Tending to the Team: Shepherd Leadership

 

by John Keyser

While at church yesterday, I really listened to the message of the 23 rd Psalm, that the Lord as our shepherd is responsible for each of His sheep, every single one. A shepherd uses his experience, his know how, his guile and his devotion to successfully guide his herd.

This is exactly how we must think of ourselves as leaders – each of us, no matter what our position. We are responsible for guiding each of our team members, and our responsibility includes tending to their well-being: their learning, growth and their success.

Let’s remember, everyone wants to do well, to do good work, to get ahead, to be successful. Yes, it’s a challenge for us as leaders, to help everyone. We have to hit our financial goals – that is a priority, of course. And we are pressed with constant emails and meetings. So, how do we make time and space for our team members – the people doing the work of our companies? How do recognize and motivate each person as we guide the group toward our common goals?

Here are my invitations for the coming weeks:

1. Recognize that as a leader, it is no longer about me. I may have risen to my position because of my sales or marketing or technical skills, but now I must use – and develop – a different set of skills to help others succeed. These are my relationship skills. I need to motivate and help my team members learn and grow – and not micro-manage them.
2. As leaders we are burdened with too many emails and meetings. I recommend addressing this problem as a group, and seeking solutions together. Remember, a problem discussed is a problem half-solved and the best ideas are bottom-up ideas, so put forth purposeful open-ended questions such as:

• How can we reduce the number of meetings?
• How can we reduce the number of emails?
• How could we be more productive, saving ourselves time? What could we streamline?
• How could we improve communications?
• How could we make our work more enjoyable?

Yes, enjoyable. Study after study validates that happy team members do better work.

I hope we will each think of ourselves as shepherds. Our team members and our companies will benefit, greatly!