Being a mother and being a leader are pretty much the same thing. As Mother’s Day approaches, it occurs to me that all the essential skills – including every last ounce of internal fortitude -...
As I’m kicking back watching the Commonwealth Games, I quickly identify with my favourite athletes and instinctively turn away from those with the big egos or unsportsmanlike approaches to competition. My favourites may not...
When we think about our heroes it’s easy and natural to refer to our service men and women, humanitarian campaigners or even the classic comic book legends. The interesting thing about these reference points...
When I look back on my goals for last year, I realise something that would once have sent me into a spectacular tail-spin. I didn't achieve a single goal I set last January. Not one....
Before you read this, it’s my duty to issue you with a stern warning. If you read this article, you might decide to quit your job. So… consider yourself warned, ok? Now read on, if you...
WHAT IS A CARING CONVERSATION?
What you didn’t bargain for are the internal, mental struggles you’re now experiencing about how to lead a team that you were having Friday beers with last week. It can be a challenging time transitioning from being ‘one of the team’ to ‘leader’ of the team. They say it’s lonely at the top, and they weren’t kidding. Suddenly you’ve got to set standards, translate strategy and plans into work deployment for your team, build and maintain a constructive culture and address people’s behavioural slip-ups that you formerly might have laughed off. And by the way, your team now expect you to have all the answers, make fair and quick decisions and make sure you have their back when things go wrong.
Feeling your heart rate go through the roof? We get it.
Now, I must admit that there have been various points in the process where it’s been tempting to rescue Big Red from the struggle and discomfort of learning.
As with leadership and teams, and even when raising kids, when the going gets tough it can be tempting to want to stop the discomfort and just create a quick fix – which we know won’t produce sustainable results in the long term. It’s at this moment we must ask ourselves: “Am I a leader or a rescuer, today?”
I worry that the daily pressure leaders experience to deliver unprecedented results for their organisations can lead to the temptation to make decisions which, in big increments or small, continually prioritise profits over people.
I worry that this manifests in unsustainable workloads, cutting back on investments in people, less face-time with our teams in favour of other demands, and investing in system and structural solutions rather than the creativity of our people. The overall effect is employee perceptions that leaders don’t care about them as people, and that they aren’t valued for the unique gifts they bring.
In its latest survey of 32,000 employees in 26 countries including Australia, international professional services company Towers Watson found that only 44 per cent of Australian employees surveyed said their leaders were effective.
Let’s assume that we ourselves are not immune from those statistics – that means more than half of our team is likely to believe that our leadership could improve. Look around at your team - more than half. Sobering, right?