Practical Advice for Leaders
Exceptional leaders recognize people are emotional beings. They know creating personal, emotional connections with associates, peers, and senior leaders is essential to success. They also understand that is not enough. They must also emotionally connect associates to the corporate mission through their daily work. When associates feel connected, they believe in you, your message, and your direction. And when people believe, they can move mountains. They feel empowered to act and do so with great energy, delivering remarkable results.
I will use the following framework as a point of reference for blog posts, newsletters, and community discussions, initially alternating between personal connections, corporate connections, and career advancement topics. I will adjust as you provide feedback on which topics are of greatest interest to you. Each element of the framework provides an area of focus where actionable steps for improving leadership and expanding career opportunities can be discussed. Ultimately, connecting with others on a personal level and creating strong corporate connections separates exceptional leaders from the merely good. It is their words and actions that shape us and whose legacies remain with us.
Associate / Leader Connections
Associate / Leader Connections Framework. © 2024 The Richardson Leadership Group LLC
At the end of each post, I pose a question or two to the community, asking you to share your thoughts and experiences. No one person has all the answers. Spending just a bit of time to share your insights may provide the support someone else needs to take the next step. Or perhaps they provide the help you need. Together, we can all be better.
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Don’t fail fast. Fail small. And cheaply.
Do you strive for continuous improvement or innovation? Mixed messaging can confuse your team.
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The power of forgiveness is strong. The power of asking forgiveness is even stronger
Demonstrate the behavior you expect of others and be seen as a sincere, accountable leader.
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You can’t avoid all consternation with well set expectations, but it’s worth a try
Disappointment can be a destructive force in a work environment.
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Which tone do you tend to use most often in your communications?
Establish the right tone to develop relationships with your associates.
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Hybrid work environments can succeed
Teams can deliver sustainable results in hybrid work environments with outcome-centric thinking.
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Think right to left as often as you think left to right
Successfully deliver your strategy by working backwards from the goal to today’s work.
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Be the last to speak when possible
Be a leader of thought leaders. Engage people in ways that allow you to tap into new ideas you otherwise wouldn’t.
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Does your team know what they are optimizing for?
Clear communications include unambiguously stating what the team should optimize for.
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How you enter an organization can determine your success
After accepting a new position, it’s easy to assume you were hired to “fix a mess.” But perhaps the team just needs a leader and not a savior.
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Terminating an employee can be difficult but necessary to improve your team
People problems don’t get better with time. Know when it’s time to change the team.
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The math of winning an executive position
How many people do you have to beat to win the executive position you’ve been eyeing?
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Additional career planning considerations
Should you apply for more than one position at a time? How long should you be in a position? Can you really “do anything” for a few years as long as it’s good for your career?
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Career planning is the crux of personal development and team development
The corporate world is filled with people who would rather be doing something different.
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Engage your audience through stories
Help your audience remember your message. Tell a story. People can remember stories, not facts, figures, and charts.
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Make your presentations more interesting by being interesting
Draw people to your message by grabbing their attention and engaging their minds.
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Are you a nervous presenter?
Consider a few techniques for reducing stress and nervousness so your audience can better receive your message.
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Be a better presenter. Don’t present.
Generally speaking, presentations are boring. But yours can be different.
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Does your team do the least amount of work possible to achieve their goals?
Right-size structure to the work and the structure will feel supportive rather than burdensome.
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When deciding how to structure your team, do you begin with the talent you have or the work to be performed?
Over time, a structure-centric approach provides benefits a person-centric approach cannot match.
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Habits are hard to break. Leverage that.
Human beings are creatures of habit. That’s good news for leaders.
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Recognize psychological safety is real
Your team members have no built-in reason to challenge you. How do you make it okay for them to do so?
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Hire for culture fit
In addition to hiring for attitude, great leaders succeed in identifying candidates who are strong cultural fits, especially at the executive level.
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When building your team, hire for attitude as much as aptitude
The best way to address a bad attitude is to not bring it onto your team in the first place.
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Don’t underestimate the importance of leader alignment
Remove barriers for your team by listening to and influencing other leaders to achieve alignment.
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Leader behavior trumps structure every time
It takes courage to confront other leaders when they exhibit poor behavior.
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Are you an idea creator or elaborator?
Thought leadership comes in two forms: idea creators and idea elaborators. Those who are not natural creators can extend themselves through teaming and asking the right questions.
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Do you challenge your team with empowering questions?
Remove barriers by asking your team, “what would have to be true?”
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Describe a better future using a From This – To That construct
It can be difficult to clearly articulate a future your team can rally around. Simple statements expressed through a straightforward framework can help.
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Break through the clutter with clear communications
Leaders live in a world of ambiguity. A primary leader responsibility is to translate ambiguity into clear direction for teams to act.
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Cut confusion with consistent communication
Leverage your vision and strategy as a baseline for consistent communication, reducing confusion and frustration.
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Words Matter
Through every communication, leaders have an opportunity to build trust and loyalty, motivating and energizing team members to achieve remarkable results.
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Strategic statements aren’t a strategy
Strategy does more than convey intent, aspiration, or desire, it provides direction for how goals are to be achieved, and challenges overcome.
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Mission, Vision, & Strategy
There are differences between mission, vision, and strategy. Leaders who clearly articulate all three can drive better execution to achieve superior results.
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Are you leading or managing?
Successful leaders understand the difference between managing and leading. They know how they work with their teams can be tremendously empowering or devastatingly demoralizing.
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Are you ready to be a leader? Are you sure you want to be one?
Being a leader isn’t for everyone. For many, it offers an amazing career. For some, torment. How do you know if you are ready to be a leader? Or even that you want to be?
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Emotionally connect associates to your company to achieve remarkable results
In addition to developing personal connections, exceptional leaders create corporate connections, closing the gap between associates’ daily work and the company mission.
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Strengthen personal connections by being a team member first and leader second
Exceptional leaders do two things extremely well: they connect personally with associates and emotionally connect associates to their company. In this post, I focus on personal connections, and an important approach for nurturing them.
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Your leadership legacy is largely determined by how you make people feel
Exceptional leadership is more than the absence of bad behavior. It requires emotional connections with associates and between associates and the company.
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Practical advice for leaders
Being a leader is difficult. All of us can use some help to become the best we can be. In my first post, I explain why I am establishing this community and the benefits of participating.
