LEADERSHIP ESSENTIALS:
Transitioning from Managing to Leading
Hello Sheeba,
If you are in any type of supervisory position, you know that there is a weight of responsibility that comes with overseeing others. That sense of duty can lead you to want to play things safe, keep things simple and - essentially - start dialing it in!
It's extremely easy to end up simply managing every day, rather than truly leading and inspiring your team.
However, great leaders know that going the extra mile initially to coach, empower and cultivate strong relationships with your team will actually reap the dividends of sustainability and efficiency in the long run. When you encourage your people to take risks, see mistakes as opportunities for growth and create the time to listen deeply , they will happily take over some of the responsibility to design efficient infrastructures and best practices to ensure optimal growth.
In other words, they'll stop dialing it in, too!
Here are a few tips to up-level your role from manager to true leadership:
1. Talk less, listen more. Pay attention when team members have ideas or even questions. There is an obvious benefit of letting your people feel heard, but if you really listen critically, you may also notice patterns where information is consistently being lost or issues are not being resolved. This can help you see more than the drama that is right in front of you.
2. Utilize a coach approach. Embracing a coach approach requires you to shift in your mindset about the people that you manage. When you begin to see others around you as resourceful and capable people, you begin to encourage a different type of interaction; you begin asking questions instead of telling others what to do. Your value does not come from fixing the problem, but by empowering others to come to their own solutions.
3. Give your team freedom to use their talents. It's common knowledge that every individual is unique with a special set of skills. A strong leader will cultivate the strengths of their team by allowing personal styles and approaches room to grow. Additionally, it will help you to see what can be delegated to allow for more experience in their career advancement.
The takeaway? Management is about business, leadership is about people. Put your people first and watch them thrive!
COACHING QUESTIONS
- What are some effective ways that you could up-level your leadership style?
- How will you cultivate the individual strengths of your team?
- How can you put your people first every day?
FOR COACHES
If you are a professional coach, renewing or applying for your ACC or PCC, come and join me for this group mentoring program beginning in November.
LEADERSHIP SPOTLIGHT
Hutto Fire Department
Bryan Palmer was mowing his lawn when his defibrillator went off. He was having a heart attack. His daughter dialed 911 and dispatch sent the nearest EMTs - members of the Hutto Fire Department's Fire Rescue Team.
After stabilizing Mr. Palmer and sending him to the hospital in an ambulance, Lt. Justin Torres, Jacob Pope, Chris Mank, and Brian Ruden all grabbed the lawnmower and finished what Mr. Palmer had started, mowing, sweeping, and cleaning up the yard.
“You don’t often see neighbors helping neighbors like you used to,” Mr. Palmer's daughter, Kayla, says. “It was the sweetest thing possible.”
Mr. Palmer was so inspired by this act of kindness, that he has vowed to pay it forward. The Hutto Fire Department have certainly proved themselves as leaders in their community!
LEADERSHIP RESOURCE
BOOK: 5 LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP
With over 30 years as an author and speaker, John C. Maxwell has written many books on the topic of leadership development.
He believes that to become more than "the boss" people follow only because they are required to, you have to master the ability to invest in people and inspire them.
From the book, the five levels of leadership are:
1. Position - people follow because they have to.
2. Permission - people follow because they want to.
3. Production - people follow because of what you have done for the organization.
4. People Development - people follow because of what you have done for them personally.
5. Pinnacle - People follow because of who you are and what you represent.
Order your copy here.
LEADERSHIP GROUP
Sheeba Varghese founded Reimagine Leadership to help leaders develop and grow in their response-agility toward people and situations they find themselves in every day so they can transition from merely surviving day-to-day to
becoming leaders who thrive!
Sheeba Varghese is a Professional Certified Coach, speaker, and mentor to many. Her passion is to inspire and equip men and women to lead with excellence and authenticity within the spheres of influences that they are called to impact in life. The spheres may be in a home, on a team, in a classroom, among partners in a firm, or within management, to name a few.
In her time apart from clients, Sheeba enjoys time with her husband, Santosh, and their 2 sons, Sam and Steven. She loves great movies, a good book, decorating and eating at the wonderful restaurants of San Francisco.
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