High Performance Leadership

This is directed to all the front line leaders out there. It's a tough job. Having been a supervisor (both in an office environment and in retail) I know how tough it is. You're right there at the front, dealing with customers, team members, and bosses. Right there in the middle. It's a lot of pressure, isn't it? Today I want to point out some of the joys of supervising. It can be such a tough job that we forget what's good about it. But, it's not all stress. Supervising also provides these joys (and potential joys): Seeing someone develop their talent beyond their first expectations Collaborating to solve process problems and making jobs easier Bringing a smile to a customer's face Achieving your goals, even when it seemed impossible Growing as a leader Learning from mistakes and gaining the ability to smile at them Making a powerful difference in your organization Setting a positive example of shared, participative leadership Holding yourself...

Does your team see you as a strong leader? Think about this for a moment -- would you want to report to a weak leader? How would it feel if your boss did not stand up for you and your team members? How would you like it if you knew your main competitor had no respect or fear (yes, I said fear) for your leader? No one wants to work for a weak supervisor. People want to know that you've got their back when they slip into trouble. People want to know that when things get tight you won't grab the fastest, easiest, people-cutting measure to wiggle out of it. People want to know that you have belief behind your strategy. Being strong does NOT mean yelling, bullying, bossing, or arrogantly ordering people around. Those are all sure signs of character weakness. Showing strength means that even when you feel fear, you face into it with the confidence of practiced skills, learning, and reliable relationships to support you. It takes time to develop that strength. It takes train...

Supervisors often bring strong technical skills to the job. When they have worked in technical jobs prior to becoming a supervisor, they were often the best at what they do. They know the ground level part of their business well enough to solve problems and deal with day to day issues. Leading is all that and more. High performance leadership requires attention to detail AND a constant view of the big picture: where is your team, your market, and your customer base headed? What does the future hold? Strong supervisors learn to add strategic and communication skills to their technical ability. What are you doing today to develop your sense of the big picture? -- Douglas Brent Smith

It's almost a curse word in the lexicon of leadership: micromanage. Haven't we all felt resentment at being overly managed? Haven't we all bristled at the manager who seems to want to control every aspect of our jobs, maybe even our very lives? And so as leaders we work hard to develop other approaches. We build skills that create participative, transforming leadership. We seek to motivate thru influence rather than power, because in the end, as John Maxwell said, "leadership is influence." But what if your job goes beyond leadership? What if the core of your job is to supervise? It's one of those things that makes front line supervision one of the toughest jobs in any organization. We are called to lead, to motivate, to inspire AND to achieve ever improving results. And, sometimes we must supervise a team member who simply does not get it. It's not because people are bad or have bad intentions. Most of the time, if someone is not meeting our expe...