Become a Better Leader - Dump "Yes Men" or Volunteer
Posted: June 11, 2014
[caption id="attachment_11920" align="alignright" width="520"]
Image: LinkedIn[/caption]Great leaders most often aren't born that way, they find ways to make themselves great. Unfortunately, they can also face pitfalls that make them a less effective leader. Mixing things up can help restore their "great" status once again.
[caption id="attachment_11920" align="alignright" width="520"]Image: LinkedIn[/caption]Great leaders most often aren't born that way, they find ways to make themselves great. Unfortunately, they can also face pitfalls that make them a less effective leader. Mixing things up can help restore their "great" status once again.
Can Skipping a Meeting Make You a Better Leader?
It’s not easy being a great leader. One of the marks of good leadership is the ability to look at problems in new ways, find creative solutions, and think outside-of-the-box in order to inspire others to greatness. Leadership isn’t all about you, after all...it’s about how you communicate and motivate others.
Unfortunately, many of today’s current leaders are falling down on the job. We’re in the middle of something close to an employee engagement crisis, with Gallup finding 70 percent of the American workforce checked out on the job. This probably explains why CareerBuilder discovered 77 percent of employed workers are actively searching or open to new career opportunities. Without effective leadership, employees eventually start eying the door.
Sometimes effective leadership means throwing conventional wisdom out the window. After all, the traditional way things are done might have you stuck in a rut. It’s time to break free and embrace some left-of-center techniques to grow your leadership skills or reconnect with your team.
Here are four ways to grow your leadership without following the pack:
Refuse Early Meetings
You get up in the morning psyched about powering through your to-do list. You spend your commute getting ready for the work day. You know exactly what you need to get accomplished and as you walk in the door, you’re ready to start crossing items off your list. There’s only one problem: you have an early morning meeting and your momentum immediately screeches to a standstill.
I spoke recently to project management expert Tony Wong about his experiences working with video game company Riot Games. When Riot came to Tony, they had a great culture of communication, but it was actually getting in the way of their overall productivity. Wong suggested the company take the first hour of the day and throw it out the window--for meetings, at least. By refusing early meetings, leaders and workers could spend time prioritizing their to-do lists, including prioritizing which meetings were actually necessary.
If you’re a leader, consider implementing a short-term block on all early meetings and see if productivity improves. If you’re not in a leadership position, go to your manager and suggest moving meetings to later in the day. You might be amazed at how much you can accomplish when you free your mornings to prioritize and plan.
Look For a Devil’s Advocate
Having a workplace debate can make even the most steely leader reconsider their stance on certain issues and their belief in certain projects -- yet many leaders and workers avoid debate and discussion at all costs. As a leader, you can’t surround yourself with “yes men” if you want your company to succeed, grow, and thrive.
Leaders need to start a culture where it’s not only acceptable to question everything, but it’s required. Create a designated time in every meeting or at the start of every major project where everyone involved can play devil’s advocate. Defending a position or hashing out potential problems can help you understand the importance of your work and discover what areas might need to be improved upon.
If you’re not a leader, go to your superiors and discuss how employee input can become a more essential part of the process. Explain you don’t want to be adversarial, you just want the company to be the best it can be and that, by embracing discussion and debate, companies empower the whole team to contribute, no matter their position in the corporate hierarchy.
Read the entire article Can Skipping a Meeting Make You a Better Leader?, at LinkedIn.