How Successful People Lead Part 7

Who wants to leave a championship team? No one! Who wants to leave the cellar dweller? Everyone! People simply love being on a winning team. Winners attract people-some good, some bad, some average. The key to building a winning team is recognizing, selecting, and retaining the best people from the ones you attract. The good news is that if you reach Level 3, you know what productivity looks like because you live it. The bad news is that having talented people on the team doesn't automatically guarantee success. You can still lose with good players, but you cannot win without them. The difference comes from building them into a team, which I'll discuss later in the chapter. But remember this: if you aren't a proven producer, you won't attract and keep other proven producers. That's why you need to succeed on Level 3.

The Downside of Production

The Weight of Leadership Just Got Heavier

Like everything else in life, the Production level of leadership has its downsides as well as its upsides. With Level 3 leadership, achievement within the organization becomes easier. However, the leadership itself doesn't become easy. Here are the four main downsides I've discovered on Level 3.

1. Being Productive Can Make You Think

You're a Leader When You're Not

All great leaders are productive. However, it is possible to be a producer and not a leader. Personal success does not always translate into team success. Leadership is defined by what a person does with and for others. It is established by making the team better and more productive. It's measured by what the entire group accomplishes, not by the individual efforts of the person in charge. Good leadership is never based on what someone does by and for himself.

I know many individual producers who have no desire or ability to lead others. Some don't have the people skills. Others don't have the desire to be responsible for others or take the time to help them become productive. Organizations all over the world make the mistake of putting high producers into leadership positions only to watch them fail to lead well. This mistake is often made because a prerequisite for being an effective leader is the ability to be effective yourself, but it is not the only qualification. Good leaders must establish themselves in their position on Level 1, gain people's permission on Level 2, be productive on Level 3, and possess the desire to take the entire team to a higher level.

2. Productive Leaders Feel a Heavy Weight of

Responsibility for Results

If a football team doesn't win, the coach gets fired. If a corporation doesn't make profits, the CEO gets the ax. If a politician doesn't do a good job for his const.i.tuents, he doesn't get reelected. In any organization, the responsibility for results rests with the leaders. Productivity is measurable. Organizational growth is tangible. Profitability is quantifiable. Leaders who fail to produce are held accountable. Leaders who add to them are rewarded-and then asked to achieve even more the next time. High performance requires high commitment.

Many leaders who reach Level 3 tire of leading because of the weight of responsibility they feel. Most leaders experience days when they wish no one was watching their performance, looking to them for direction, or wanting them to make something happen. However, effective leaders understand that the cost of leadership is carrying the responsibility of their team's success on their shoulders. That is a weight every leader feels, starting on Level 3. You will have to decide whether you are willing to carry it.

3. Production Leadership Requires Making

Difficult Decisions

Whenever you see a thriving organization, you can be sure that its leaders made some very tough decisions-and are continuing to make them. Success is an uphill journey. People don't coast their way to effective leadership. If you want to lead at a higher level, be ready to make difficult decisions. On Level 2, leaders often have to start making difficult people decisions. On Level 3, leaders continue to make those but also add difficult production decisions.

It has been my observation that when leaders are confronted with these difficult decisions on Level 3, many fail to make them. What they may not understand until it's too late is that failing to do so will eventually disqualify them from leading. Their leadership potential becomes stunted, and they cannot remain on Level 3.

I encourage you to persevere-even in moments when you feel the way Moses must have felt when the Red Sea parted and the people waited for him to take them forward, saying to himself, Why must I always go first? Going first may not always be easy or fun, but it is always a requirement of leaders. It paves the way for the people who follow and increases their chances of success in completing the journey.

4. Production Leadership Demands Continual

Attention to Level 2

Becoming accountable for the productivity of the team does not mean that leaders can stop caring for the people they lead. Remember, just because you add a new level of leadership doesn't mean you leave the previous one behind. There is a real temptation for leaders on the Production level to neglect relationships in pursuit of achieving a good bottom-line result. However, if leaders do that for an extended period of time, they burn their relationships with their people, and they will eventually find themselves back on Level 1. Don't fall into that trap. Keep developing the relationships and caring for them as you produce results. Stay relationally connected to your people. Get out among them and spend time with them. Put connection time on your schedule, if needed. Do whatever it takes to keep from losing what you've gained on Level 2.

Best Behaviors on Level 3

How to Make the Most of Production

in Leadership

Moving up through Level 3 based upon solid Level 2 relationships is no small feat for any person. Many people find themselves incapable of achieving it. If you have the opportunity to lead a team and get to Level 3 with them, here is what you need to do to make the most of it.

1. Understand How Your Personal Gifts

Contribute to the Vision

One of the keys to the Production level of leadership is understanding how your gifts and abilities can be used productively, to further the vision of the organization. There is a strong relationship between giftedness and effectiveness as a leader on the Production level.

The more focused you are within your talents, the more rapid the rate of growth and the greater the increase in your overall potential to be a productive leader. Part of that is personal. In previous chapters I discussed the importance of knowing yourself and deciding on your personal leadership style. This is slightly different. If you are a leader, you must have a sense of vision for your leadership. And it must align, at least at this stage in your development, with the vision of the organization you serve.

One of the hallmarks of successful leadership is knowing where every person adds value. Take some time to define each team member's area of contribution (including your own), and figure out how they all work together to make the team most effective. But remember, if you want your team or department to be good at what they do, then you need to become good at what you do. Productivity has to start with the leader. Focus there first, and you will earn opportunities to help others improve and reach their potential.

2. Cast Vision for What Needs to Be

Accomplished

Vision casting is an integral part of leading. Fuzzy communication leads to unclear direction, which produces sloppy execution. Productive leaders create a clear link between the vision of the organization and the everyday production of the team. They show how the short term impacts the long term. They are clear in their communication and continually point the way for their team.

A compelling vision is clear and well defined, expansive and challenging. It is aligned with the shared values of the team. It is focused primarily on the end, not the means. It fits the giftedness of the team. And when it is communicated and understood, it fills the room with energy!

Leaders give their teams the greatest possible chance for success in achieving the vision when they do the following three things.

Help People Define the Success of the Vision How can an organization be successful if the people in it don't know what the target is? Team members need leaders to describe the vision and define a success. Take time to carefully craft your communication, and deliver it creatively as often as possible.

Help People Commit to the Success of the Vision The commitment of the team begins with the commitment of the leader. Teams don't win unless their leaders are determined to do everything they can to succeed, to dedicate their productivity to advancing the organization toward the vision. Through this leaders gain credibility and their people gain the confidence to follow suit.

Help People Experience Success Few things inspire people as much as victory does. As individuals on the team get to experience small successes, it motivates them to keep going and reach for larger successes. If you want your people to be inspired to win, then reward and celebrate the small daily victories that they achieve. Make them part of your personal victory celebrations whenever possible, giving them as much of the credit as you can. Not only does that motivate people, but it also helps them to enjoy the journey.

3. Begin to Develop Your People into a Team Production makes team building possible. That can be accomplished only by a leader who is willing to push forward and lead the way. Team building is one of my favorite aspects of leading people because a good team is always greater than the sum of its parts and is able to accomplish more than individuals working alone. Working as a team is also just plain fun! There's a lot to say about teamwork-more than I have s.p.a.ce for here. But I want to give you some critical things to think about related to team building as you strive to become good at leading on Level 3. Here are four things a successful team leader needs to keep in mind.

Team Members Should Complement One Another One of UCLA basketball coach John Wooden's most famous quotes is, "The one who scores a basket has ten hands." In other words, it takes all the players to help one player make a basket. And it takes a leader to help them figure out how to do it and lead them through the process.

Team Members Should Understand Their Mission Good leaders never a.s.sume that their team members understand the mission. Don't take for granted that they know what you know or believe what you believe. Don't a.s.sume they understand how their talents and efforts are supposed to contribute to the mission of the team. Communicate it often.

Team Members Should Receive Feedback

about Their Performance

People always want to know how they're doing. If they're not succeeding, most of the time they want to know how to make adjustments to improve and are willing to change if they are convinced it will help them win. Productive leaders take responsibility for walking team members through that process.

Team Members Should Work in an Environment

Conducive to Growth and Inspiration

The leaders, more than anyone else on a team, set the tone in a department or for an organization. Their att.i.tude is contagious. If they are positive, encouraging, and open to growth, so are their people. Acknowledge the influence you have and use it to everyone's best advantage.

Developing a group of people into a productive team is no easy task. It's a challenge to get everybody working together to achieve a common vision. But it is definitely worth the effort. Being part of a team of people doing something of high value is one of the most rewarding experiences in life. As a leader, you have a chance to help people experience it. Don't shrink from that great opportunity.

4. Prioritize the Things That Yield High Return To be an effective Level 3 leader, you must learn to not only get a lot done but also to get a lot of the right things done. That means understanding how to prioritize time, tasks, resources, and even people. The best companies channel their resources into only a few arenas-ones where they can be successful.

Staying in your areas of strength-where your efforts yield the highest return-and out of your areas of weakness is one of the keys to personal productivity. And if you can help others on your team to do the same, then you can be successful in leadership on Level 3.

For years I have relied on the Pareto principle as a guideline to help me decide what is worth focusing on and what isn't. The Pareto principle basically says that if you do the top 20 percent of your to-do list, it will yield an 80 percent return on your efforts.

To help me understand what my top 20 percent is, I ask myself three questions: What is required of me? (What I must do) What gives me the greatest return? (What I should do) What is most rewarding to me? (What I love to do) If you are early in your career or new to leadership, your must-do list will probably be the largest. Your goal as you climb the levels of leadership is to shift your time and attention to the should-dos and love-to-dos. And if you lead well enough for long enough and build a great team, your must-, should-, and love-to-do should be the same things.

As you lead your team, try to help every person get to the place where they are doing their should-dos and love-to-dos. That is where they will be most effective. As a rule of thumb, try to hire, train, and position people in such a way that 80 percent of the time they work in their strength zone, 15 percent of the time they work in a learning zone, 5 percent of the time they work outside their strength zone, and 0 percent of the time they work in their weakness zone.

To facilitate that, you must really know your people, understand their strengths and weaknesses, and be willing to have candid conversations with them. If you've done your work on Level 2, then you should be ready, willing, and able to do those things.

5. Be Willing and Ready to Be