7 Ways to be the Leader Everyone Loves to Work With
You’ve probably had a lousy leader. He made life miserable. She had irritating habits.
People don’t leave organizations, they leave lousy leaders.
Lousy leaders:
- Ignore the little people and hang with the power-people.
- Practice negative motivation. Lousy leaders shame, make negative comparisons, and belittle.
- Play favorites. Quality of work is irrelevant when the leader has a golden child.
- Dishearten with their own disengagement and laziness.
- Devalue effort by ignoring progress.
- Flip flop like fish on a dock. It’s discouraging when leaders constantly change direction.
- Make decisions in isolation. Lousy leaders talk first and listen last.
Bonus: Lousy leaders pretend they’re great leaders.
7 ways to be the leader everyone loves to work with:
#1. Win!
- Define wins.
- Create wins. (Milestones are small wins)
- Celebrate wins.
Everybody loves to win. What’s today’s win?
#2. Inspire belief.
- Help people believe in themselves by celebrating progress.
- Build confidence in the team. Help people believe in each other by helping everyone function within their strengths.
- Paint a picture of the future where others do things that matter.
Everyone loves to work for a leader who inspires belief.
#3. Talk about where we’re going, constantly.
Work is drudgery if all it is is work.
Vision gives sweat purpose. Create a future.
#4. Manage energy.
Negative environments happen through neglect. Positive environments are built with focused effort. One negative comment weighs three times as much as a positive.
#5. Smile more. Cheer more.
#6. Avoid the self-importance trap.
- Make others feel important. You matter most when you make others matter.
- Show respect rather than demanding it.
#7. Give away all the credit. Yes, all!
- Focus on other people’s achievements,
- People prefer you to lift them up to you outdoing their achievements.
- Don’t pat yourself on the back. It’s pathetic.
Bonus: Tell people what you want. Everyone hates self-protective, cowardly bosses who never get to the point.
What is/was true of the leaders you love to work with?
What’s true of leaders you don’t want to work with?
Every word of this one is a keeper! As with most things associated with leadership, an honest self-assessment is required to identify both our positive and negative qualities. I’ve often had management defend using some variation of shame and negative comparisons in correction and motivation, saying they are simply being honest and firm. Funny thing — that’s not the way those same people want to be treated by their supervisors.
Probably the most repeated complaint about leaders I hear is that they “Play favorites. Quality of work is irrelevant when the leader has a golden child.”. If you believe that, and are not the ‘golden child’ — there’s little to aspire to as your successes won’t be shared, but your failures will. Happily you also point out the good things — which are achievable. Define and celebrate success and then sing your Team’s praise for their efforts and achievements. If not already there, this should be added to every leadership evaluation.
Thanks for your wonderful insights, Dan!!
Thanks Mary. It’s unfortunate that we are inclined to pull back when we have lousy leaders. The person we hurt the most is us. But, I totally get it. It’s so discouraging to have a favorite receive honor when others are working harder.
I recently lost a supervisor who had all the characteristics of a great servant leader. It was difficult to say good-bye.
I am inspired by your fine points and will be sharing your tips with my co-workers who are discouraged by their supervisor. Thank you.
Linda E. Bong
MSW LSW
I like leaders that let me work beside them and then continually lengthen the leash and ultimately let me run free as long as I stay in the park.
Thanks Pat. Shoulder-to-Shoulder is inspiring. We get the feel that someone is in the battle with us. There’s a safety net. There’s opportunity to try new things in a safe environment.
I’m more a closet reader here, but this topic hit home. Likely do to having worked for someone that had many of the ‘lousy’ traits, but more importantly do to the efforts our company is making to encourage leadership improvements.
Thanks!
Mike
Thanks Mike. It’s great to have organizational encouragement and support for improvement. Best wishes.
Most days I grab the nuggets and say wow. Would need a truck to haul all the gold nuggets in this one. Thank you sir.
Thanks Walt. It’s an honor to serve. 🙂
I had a leader who cared about every aspect of my life. He cared about my goals (outside of work), constantly asked about my family, encouraged me to spend time with them, held me accountable, new all the small details like my birthday, etc. He was awesome to work under!
Similarly, another leader I had did all the opposite of that. To add to that, they constantly pat themselves on the back. I wouldn’t as much call them a leader as I would a manager. Big difference.
Thanks for the great illustration Josh. Not to degrade what you wrote. It’s cost effective to care for people! 🙂
It is challenging to work for a leader who lacks leadership skills, character and is negative. I found it was wiser not to be too open in order to avoid irrational reactions.
Mary! I love this! I believe it is super important as a leader to celebrate wins! At the end of everyday, we always mention what our take-away was from that day and it can be anything, but I love mentioning wins. This will not only boost morale, but create a better working environment for all.