Written by: Majbrit Bøttger, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
It’s easy to be a leader when everything is going great. It is in times of challenge, turmoil, frustration, and a crisis that our skills as a leader are put to the test. As leaders, we must set aside time for leadership. Too many leaders have too many tasks and leadership itself is expected to be incorporated in those tasks. It will not happen that way. We must schedule leadership in our calendar and have focus blocks to make sure we are on track and are actually leading people and not just observing and correcting.
Observing, measuring, and correcting makes us spreadsheet leaders and nobody wants to work for a spreadsheet leader whose only concern is results. That is frustrating, boring, and, detaching.
Instead, we have to focus on habits more than outcomes.
If you don’t like the results evaluate what habits created those results and start there. Speak with them in their language and ask “How do we submit the best of who we are?” “What does our collective behavior look like and how can we improve the habits together?”
That’s inspiring, that’s leadership, that works!
Vision
Great leaders envision a different future. It’s essential to envision the dream, the passion, the goal. We need to raise the ambition for a better future in a way that inspires and motivates people to lean into it, to share it, to be a part of it and, to support it.
It’s not enough to do it once and then forget about it, we need to do it all the time. The circumstances, the market and, the reality changes all the time and our vision and goal will have to be living in harmony with those changes in order to stay as something we can work towards.
Where there’s no vision people perish.
Inclusion
People support what they create!
This is important to remember if we want continuous engagement. Know what people want, need, desire, think and, feel and have them help shape the vision, the dream and have them vision where they can be going. It has to be a genuine wish to invite people to be a part of the process to enjoy seeing them succeed and be part of the journey. Success is a team sport, so you need to have an authentic desire to see people be involved in the process and stay dedicated.
Integrity
The best leaders are extremely clear on what values their inner integrity is build on and they let their surroundings know as well. If there is conflict between the inner integrity and the actual actions it will create confusion and frustration both with the leader and the surroundings. The art is to stay congruent in times of challenge and turmoil. It is in those times it might seem easier to compromise but it will be punished with disengagement. As a leader people are looking to you for guidance and they need to know they can trust that you don’t flinch. If you manage to always be there even when things go sideways and even when people are mad you will become a legend.
Empowerment
Create the best possible setting for people to do the work you expect them to do. That means giving people the decision-making authority and the trust and to provide them with the proper knowledge, skills, tools, technology, training and, coaching… not once but continuously. The plans and strategies are always changing and developing and so does the need for personal, professional and strategical training.
One of the most common mistakes is to believe that it is enough to do this once while launching the project, change or strategy and they will figure it out from there. You need to be consistently aware of the requirements of your teams if you expect them to deliver with excellence.
Training is vital, coaching is vital if you want to keep up with the reality of the market and the world.
Evaluate
Evaluation is everything!
And just like training it has to happen ALL the time. I’m talking about every day.
As a great leader, you have to evaluate your own performance, progress, excellence, ethics, and culture/work environment. Did you set time aside in the calendar for actual leadership today? Is there progress and if not why is that? Are we being excellent and if not, why? Are we being ethical and if not, why? Is the environment good and if not, why?
These are things that need to be considered all the time and then follow up with immediate, honest and constructive feedback.
Encourage
Be the cheerleader.
Great leaders have a genuine desire to lift people up, to inspire and to motivate them into believing that we can create a better future a bigger dream together. Not every once in a while, but ALL THE TIME. The longer the project runs the more we will experience challenge, doubt, and frustration and we need to be there to keep the spirit and the motivation up despite that. Bring your passion and excitement to the game every day.
This is not a step-by-step plan; these are habits we need to focus on consistently and intentionally for as long as it takes to make it a natural part of our DNA.
BE AN INSPIRATION… You got this!
Majbrit Bøttger, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Majbrit Bøttger is one out of only 200 elite Certified High-Performance Coaches (CHPC) in the world. A series of incidents left her burned out and stressed and she was forced to reinvent her life. That is why she chose to get certified. It took her life to a whole new level and she has for more than a decade been dedicated to helping others reach the same level of joy and meaningfulness in their lives by improving life areas such as clarity, energy, courage, productivity, and influence. She is the founder and CEO of High-Performance Living and has helped people all across the world live their dream life.
