Adonis Diaries

Posts Tagged ‘leaders’

TWO BIGGEST LIES LEADERS BELIEVE? Position doesn’t elevate IQ.

Posted by: on: December 4, 2019

 

THE TWO BIGGEST LIES LEADERS BELIEVE

Dan Rockwell. November 29, 2019

Teams suffer when leaders believe lies.

Most people won’t speak up when you’re convinced lies are truths.

The worst lies leaders believe are the ones they tell themselves.

The two biggest lies leaders believe:

Lie #1. I am a good listener.

Any leader who always needs to be right gets dumber as time passes.

Listening to learn includes willingness to change.

But having authority makes learning and changing a challenge. People in authority tend to believe that position elevates IQ.

Alan Alda put it best, “Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you.”

5 commitments:

#1. Choose to show respect. Few acts show respect better than real listening. Respect the talent and perspective of people who live in the trenches.

#2. Adopt a learner’s posture. Listening to learn is real listening. Listening to persuade is  manipulation.

Ask yourself, “What can I learn?”

Accountability question: What did you learn today?

#3. Explore what is right, before proving what is wrong.

Leadership is adversarial when the goal of listening is to prove someone wrong and convince them you are right.

#4. Dedicate yourself to curiosity.

Plan your next question, not your next statement.

#5. Devote yourself to the practice of empathy. You haven’t listened until people feel understood.

Leaders often listen to solve, refute, or explain. But when you listen to make people feel understood, everything changes. You explain less and take another’s perspective more.

Lie #2. I don’t have a problem with arrogance.

Humility is pursued, but never attained.

The second lie is at the root of the first. Arrogance doesn’t listen.

Arrogance crouches at the door waiting to:

  1. Encourage a closed mind.
  2. Preach self-sufficiency.
  3. Bolster superiority.

Any leader who doesn’t grapple with arrogance is self-deceived.

If you’d like to experience the power of humility, make the five commitments of a listener.

What lies do leaders believe?

How might leaders navigate the challenge of self-deception?

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How can you spot future leaders? Just 7 tips? And why this persistence on Leaders?

Posted by: on: November 5, 2018

You’ll fail apart from surrounding yourself with talented people. This means: Great leaders identify and develop great leaders.

By Dan Rockwell?

One of my favorite Jack Welch quotes is,

“The team with the best players wins.” (You mean well coordinated and totally loyal to the team game?)

But, how do you identify the best players? Look for those who are:

  1. Already active.
  2. Frustrated. They look around and don’t like what they see.
  3. Give voice to complaints and frustrations. Those who won’t say what’s wrong are dangerous. (They are those retained in the failed teams?)
  4. Seeking evidence. They say, “Prove it.” Show them what works.
  5. Grateful for opportunity. They need to matter. Give them purpose and you’ve won their hearts.
  6. Fearful at first; courageous in the end. Those without fear don’t appreciate the challenges of leading. Small successes fuel courage.
  7. Passionate. They care deeply.

Frustration:

Frustration indicates they want more. They aren’t satisfied.

Apart from dissatisfaction everything stays the same.

Look for frustration with self and/or frustration with circumstances. I’ll take either. But I prefer both.

Key factor: How future leaders learn to deal with frustration determines success. Some degenerate into whiners others escalate into difference-makers.

More on dissatisfaction: Walking the Leadership Tightrope.

Team building:

Team building is perhaps the most challenging and important activity of future leaders. Few are good at it – even fewer seek it. They see themselves at the center, which is fine at the beginning. Exponential success depends on a future leader’s ability to participate in and build teams. (That means building as many teams as your vision increases?)

What do you look for in a future leader?

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13 mistakes “new learders” makes: This taboo number. As if older leaders ever diminish this number of mistakes!

Posted by: on: September 24, 2012

13 mistakes “new leaders” makes: This taboo number 13. As if older leaders ever diminish this number of mistakes!

There are different types of mistakes and errors that people commit, “leaders new and old” and no leaders…Just you and me…the little people

1. Mistakes “reserved” for management of people

2. Mistakes with complicated created “professional” terms attached to them

3. Mistakes organized in taxonomies, or check lists…

4. Mistakes never reminded of…and never accounted for…and never confronted with

Let start with the first category of mistakes that Dan Rockwell recollects:

“Mistakes matter more when you’re the new kid on the block. Long-term relationships contextualize and soften occasional screw ups. Here are 13 mistakes new leaders make:

  1. Forgetting your arrival stresses others, including those who hired you. The stress you feel, others feel too. (What arrival?)
  2. Proving technical skill. You don’t need to prove what you know. You did that when they hired you. Own the job. You’re qualified.
  3. Reaching for big wins. Grab low hanging fruit. Win small – win often. Big wins are the result of a series of small wins.
  4. Believing everything you’re told. People have agendas. Trust but verify.
  5. Basing confidence in technical skills rather than the ability to learn.
  6. Making yourself look good while neglecting others. You look good when you make others look good. Use “we” more than “I” or “me”.
  7. Making statements before asking questions. Questions make new leaders look smart.
  8. Forgetting what’s small to you is big to others. Before changing things ask, “Who’s impacted?”
  9. Neglecting the social game. New leaders get so busy they forget to connect vertically and horizontally within organizations.
  10. Not making decisions. Listen, investigate, seek suggestions, but whatever you do, decide.
  11. Neglecting the players who really get things done while focusing on high-profile people. Play with players who aren’t official leaders.
  12. Forgetting names. (That’s the hardest to overcome…especially when you substitute the names with nicknames that are never funny to the concerned persons…)
  13. Making premature judgments about people. Watch the quiet ones. They offer more than you think. (And what if they keep hiding and refuse to meet you?)

Remember: When you feel the need to receive honor, give it.

Contributors own list of mistakes: Leadership Freak Coffee Shop (second question down the page)

What mistakes have you seen new leaders make?

How can new leaders avoid common new-leader mistakes?

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