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He nailed it!

In a recent discussion with a client, I asked an important question, “How do you inspire others?”  I was prepared to hear the responses I’ve heard so many times – “Get to know your employees, listen to them, show them appreciation, ask their opinion, be upbeat and engaging…”

While these are all good approaches, this particular client’s answer caught my attention.  His response was simple, and spoken with such ease and confidence:

  • Set clear expectations.
  • Give your staff the tools they need.
  • Provide support when they encounter problems / be available to help mold and shape their decisions.

While his first three points are important, it was his fourth point that struck me as being paramount to successfully inspiring and engaging others:

  • Let them know you believe in them!

As the son of a high school football coach, this client saw his dad live out this principle with his players.  He witnessed, firsthand, the powerful results that occur when people truly believe they can succeed.  It is a game-changer!  If people know you truly believe in them, they can surprise even you!

How are you the biggest champion of your team members?  Do they know the amount of faith you have in them and their abilities?

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is.  Treat him as what he could be, and he will become what he should be.”

It’s playoff season for the NFL and yet again the beloved Philadelphia Eagles are watching from the sidelines—sorry Philly fans! My 10-year-old son, Patrick, is a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan and fortunately for him, they historically fare a bit better in postseason play.

One of Patrick’s favorite players is Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. When we think about a quarterback preparing for his next game, would we want him spending the week working on becoming a better kicker? I’m quite certain we’d much rather see our favorite QB working hard on the things that make him a professional in the NFL—perfecting those things that he already does well and leaving the kicking to the talented kickers.

I recently heard a presentation by Andy Stanley where he described the “well-rounded myth”—an illusive belief that in order to be successful we must become well-rounded individuals and organizations. When we buy into this notion, we often spend time, energy and money on improving our weaknesses and inadvertently neglect to strengthen the things we already do well.

However, when we work on developing, advancing and refining our areas of strength, we can have a much greater impact on those we influence every day.

To work on our strengths, we must first know what they are. I have found the following resources helpful when identifying assets, talents and gifts:

  • DiSC Behavioral Profile—a tool that determines your preferred work environment and ways of behaving
  • StrengthsFinder 2.0—a tool that helps you discover your top five talents
  • 360 Leadership Feedback Survey—an online evaluation created and customized by North Group that delivers feedback from those who experience your leadership on a daily basis

While I think we’d all agree that working on our weaknesses is valuable, improving our areas of strength can be a differentiator, the thing that sets us and our organizations apart.

While I’d like to think I am secure in who I am, confident in what I can do, and convinced of where I’m supposed to be in life, I must admit I sometimes let barriers stand in the way of my leadership abilities.

Jenni Catron, in her book, Clout: Discover and Unleash Your God-Given Influence, identifies seven “Clout Killers” – obstacles that interfere with our ability to lead with confidence, passion and purpose.

Do you struggle with any of these obstacles?

  1. Fear – the fear that “I am not enough.”
  2. Comparison – the fear that “I don’t measure up.”
  3. Jealousy – the fear of losing to someone else.
  4. Scarcity – the fear that “There may not be enough.”
  5. Insecurity – the fear that “I am not good enough.”
  6. Pride – the belief that “I am more important.”
  7. Control – the need for power (when I try to manufacture the influence I don’t have).

We can overcome these barriers by working to understand who we are as individuals and by embracing the fact that who we are trumps what we do in every aspect of our lives.

Catron recommends that we, “…trade fear for truth, jealousy for encouragement and affirmation, scarcity for generosity, insecurity for love, pride for humility, comparison for focus, and, control for trust and faith.”

When we are willing to examine who we are, and understand who we were created to be, we are well on our way to unlocking our leadership potential!

November 20, 2014

It’s on Us! by Gina Breslin

In my role at North Group, I get the privilege of walking alongside many rock solid leaders and hiring managers as they search for ideal candidates to fill a need within their organization. We work together to find an individual with not only the necessary skills to do the job, but also someone who will easily fit into their organizational culture and work environment. And, when we find that perfect match – when values align and the skills and experience are there – well, it’s worth a fist pump or two.

One of the things I’ve learned along the way, though, is that it can’t stop there. I strongly believe that even after proper orientation, onboarding and training, there is something more that’s needed.

As my colleague, Daryl Leisey, puts it, “Organizations must work to make their employees successful.”

As employers, are we willing to admit that some of the responsibility of having successful employees lies on our shoulders?

Consider these practices when you want to help ensure success for new team members:

  • Communicate often the purpose and values of your organization
  • Learn what brings workplace satisfaction to the new employee
  • Let them know regularly how they’re doing
  • Ask them for their perspective on how things are going
  • Share your thinking behind requests that you make of them
  • Remember that new employees may bring helpful new perspectives. Be open to learning from them

You are only as good as your people. How will you make your new employees successful?

April 21, 2014

A Little Attitude Goes a Long Way by Gina Breslin

Field Hockey is a game where a lot of the rules are subjective and interpretation is left to the referee. For those of us who play the sport, it’s just part of the game. You learn at a young age that the referee doesn’t always get it right, and you are taught that one of the fundamentals of field hockey is to play until you hear the whistle – the call could go either way.

How you handle this aspect of the game can make a difference.

For the past number of years my indoor field hockey team has played against another team, a great group of gals who love to play the game. Their passes are on the money, their execution on corners is superb, and their shots on goal are deadly! But they continue to lose games because of their attitude. I’ve seen it happen time and again.

Here is how their games often play out. They begin strong and having fun. Then the referee will make a call, and one of their players will disagree with the call. By about the third call against their team, they begin to lose focus on playing the game and shift their focus to the ref. This focus on the negative, on the “bad” calls, is expressed in an audible sigh, a raised eyebrow, a sarcastic comment, a hand on the hip… you get the picture! Very quickly, the entire team is drained of momentum and energy.

The change in focus begins with the attitude of one player and eventually infects the whole team.

In his book, Developing the Leader Within You, John Maxwell states, “The disposition of a leader is important because it will influence the way the followers think and feel. Great leaders understand that the right attitude will set the right atmosphere, which enables the right responses from others.”

As leaders, we have the ability to set the tone in our organization simply with our attitude. We convey our attitude less by what we say and more by how we say it.

In a world where defining what sets your organization apart is a key ingredient to success, the “right attitude” from your team members can make all the difference. As leaders we are responsible for our attitudes. We may prefer to think our attitude just happens, but in reality our attitude is a choice – a decision that we must make, again and again.

So how do we go about making an attitude adjustment? Our attitude is often a combination of our thinking and our feelings.  We can begin to adjust our feelings and our attitude by first adjusting our thinking. Maxwell lists six stages of attitude change:

  1. Identify problem feelings
  2. Identify problem behavior
  3. Identify problem thinking
  4. Identify right thinking
  5. Make a public commitment to right thinking
  6. Develop a plan for right thinking

What you think is what you are… and, what your team and your organization will emulate.

October 18, 2013

Freedom to Learn by Gina Breslin

As a teenager, I took every possible opportunity to go downhill snow skiing. By the time I got to college, I was able to navigate the more difficult ski slopes without falling. It was during this time that I had a ski instructor admonish me, “You know, if you never fall you’re never going to learn anything!” His point was that if I didn’t push myself harder, I would plateau and stay at my current skill level. In taking risks I would most likely fall, and a hard landing on an icy east coast slope would speak louder than any brilliant words he could offer me on proper technique.

Author Hal Runkel states, “Learning from our mistakes is the most effective form of education possible.” If our goal as leaders is to grow and develop others, then allowing for their mistakes by creating an environment without fear of failure is an effective way to grow and develop our team.

While providing on-the-job training for staff members at my family’s business, I learned the value of affording the freedom for my staff to try things on their own. If I wanted an employee to learn a new task it was far more effective if I gave them the opportunity to try and try again without allowing my own anxiety about their potential failure to interfere. By experiencing failures and successes on their own, they learned faster and retained more.

It can be very difficult, but sometimes the best opportunity for developing and growing our team lies in letting them experience the consequences of their mistakes as well. I remember a time when my daughter was younger and we were baking cookies together. As curious children do, she wanted to taste some of the ingredients – one being baking powder. I told her more than once not to try the powdery, flour-like substance, but of course she did anyway. I’m not sure what this says about my parenting skills, but I can say that after experiencing a burning mouthful, she will never eat plain old baking powder again!

John Maxwell, in his book Developing the Leader within You, states, “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. Failure only truly becomes failure when you do not learn from it.” And…(may I take the liberty to add) when you do not allow others to learn from their mistakes as well.

As a leader, you create the environment your team experiences each and every day. Your influence and relationships will be strengthened as you keep your anxiety about failure in check and provide the freedom for your team to learn from their mistakes and experience natural consequences.

When facing a challenge, one of the questions my dad would often ask my brother and me, along with his employees, was “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” He’d answer his own question with: “You might learn something!”

 

 May 4, 2012

Yes You Can by Gina Breslin

“Yes you can!” These were favorite words of my father throughout his life. More often than not, these words were followed by an incredulous, “Why couldn’t you?”

Dad exemplified this can-do attitude continually, not only as an entrepreneur and a small business leader, but also in his personal life – in day-to-day relationships as well. He always encouraged others with his unwavering belief in them, and pushed them out of their comfort zone to do the things he knew they could do, but for which they lacked confidence.  Dad didn’t ask you to do what you knew you could; he pushed you to do what he knew you could do.

Recently, I was approached by one of Dad’s close friends, a small business owner in Lancaster County. He asked me to take a moment so he could share with me his gratitude for how my father’s “Yes you can” attitude and encouragement changed his life.

This man had a business that was doing well and meeting his needs for 25 years. However, as is common in small family businesses, he endured hardships that at times seemed insurmountable, and even at times threatened the viability of the business.

In spite of the hard times and on more than one occasion, Dad encouraged him: “You’ve got to expand your business. I know it’s risky, but you can do it. The potential rewards outweigh the possible risks. Sure, expanding means buying more property, hiring more employees, taking on inventory, and of course all the insurance expenses that go along with these things; but you can do it. I’ve seen what you’ve done with your current business, and well, why wouldn’t you succeed in expanding as well?”

The man deliberated for a long time, wrestled with my dad’s suggestions and encouragement, and finally, a few years after my father passed away in 2004, took a leap with a major business expansion. To this day, he continues to run a successful business.

As John C. Maxwell, in his book Developing the Leader within You, states:

The disposition of a leader is important because it will influence the way the followers think and feel. Great leaders understand that the right attitude will set the right atmosphere, which enables the right responses from others.

Maxwell reminds us how important it is for leaders to possess a great attitude, not only for our own success, but also for the benefit of others.

Who have you encouraged in the last day or week? Have you said “yes, you can” for yourself and others?