envision greater possibilities, to overcome obstacles and to be successful in every area of your life by:
doing something new, something different, challenging your thoughts and your routine,
nurturing your natural curiosity about the world, about what you don’t know,
breaking routine and mindless actions to stimulate your imagination,
tackling your fears and negative emotions head and listing the consequences of your actions.
Adjust your self-image to reality by writing down:
the qualities you have about yourself and the ones you want to acquire,
your trigger points. Don’t let identifying your trigger points to get discouraged and give up on yourself. Noticing your self-sabotaging habits is actually beneficial to you: you are probably not in the walk of life that you wish or supposed to be in.
Act responsibility, be proactive, take initiative. Take on more responsibility and assignments, perform them with enthusiasm and motivation in order to become confident in your abilities, autonomous, dependable, emotionally mature and trustworthy. Indeed, the more you take on responsibility, the more you learn about yourself, the more you understand the consequences of your actions, the faster you admit your mistakes as soon as you notice them, the better you remain accountable especially when things go wrong, the more you grow, the more you gain competencies, the more you are willing to take initiative and even risks.
Discipline yourself by inspecting and readjusting your thoughts, actions and behaviors to set standards, and dominating your immediate desires and impulses.
Stay true to yourself. Avoid comparing yourself to others and competing with others.
Allow yourself to think. In silence, without looking for distractions, confront yourself, make peace with yourself, strengthen your decision-making skills, observe bad habits, and therefore learn more about yourself, find your true purpose, learn to trust your intuition and inner feelings. Meditation, quiet contemplation, introspection are the key to staying alert, to increase your performance at work, to develop and recognize good ideas, to stay engaged and more conscious of your life.
Define clear goals and seek better methods to become more productive, more competent in the workplace.
Vary your experiences and get out your comfort zone.
Take care of your physical health. Exercise regularly.
Make a good impression, from day one, without overdoing it and running a political campaign, by dressing appropriately and being punctual.
Respect and treat people the way you would like to be respected and treated. Uplift people instead of bringing them down or being considered as a toxic coworker in the workplace. Develop relationships and properly manage people emotions, don’t impose your emotions on others, don’t create enemies where you can have a supportive friend. As a result, you can become a good contributor and a valuable team member.
Embrace change, renew your coping and self-defense mechanism.
Expect to make mistakes, to learn from them and keep it moving.
Avoid naysayers and haters like the plague. Change your circle of friends if they are the ones bringing you down.
Service others. Servicing others doesn’t mean to submit to everyone and to every order. It means doing your best to get along with one another.
Last words of advice!
If you happen to abuse substance or are in emotional distress in the workplace, don’t be ashamed, you are not alone. Please talk about it to your closest family and friends, or find the nearest Workplace Help Center.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
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Being a great leader depends on how well they know themselves. Leaders must make sure that they are self-aware, clearly communicate their goals and expectations, reach their goals, set high standards, expect quality work and meet deadlines, demonstrate that all their team members matter, show gratitude, don’t settle and spend time with their team.
Needless to say, a little introspection is required from time to time.
Wondering how do you become the best version of yourself?
Sometimes, we end up in or go after leadership positions but don’t understand why or how we got there.
It is always important to assess our goals, values and purpose every step of the way.
1) What does leadership mean to you?
Leadership encapsulates different concepts and key competencies.
For most, leadership is the ability to wheel power, to influence people positively in order to be successful, to bring like-minded individuals together towards a common goal or vision and to translate that vision into reality.
In order to be effective you must figure out what leadership means to you.
2) Why do you want to be a leader? What is your purpose in life?
Most people want to lead because they see themselves in power, in control, with status and doing whatever they want.
However, leaders are always held accountable for their actions, have to serve as models and have to exhibit exemplary behavior.
Without an ethical purpose in mind, they will not be able to sustain their role very long.
If you weren’t a leader, what would you do? What career would you pursue?
Do you have sufficient resources to achieve your goals and yourself?
Leaders must find at least one field in which they excel. This will develop their credibility, their confidence and will help you be of assistance to people in need.
4) What are your core values?
If your leadership roles don’t correspond to your values, it is time to rethink your career.
5) How do you center yourself?
Learning to center yourself, to choose peace of mind requires that you acquire new healthy habits and that you question your thoughts that most often are an illusion or distorted memories.
Figure out how to preserve your time and energy, how to ensure your growth, how to continually improve as a person, and how to boost your leadership self-esteem?
6) Can you grow within your role and responsibilities?
Some people get into positions to please their families, impress their friends or flatter their own egos.
A job or a role in which you feel boxed in is frustrating, leaves little space for you to develop your skills or maximize your strengths.
7) How do you wish to impact the world and the people around you?
As a leader, you must project yourself in the future and visualize the legacy that you want to leave.
8) Do you walk the talk?
Integrity is currently a rare character trait and most sought after leadership attribute that can help you succeed in the workplace as much as in life.
It actually goes a long way and projects more authority and credibility than a title or a position would.
Furthermore, the team you lead, the environment that you work in is a direct reflection of you. If you want a trusting workplace, be trustworthy.
9) Are you open to learn?
Being open to learn and to explore is detrimental to success.
To start the learning process, you can read books, take trainings and classes, and talk to people who are in positions that you aspire to.
Furthermore, you must understand that if you seek knowledge, you will never fully be an expert.
Creating work-life balance is not giving equal attention to both work and life.
But, it means that you are satisfied with your contributions to your life and work, that you are able to create a sustainable synergy between both so that you are fueled by them on a daily basis.
To do so, you must focus on the vital few and not let your career affect your personal life and vice versa.
11) Are you self-interested or committed to the collective good?
We choose a certain career because our ever-changing needs and desires align with that particular career but not necessarily with the collective good.
In the leadership position, there is a huge discrepancy between hiring the right person with the right competencies for the job, between hiring someone with lesser competencies to feel unthreatened, between hiring someone to serve you and caress your ego.
There is also a difference between wanting the organization to succeed, wanting the team and the project to shine, and taking all the credit for someone else’s work.
Leadership style refers to the way that the leader interacts with his or her employees, influences their behavior, motivates them, make decisions for them and for the organization.
A specific leadership style can deeply influence the quality of work, the levels of commitment, the work satisfaction of both leader and employees.
13) Are you emotionally intelligent?
We cannot control everything in our life.
However, we can control how we react to different situations, how we see ourselves and who we aspire to be.
14) Are you able to solve conflicts effectively?
Leaders must be able to anticipate problems and implement solutions for the future. What strategies do you apply? How do you handle bad news? How do you set boundaries? Do you encourage dissension?
As a leader, your behavior in pressure moments impacts those around you and can predict their performance.
22) How do you solve problems and make sound decisions?
The ability to anticipate, to solve problems, to make quick and sound decisions will determine the success of a leader.
23) How do you motivate others? Can you communicate your visions successfully?
Effective communication skills will improve your leadership credibility, your self-confidence, your relationships with others, your feelings of belonging and will decrease your stress level.
Your communication skills will also drive change and increase team motivation.
Using those skills, leaders should be pushing a vision for their life, for their family or their organization and it shouldn’t matter whether they have the right relationships, enough money, enough favors, or have hired people with the desired skill set.
24) Are you organized and can you meet deadlines?
Leaders don’t have the luxury to procrastinate because it is similar to self-sabotage. However, they are all subject to it to some extent.
Being organized, methodical, pragmatic will help you gain a sense of satisfaction and will increase your chances of success.
25) Who do you look up to?
It is critical to have a role model who will help you improve, achieve your goals and will show you your life purpose.
Your role model is authentic, relatable and can be a family member, a friend in your entourage or someone you barely know.
26) Can you handle change?
Change is a part of life, is a constant and is inevitable. Change shakes things up, disrupts old habits, breathes new life into the workplace and into any project.
Leaders must visibly act out the change, must be ready to do things differently and to think otherwise.
27) What do you hate the most and will not stand for?
You can’t always find out what you like but life has a funny way of putting you in front of the things that you hate the most.
28) Can you accept criticism from others?
Accepting criticism implies that you are able to listen, accept people point of view and give feedback as well.
29) Are you becoming too complacent?
30) What do you want to improve on?
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
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Mistakes?! Everybody makes them but not everyone knows how to handle them.
Mistakes are most often seen in a negative light but it shows you what you are made of, that you need to redirect your career, that you need to change procedures and your character.
Mistakes are inevitable, are a factor for change and are capable of:
Wondering how to identify mistakes and how to correct them?
Mistakes don’t directly lead to success but it can show you the way. It is best when they come to light rather than going unnoticed.
When mistakes are made, it makes sense for us to focus on what we have done right, on our strengths rather than our weaknesses. It is then detrimental to:
Identify the cues of mistake making, of failure.
Be self-aware.
Take responsibility for the mistake that led to the problem.
Encourage constructive criticism as much as feedback is given.
Measure the consequences of the mistakes.
Make immediate analysis and changes to fix the mistakes.
Be smart and learn from the mistakes made. Be wise and learn from the mistakes of others.
Create an environment that is safe to make mistakes and to recover from them.
There is a vast number of recurring mistakes and failures detected in corporate history.
MISTAKE #1: Fitting Into The Corporate Culture
The first mistake that leaders make is failing to see that they don’t fit in, that their values and morals don’t match the company’s culture.
To identify whether or not you will fit in and be an asset to your company:
Check out the group that you have to work with.
Pose the right questions about the company during the hiring process. You can even hang out in the company’s lobby or pip in the office to get a feel of the company.
Corrective Action
Whether or not you wish to adapt to the culture is a personal choice. If you do:
Observe other people who are successful within the organization and see if you can emulate their behavior.
Learn to appreciate uniqueness and diversity.
Learn to adapt to the situation at hand.
Leave when there is too much discrepancy between your morals, values and the company’s culture.
MISTAKE #2: Focusing on the job and not on people
Leaders who don’t focus on people are seen to be snobs, insensitive, inattentive. They don’t like to be interrupted, are their best when left alone, avoid conversations and small talks at all costs, are focused on tasks, are afraid of failing at their jobs.
Unfortunately, they fail at relationships. This can easily create misunderstandings and conflicts because people have no barometer to measure your speech or your behavior.
Corrective Action
Dealing with people has now become a sought after soft skill. To keep growing that skill:
Relax and allow people to come to you.
Control your verbal and non verbal cues.
Recognize that people are part of life and that relationships can increase your success.
Show that you care.
Solve people’s problem.
Take lunches and breaks away from your workplace in order to handle social interactions better.
Give positive feedback, affirmations, encouragements especially to younger workers.
Don’t play favorites with people.
MISTAKE #3: Sticking To Traditional Leadership Styles
Autocratic and commanding leadership styles, though common and easy, are outdated, are rigid, are no longer acceptable in society and don’t work anymore, especially with millennials.
Some leaders, needing to feel superior and powerful, tend to withhold information to control their employees. Today, millennials expect validation, recognition, rewards, a more deconstructed workplace that is fun, relaxed, motivational yet productive and structured. They want to understand their role, the impact of their contributions at work, to be involved in the decision-making process, to learn continually and to own their work.
People are more comfortable in the democratic leadership style and are able to perform at their best.
Allow your workers to give their input before you make a decision.
Learn how to motivate and inspire your people.
Be the solution to everybody’s problem.
Empower others and help them to be successful.
Don’t be arrogant, don’t bark orders or mistreat your coworkers.
Listen to the needs of your coworkers.
MISTAKE #4: Shutting down dissenting voices, innovative and creative people
Pioneers and dissenting voices within the organization usually have a bad reputation. They are not welcomed in groups, go against the grain, are seen as not playing by the rules, are stifled, are the ones that end up being fired.
The thing is that pioneers are innovative, creative and can renew a company’s product and culture. They are natural catalysts, take risks and they need a room to breathe and to exercise their talents.
Corrective Action
To include dissenting voices, innovative and creative people:
Be more flexible with your policies and procedures.
Learn to discern pioneers from troublemakers and contrarians. pioneers actually care about the organization and about their contributions to it.
Allow pioneers to work on their own and own their results.
Slowly increase their responsibility.
Understand that everyone is not the same and deserve a different treatment.
MISTAKE #5: Controlling people and not delegating
Some leaders don’t know how to delegate, don’t want to delegate or just find it plain hard to do so. Indeed, it is a hard task because it requires that the leader:
Has faith in the workers.
believes that the work will be up to standards.
is confident in their personal abilities and is not afraid of being upstaged.
is comfortable depending on others.
Corrective Action
Delegating is not easy. To learn how to delegate:
Avoid micromanaging people but measure their advancement.
Don’t withdraw a project or assignment that you have previously delegated.
Include employees in the decision-making process.
Demonstrate confidence in yourself and in the people you have chosen to delegate the tasks to.
When delegating, select experts in their field, clarify their roles, give them the authority to do their jobs, allow them to fail and to grow.
Create clear progress measurement tools and milestones.
MISTAKE #6: Not Seeing The Bigger Picture
Leaders fail when they are unable to see the bigger picture.
Corrective Action
To stay fixated on the bigger picture:
Write a personal mission statement and build a vision board.
Get to know your company’s mission and vision statement.
Comparing ourselves to others and competing with them can weigh on work performance and self-esteem.
Competition in the workplace, without rules and regulations, to increase work performance, to put two employees against each other can easily derail an entire organization, create a toxic workplace, create a culture of fear.
Corrective Action
To reduce competition in the workplace:
Collaborate with your team members.
Build relationships that go beyond the workplace.
Compete against the standards that you have set for yourself.
Acknowledge your personal success.
Build new skills.
Last Words Of Advice!
Everybody makes mistakes.
You have find ways to learn from them and turn them into positives.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
We all have had major presentations in front of our peers that determine whether or not we will be fit for the next promotion, whether we contribute effectively to the team, where we feel the pressure to succeed.
Overloaded, overwhelmed, anxious, stressed, some of us make it through these pressure moments and others fail.
As a matter of fact, leaders and employees are constantly under pressure in corporate:
their time is under custody,
the customers require quality product in record time,
the teams need expertise,
teams compete against each other at all levels,
teams bully one member of their team,
teams, stakeholders and organizations have high expectations,
the market is unstable or the company is downsizing,
each individual applies pressure on themselves to succeed…
Wondering how to handle, minimize the effects of these pressure moments at work and moreover how to control your reactions to them?
Pressure is indeed independent from the work class and social status. Pressure affects creativity and productivity.
Pressure is much more visible when starting a new job. We feel obliged to fit in and show our contribution to the team and we tend to overdo ourselves.
We arrive early, we live late, we work harder than the rest, meet expectations, make mistakes which leads to anxiety and stress.
Therefore, the desire to perform better, the need for results are pressing which deepens the stress: we stop trusting our main competencies and like Boxer the horse in George Orwell’s, we just start to work harder.
However, in reality, by working harder, you have great work ethic but you are no longer considered as a team player, a thinker or strategist and therefore become expendable.
The impacts of pressure?
Everyone has a threshold for pressure. There are definitely two types of pressure: the one we impose on ourselves and the one people put on us.Pressure can have a negative effect on people: aggressiveness, loss of appetite, insomnia, headache, back pain, and stress.The term stress was first adopted by Hans Selye in 1936 and is defined as a feeling of inability to respond to high stake demands in critical situations.Stress is a fundamental human reaction, rooted in our self-preservation instincts, that impacts our cognitive health, clouds our decision-making process and our judgement, compromises our perceptions and behavioral skills, and lowers our abilities.It leaves people cold, uptight, defensive, with the feeling of quitting everything. However, stress is not all bad. Stress provides adrenaline for those who are lacking motivation. In addition, poorly managed stress will eventually damage someone’s career, collaboration, trust and can results in absenteeism, and chronic health problems.
How to perform under pressure?
As a leader, your behavior in pressure moments, impacts those around you and can predict their performance.Leaders and employees tend to under-perform under pressure because:
the situation is critical for them and their survival,
the situation is critical for others and for the organization,
they fear that people will judge, criticize or reject them due to the outcome of their performance,
the outcome of their performance is unknown,
their environment is hostile and threatening.
Performing under pressure is a skill and can therefore be learnt. Below are 16 tips to improve your performance under pressure:
Analyze the situation and your behavior. Take a step back, seek deeper insights in your thoughts and behaviors to identify stress triggers, weigh out the outcomes of the situation. How important is this situation for you?
Focus on the task and not the results. It is necessary to clearly define your objectives by writing them down on paper beforehand. Objectives must be concrete, measurable and have an expected outcome. As a result, you are apt to stay in the present, not be distracted and most importantly take your time on the task.
Remember your past success and current qualities, before and during critical situations, to understand that your worth is not intrinsic to the situation and to pass through the situation as a whole.
Control the controllable factors (like your reactions to the situation) and release what you cannot control. Worrying about people or events beyond your control is a waste of energy.
Find coping mechanism and back up plans to avoid reproducing the same mistakes.
Anticipate all the potential obstacles before beginning the task to prepare for the worst, make a list of solutions and implement them before debuting the task. For example, when the waters are calm, write down the essential procedures.
Become insensitive to pressure by subjugating yourself to it as often as necessary, until the performance becomes automatic.
Remain positive and visualize the pressure moment as a challenge or fun experience, an opportunity to showcase your talents. Embracing stressful situations builds self-confidence, energize, boosts motivation, allow you to perform at your authentic level.
Believe that there will be many more opportunities coming our way, by seeing the moment as training session for the right opportunity.
Influence your brain to accurately interpret a high pressured situation. We have a tendency to distort situations through our lenses and either make them grander than they are.
Assume strictly positive outcomes of the stressful situation and speak positivity into reality.
Practice a relaxation technique: breathe, look and listen to the noises around you, take full advantage of your breaks. or just listen to music.
Avoid useless and unproductive interactions if you can. If you are unable to avoid negative interactions, isolate the information that you need from the interaction. Write down that information and do not rely on memory or distorted thoughts.
Recognize that the pressure that you are receiving from someone else has nothing to do with you.
Take responsibility for your actions, admit and accept your errors when things don’t go your way.
Make sleep a priority. When feeling tired or fatigued, switch tasks, start with the most complex one in the beginning of the day and make to do lists before the end of each day.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
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Motivation is the combination of traits that drive someone to achieve their goals.
We all have a dream of outperforming ourselves at work and staying consistent and moving up in our career.
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