Dear Friends,
Those who receive my daily Leadership Thoughts
know how much I appreciate the wisdom of author and teacher John Maxwell. Next
to the Bible, there is no one who has so impacted and influenced my life as he
has. Through his books, he has now written over 100 of them and his online
teaching, John, continues to be my favorite mentor.
I frequently transcribe his messages,
hopefully extracting leadership lessons that will improve my own personal
leadership.
John is also a pastor who frequently preaches
in his home church in West Palm Beach, Florida, and I transcribed this recent
message on "Becoming a Transformational Leader." It was one of the
most memorable messages I have heard on the subject of Christ minded
leadership, and I would like to share a part of his message with
you.
Much of what I share will be John's own
words, and I trust that his words will be as transformative for you as they
were for me.
One of the greatest
mistakes leaders make is assuming the team is completely on board with their
leadership. He refers to this as the "assumption mess up." which is
the gap between what a leader assumes to be true and what is really true,
As the late businessman and writer Max De Pree
comments "the responsibility of a leader is "to define reality."
Often times leaders think they know the mind and heart of their workers, and
this is one of a leader's greatest "mess-ups." Leaders
mistakenly think they know how their people feel about them and their
leadership when in reality this is seldom true.
Maxwell mentions a large survey conducted
among leaders on strengthening team leadership. The majority of leaders
felt that the way to improve one's leadership is by making better use of
technology and finances. However, workers responded that leadership
improvement best comes with greater development of the leaders'
"emotional intelligence" -by answering such questions as
"where are you taking me," and "how are you treating
me." Consciously or unconsciously, workers want to know if they are
truly valued, and if they can trust their leader to help them and care for
them.
Maxwell states that leadership does not depend
on popularity polls, but on respect that is earned on difficult ground.
Workers today are looking for leaders who value them, inspire them and empower
them. When people are hired, they are
hired by the company, but when they leave, they most often leave the leader and
not the company. The late great basketball coach John Wooden reminds us
that "it's wonderful when the coach believes in his players, but it is a
greater thing when the players believe in the coach.” If a worker doesn't
feel loved and valued, inspired and empowered, he/she will soon be looking for
a leader who will provide these qualities.
Maya Angelou is right
when she states that "People will forget what you said, but they will
never forget how they made you feel."
Maxwell states there are
four important words that every leader needs to continually express to his team
if he wants them to feel valued, and they are: "You matter to me.'".
Maxwell states, "I put a 10 on the forehead of every worker, and I tell
them that the only way that the 10 can ever be removed is if they remove it
themselves."
Yes, it is a wonderful
thing when the worker believes in their leader, but it is even more wonderful
when the leader believes in his people. And how does a leader show he believes
in his people? The leader does so by constantly showing appreciation for those
working for him. Maxwell says "when you have shown appreciation to the
worker, then double it.”
Good words to remember
from the lips of a leader who knows a lot about leadership. To be
continued.
Yours in faith and
friendship
Tom
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