Moving into the Spotlight

Dr. Relly Nadler, CEO of True North Leadership, Inc., believes that great leaders have a spotlight and need to use it in a disciplined and focused manner to achieve outstanding results.

How much influence do you have over your team’s climate? Plenty. The Hay Group has found that a leader has 50-70 percent influence over the climate of the team. The leader is the ‘emotional thermostat’ for the team, setting the focus and team mood.
 
A leaders’ influence results in bottom line differences. In some studies team climate has explained up to 28 percent of the variance in bottom line results. We have found though, that just about every leader has under estimated their influence over others. What that means is they have underperformed, their teams have underperformed and their organization has underperformed. Drastic results because of leadership oversights and missed opportunities.

Directing the spotlight
All succession and leader development programs include executive coaching to help leaders create a high performing climate and maximize a leaders’ influence. In a recently released study of coaching with 2165 clients from 64 countries, coaching yielded on average a seven to one return on investment. So if you spend $100,000 on executive coaching for four of your top leaders you can expect a $700,000 return with increases in productivity, higher morale, promotion from within and talent retention.

We coach executives about ‘work leadership balance’ and identifying the key leadership actions that need to be done daily. These leadership tasks can be done quickly but often get relegated down the list in favor of the pressing issues, but not so with great leaders. They maximize their time and influence by shining their light and using focused micro-initiatives to create macro impacts. When done regularly these small actions keep a team motivated, productive and wanting to please their leader.

Spotlight errors
Why is it that a leader has under-utilized their influence capacity? We have seen five errors common for leaders at all levels.

1. First error, every leader is under a spotlight 24-7. What they say and do gets read into and interpreted whether they know it or not. So not only are they under the spotlight, they have a spotlight that can shine bright on employee’s efforts and accomplishments. Error one is many leaders don’t realize they have a spotlight that can enhance individual and team performance so their potential influence is diminished.
2. Second error, leaders don’t realize that their spotlight is always on. What they chose to focus it on magnifies in importance. One manager we worked with was very collegial with her employees and after work occasionally would go out for drinks with her team. After a few drinks she started bashing her executives as she felt she was with her friends. She was still their boss to them after hours and offsite. She eventually got relocated once the executive heard about her ‘leadership actions’.
3. Third error, leaders use their spotlight but in an undisciplined manner, focusing on too many things. Everything is urgent and important, thus employees and the team are not sure what is most important to prioritize. A leader needs to be clear to their team what is important now and why. ‘Connecting the dots’ for employees provides clarity, purpose, focus and accomplishment.
4. Fourth error, leaders use their spotlight but on everything that goes wrong. Often leaders are targeting problems and use their spotlight to zoom in and highlight problems. This laser focus on problems and not also on solutions leaves employees sweating under the lights of their perceived interrogator. Anxiety, fear, intimidation and tentativeness then can take the place of confidence, risk taking and initiative for better performance.
5. Fifth error, leaders focus on strengths but not enough. Leaders don’t give the clarity and specificity for employees to know exactly what to do next time. Great leaders use a metaphorical highlighter to state exactly what they liked, why and the benefit or impact to the company, customers or clients, the team, the employee and the leader, so it can be repeated.

Call or email for more information: 1-805 683-1066
www.truenorthleadership.com