5 Steps to Evaluate the Leaders in Your Organization
In recessionary times, you find yourself analyzing your employees to the Nth degree. All of a sudden, that customer service manager you never had problems with seems to be folding under pressure, that sales director doesn’t understand that she can’t just wait for people to walk through the door and doesn’t it all come back to the manager?
Isn’t it true that we find ourselves far more frustrated that we have been tolerating a mediocre employee, or worse, carrying the dead weight of an employee when we are faced with the challenges brought on by an economic downturn?
Today, more than ever, it is imperative that you have the right leaders in place within your organization, not only to survive but to thrive in all of the doom and gloom in the marketplace. The right leaders know what it takes to keep employees motivated when they feel like throwing their hands up in surrender to the challenge of earning customer loyalty and gaining new business. The right leaders know how to develop a strategic plan, cast a compelling vision and then coach, train and support their employees as they set out to execute a business plan.
Here are 5 steps to evaluate the quality of leadership in your organization.
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1. Do your leaders develop key relationships?
Great leaders know how to make everyone understand the critical role they play in the success of an organization. They understand the landscape of the team and how to drive a group of individuals to a single objective. Leaders who develop key relationships take personal interest in their employees and provide a sense of confidence and direction for their work. When employees are confident that their leader is comfortable with uncertainty, they are not drawn to operate with insecurity, panic or fear. And, we all know that no one makes sound decisions when they operate in the face of panic.
2. Do your leaders effectively communicate team direction?
Leaders should understand the dynamics of a team and be able to get individuals to work collaboratively toward a single vision that positions your organization beyond its competitors’ reach. People will best support what they have helped build and leaders who effectively communicate team direction have a way of involving everyone in decision making, which leads to a greater sense of ownership for everyone. It’s easy to focus on the issues in front of us at the moment vs. taking the time to think about overall team direction, but now more than ever, it is so important to communicate how each employee’s contribution fits in with the big picture.
3. Do your leaders inspire their team members?
Legendary leaders have the ability to quickly establish credibility and infuse team members with a sense of passion and commitment about the company, their customers and their fellow team members. Often times, inspiring people involves connecting them with purpose, showing them how their actions directly impact the success or detriment of the company. When your employees understand the goals for the company they rely less on leaders for direction. Understanding company goals in turn leads to ownership, which ultimately results in employees taking pride in their everyday work. Isn’t it true that you get the best performance from those team members who take pride in their work and have passion for what they do?
4. Do your leaders develop their people?
Strong leaders know how to align the right people with the right roles. They are able to assess strengths and weaknesses, provide coaching and training, be it hands-on or through other individuals and mentors within the organization, and get the best out of their people. They strive to hire individuals with the necessary competencies and to educate their team toward improving their skills. One tangible way to determine whether or not leaders are developing their employees is to look at how many people have been promoted or developed into other positions within the organization under their leadership.
5. Do your leaders reinforce performance?
Most people perform their jobs with the mind frame of “No news is good news.” or “If I haven’t heard anything negative, I must be doing okay.”
People need to know where they stand and great leaders not only provide consistent, timely feedback, they also know how to deliver negative feedback in a fashion that motivates employees to want to perform better. They understand how well-defined performance boundaries can ensure employee and organization success and lay out a road map for action that employees can readily understand and implement.
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No one sets out to be a bad leader. But, the truth is, rarely do people set out to be great leaders. A lot of people get by on skill and knowledge but being a great leader is about who you are as a person. Great leaders want to invest in others and investing in others takes time and energy.
Shockingly, 95% of typical workforce doesn’t understand its organization’s strategy. In turn, 90% of organizations fail to execute their strategies successfully. With the right leaders in place, your company doesn’t have to be a statistic.
