Just as a sales funnel can dry up when client relationships aren’t maintained, so too can our leadership abilities. When leaders fail to cultivate important core traits, our own bad habits trickle down to those we lead. Employees are always watching what their leaders do and imitate them with uncanny, sometimes annoying, perfection.
To ensure this trickle-down effect reflects positive traits, it is important for leaders to understand who is passing down those traits to them.
Who’s leading you?
Emmanuel James “Jim” Rohn, entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker, once said: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
If you want to grow your leadership skills, spend time with leaders you want to emulate. Otherwise, you may not develop the exact skills that will make you a better leader.
The fact is … everyone is influenced by each other. Choosing who influences your life, and subsequently, how you influence those you lead, is the first step to long-term success at the top.
In my own experience, I have tried to be a student of leaders I admire in the context of the obstacles I’ve encountered while building a startup. I started my company in 2011 with an idea scribbled on a napkin. Turning this idea into reality has required commitment, confidence, capital, and a great team.
Here’s what I’ve learned from other leaders:
1. Ethics trump all: Do the right things for the right reasons. Many people get this half right. They do the right things, but for the wrong reasons, or they have good intentions, but execute poorly. If you want people to trust you and therefore follow you without fear, you need to do both. If I’d had the good intentions of staying the course through hard times, but didn’t have the skill to stick to my commitment, my idea would have stayed on a napkin.
2. Lead by example: Asking your team to do something you aren’t willing to do yourself is a recipe for resentment. Want your employees to be more aware of the dirty dishes in the company kitchen? Instead of establishing yet another policy where you have to monitor whether people clean up after themselves, set an example by washing some dishes yourself. It can have a powerful and humbling effect on those who report to you, and promotes awareness of surroundings and a problem-solving culture instead of a grousing, finger-pointing one. It requires confidence that who you are as a leader is not just based on what you do, but how you do it.
Leading by example is particularly compelling because it makes you relatable. If and when you do ask people to keep the kitchen clean, it won’t be perceived as an accusation, but as a friendly reminder of their responsibilities.
3. Share the vision: Forming a startup creates excitement because people can see themselves as trailblazers, doing what no one before them has done. The energy can be contagious and helpful in building morale, which in turn increases productivity.
But without a clear vision to go along with this excitement, people will start to feel lost, like coming down from a sugar high without eating something substantial to mitigate its effects. They’ll start to think, “What’s the point of all this, again?”
It’s easy for leaders to forget that not all employees attend high-level strategy meetings or are privy to the same developments or updates that could keep them engaged.
Scheduling regular meetings to share your vision and update team members on company happenings will help them focus on what you are ultimately trying to achieve, and keep excitement and productivity levels high.
4. Reflect: As CEO of a technology startup, I’ve learned that the coder’s code, “Build, Measure, Learn” is also helpful as a leadership skill. This is reflection at its core. What have you learned about your team’s strengths? How could you better utilize them? What communication techniques have you tried and failed at in the past? How could you change these techniques to get a more positive result?
Without looking back on what you’ve done to inform future development, you’d just repeat the same mistakes. Commit to carving out time to reflect. If done daily, trying to improve in some small way every day will become a habit.
5. Be positive: The glass may be less than half full. It may even be leaking. But be cautious about speaking negatively. Both positivity and negativity are contagious and just as positivity yields productivity, negativity will kill it.
This isn’t to say, ignore damaging situations and only talk about rainbows. The fact remains that the glass has a leak and needs to be fixed. But instead of dwelling on the despair or frustration the negative situation creates, focus on coming up with a solution. This goes back to Leading by Example—cultivating a problem-solving culture instead of a complaining one. Staying positive throughout the situation ensures it will be fixed.
Your viewpoint, or attitude, will affect your productivity. It is important to adjust it accordingly.
6. Ability to pivot: Plans don’t always go as expected. Sometimes you need to solve problems quickly and change direction on an as-needed basis. This can be difficult, because you also need to know when to stay the course when it’s not popular. You need to have the ability to pivot, and the discernment to know when not to. It’s easy to chase shiny objects, so the challenge is in deciphering which opportunities to pursue.
7. Focus on strengths: When you are aware of your personal strengths, that knowledge should inform how you hire in order to compliment said strengths. Once you have brought in the right people, this skill extends to being aware of who your team is and knowing what they do best. Doing so will help you scale correctly, continually bringing in the right people for the right roles as your company grows.
8. Trust your instincts: Doing something new often means blazing your own trail. As a leader you have information from lots of sources that not everyone else has. Sometimes you have to make decisions that only you can, and that requires confidence in your instincts.
9. Communication: Communication is a challenge in every business. Everyone has a different way of hearing and understanding what is said. What you might mean as a compliment, some might interpret as a slight. But if you know the strengths of the team member, you can determine how best to communicate with them.
10. Responsibility: Leaders who take on blame and give out praise will go a lot further than those who take ownership of success and blame others when things go wrong. It can be difficult, but when your team realizes they will be given praise when praise is due, and won’t be blamed for honest mistakes, their loyalty and admiration will grow exponentially.
These are the leadership skills I have learned, from both my mentors and from building a company from the ground up. By no means am I a perfect leader. I am still developing these skills on a daily basis. But I have learned what will help me maintain my success and continue to improve. I hope my experience can help you on your own leadership journey.
Wes Miller is CEO and co-founder of ATS Secured, a new technology category for the real estate closing industry. Miller has extensive experience in developing and marketing both core and ancillary financial products. Wes has been recognized for his success in sales, customer service and training support staff. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].
This article originally appeared in the April 2016 print edition of National Mortgage Professional Magazine.
