A SIMPLE APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP

Tiffanie Lord, Senior Learning and Development Consultant

With Valentine’s Day approaching, it is a great reminder to recognize the people we care about and celebrate the relationships we have built. While many of us find it much easier to celebrate our personal relationships, how many of us consider our team members and the people we lead? February 14th shouldn’t be the only day we focus on bettering our fellow team members. Every day, every hour, and every minute – there is an opportunity to build-up those around us. What is at the foundation of it all? According to Sam Parker, author of LEAD Simply, it is “wonderfully simple”:

Be who it is you want everyone else to be.
Do what it is you want everyone else to do.

In his book, Parker outlines a simple model to help with reinforcing your working relationships:

MODEL: What is it you want to see from your team? More engagement and less cynicism? Better results and less busyness? More time, effort, and care, and less complacency? If that is what you are after, then you must model it – regardless of the circumstances. You are the leader, so it’s your tone to set. Whether you are in a supervisory role or not, you can still lead the team members around you by example.

CONNECT: Talk, listen, show, and share. Connecting is how you’ll hear things sooner, rather than later. You will learn more, inspire more, and encourage people to make better things happen. Give people the time you would like to be given. Let them know you’ve got their back and appreciate them. Have more frequent and meaningful conversations about what you and your team do, and the value they bring to GCNA’s Mission as a whole. Show people the big picture and help them connect to it personally.

INVOLVE: Invite people to see things from your view so they are better informed. They will become more efficient at solving problems with you, as well as independently. As a leader, we want stronger team members and future leaders! Involve them more now so they are able to tackle any challenge. Whenever you can, try letting someone else lead the effort to make something good happen. Think about it: when we’re involved in something, we take more ownership of it, and care more about seeing it succeed.

There are plenty of simple opportunities that can make a huge difference; we just need a little more patience, encouragement, connection, and involvement. Leadership is not really complex, it’s simply:

· Caring about the people you work with
· Involving them the way we’d like to be involved
· Treating people the way you want to be treated

Remember to model the behaviors you want to see in others, connect with the people you lead, and involve your team wherever you can.