Helping Our Team Members Succeed

 

by John Keyser

Leadership is about achieving shared goals through the good work of our team. It is not about wanting to be the star ourselves. It’s about the team succeeding with everyone having opportunity and feeling encouraged and helped to contribute in significant ways.

Most people say they understand what I just stated above. So, why am I writing this paper?

Well, for many reasons. A good illustration is a conversation I had while on a recent airplane flight with a very perceptive, insightful and caring leader.

We discussed a statement someone mentioned to me just the day before, that leadership in business, the government and the church falls far short of what we need in our country.

This can be for a lot of reasons, which, in my opinion, are:

• We are too busy with meetings and the internet
• Many senior managers are too insecure to engage in conversations with their people, afraid to expose that they do not know everything, to be vulnerable
• Other senior managers get caught up with their title, corner office, authority or power, and money and are self-absorbed

And some are simply not self-aware, do not realize how they are perceived and received by others, including their own team members

The point I’d like to make is that being a highly effective leader is challenging, yet it is far from daunting. If we have an attitude that we want to help others, to be a servant leader, that we are all about the team, then it’s a whole lot easier.

Everyone wants to do good work and be successful, and it is up to the leader to help her people learn, grow and succeed. We can do that if we are dedicated to it and if we give ourselves the time we need to be with our people. Yes, off the executive floor, out of our office and out with our people, having conversations with them.

Yes, conversations are the work of a leader!

And it is important to realize, as Tom Peters, the esteemed professor of management at Stanford, says “Leaders live to serve.”

Leadership does not come from authority. Lots of managers have authority and fall far short of being leaders. Leadership comes from our head and especially our heart, our wanting to influence our people so that they can do great work and succeed. It’s how we help them feel about themselves and how we enable them.

A quote I love is: “To be a truly great leader, we must stand with our people, not try to stand above them.”