Leadership Skills - Part 3

Key #5 have realistic expectations

• Have realistic expectations of yourself.  This means having real, honest and attainable expectations of what you are capable, willing and able to do in and for your business.
• Have realistic expectations of those you lead.  Put yourself in your employees’ shoes for a moment and ask these questions:
• Do I know what is expected of me today?
• Why am I here?  Am I needed by this organization?
• How do I fit into the big picture?  If I leave will I be missed or am I just a number?
• Can I move up?  What position(s) would I be good at doing/filling in the future?
• If you answered any of these questions from your employee’s perspective in a way that you, as their employer, know is not real or attainable for them in your organization currently, you may have identified an area those expectations need to be adjusted.  To determine how to adjust you must know where the expectation went awry.  Did you mis-communicate your expectation of them to them?  Did you fail to communicate at all?  Can you pinpoint where their perception is coming from?  If you choose to let it slide how will that unrealistic perception or expectation affect their attitude toward the organization in the long run (hence affecting their ability to buy-in and eventually their effectiveness as a worker)? 
• Know which battles to fight.  Sometimes expectations need to be adjusted, sometimes they do not.  As the adage says, “a dog can whip a skunk, but sometimes its’ not worth it.”

Key #6 learn from those you lead

• Be willing to hear the heart of your team.  Not prematurely wavering in your course of training them, but those who have been tested and tried – listen to them.  Listen to the depths of what they are saying.  Their insight could mean the life or death of your enterprise.
• Like Moses’ father-in-law Jethro when he saw Moses exhausted from judging the people in Exodus Chapter 18:

17Moses' father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you are doing is not good.  18"You will surely wear out, both yourself and these people who are with you, for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.  19"Now listen to me: I will give you counsel, and God be with you.  You be the people's representative before God, and you bring the disputes to God, 20then teach them the statutes and the laws and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do.  21"Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.  22"Let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that every major dispute they will bring to you, but every minor dispute they themselves will judge so it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.  23"If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.”  24So Moses listened to his father-in-law and did all that he had said.  (NASB)

Example:  My husband Danny contributed to a company-wide contest to come up with a slogan for St. Joe Paper Company.  His slogan “Our Quality is on a Roll” earned him the $250 prize and gained the company a great slogan at a very low cost.  They saved thousands by not hiring an advertising firm to create the promotional ad for them.  This company effectively learned from one they led.