Leadership

It Takes More Than Gold Star Stickers

It Takes More Than Gold Star Stickers

Garth Beyer

BonusPerhaps your partners, your employees, your teammates don’t need gold stars. Maybe they don’t need the bonus incentive to do extra work. It’s possible the reward system is a band-aid to a larger problem, not the solution to it.

There’s a few things I know for a fact when it comes to getting others to go the extra mile, take on more work, create something remarkable in addition to their job description.

1) Praise. I don’t need to show you the statistics of those who would rather receive less pay if it meant more recognition. And there is this. Endorsed by the one and only. I give email shoutouts to my team of writers when one of them does something way in advance or something remarkable and unasked. Everyone sees who the shoutout is for and why.

2) Passion. As manager or whatever similar title you hold, it falls under your job description to encourage your team to work with passion. If they are assigned a task that doesn’t suit them (and you should know without them mentioning it), then work out a different way to frame the objective to ignite the fire in their belly. You achieve this by acting on fact number three.

3) Connection. You must connect with each individual to learn what encourages them to go past all expectations. Every one is different and to treat them or reward them all the same is a tragedy. You wouldn’t treat all your customers the same, why would you your team?

The question isn’t what can you reward them with for working extra. The question is how can you get to know them better to learn what drives them to do more.

Often times, simply by connecting, it is reward in and of itself.

 

Stay Positive & Toss The Gold Stickers And Bonuses, Your Team Deserves More

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Being A Leader Is Fricken Hard

Garth Beyer

Allow me to be personal, blatant and a bit motivational.

If there’s one thing I work the most hard at, it’s being a leader. I subject myself to more trials and obstacles than many others my age because I have a dream of being a real leader. I start by biting off more than I can chew. I continue by making promises that keep me busy day in and day out. I manage all this by believing that I don’t have a choice but to manage it all. Today I’ve experienced the famous quote that you will likely recall from Spider-Man,

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

My superpower is leadership and with it comes a lot of responsibility. The beautiful thing about leadership is that 90 percent of the responsibility is pleasurable. (Part of me would argue this same ratio goes for any superpower. It’s what makes it super!) Most leaders enjoy stress, take pleasure in daily deadlines and play with the difficulty of leading 10, 50, 10,000 people. Leadership is fun, but there are times – like Peter Parker – I wish it wasn’t my superpower. When I’m coughing, aching and chasing my running nose all day, I don’t want to be a leader. When I miss the friends closest to me, I wish I could drop everything and go see them immediately.

There is, however, one thing that helps counter this sorrow. When someone thanks me for my leadership commitment, when someone reminds me that the group won’t function as well without me, that, like Peter Parker, people need me, well, the unfortunate 10 percent of the superpower disappears. Sick and weary, I lead a group today because someone reminded me my leadership was needed, that it did not go unnoticed. Without that someone, I would have let the group down.

So I’ve got a task for you. Go remind someone that their superpower is needed, that it doesn’t go unnoticed. There are people all around us who make sacrifices because their great power makes them responsible to do so. There are people who need the recognition. Let’s work on bringing the superhero out in everyone.

1 person, 1 message, 1 compliment or reminder of their superpower

Everyone’s got a superpower. Your compliment might just remind someone of what theirs is.

Stay Positive & Perhaps You’ll Rediscover Yours Along The Way Too

What To Do About Bad Leaders

Garth Beyer

I’ve had to work with my fair share of bad leaders. Like most, I started out by complaining about it. I was too nervous to speak up. In fact, I had no clue who to speak up to. It’s sort of stupid to go up to a leader and say they’re doing a bad job. Ignorant, actually.

There is a way to work with bad leaders, though. (Because in this world, some bad leaders, stay leaders. It’s up to you to make the most of it.)

The best way I have found is to ask them if they’ve done the things you would do if you were in the their position.

  • “Hey, I was wondering if you’ve scheduled that appointment yet.”
  • “Just curious, did you call the VC about product X and tell them we’re ready to ship on the third Friday of this month?”

These are positive examples. What you’re doing is making the task more salient to the bad leader. I’ll tell you why this is a good thing after I mention a few don’ts.

What not to do:

  • Specifically point out what they are doing wrong
  • Say they are doing a bad job and that you expect them to get their head in the game
  • Tell them you could do it better
  • And, as much as I hate to write this one: Don’t ask them if they want help

Most bad leaders don’t want help, most bad leaders hog their positions, most bad leaders just don’t care enough to take you up on your offer. They will, however, be happy to dish something out to you if you handle it right, say, maybe, by asking them if they’ve done something that you think they should have already.

When a bad leader faces more and more tasks they simply can’t put off, they’re more likely to either delegate those tasks (especially to the person who “reminded” them of the tasks in the first place) or they’ll be more prone to step off their throne and give up.

Poor leadership is something we all have to prepare for and know how to deal with it.

You may be an expert in leadership, but, trust me, a lot of people aren’t. And sadly, don’t care to be.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Not Your Job To Help Them

(It’s your job to help the company, the business’s clients, your team and your self)

You’re Not Thinking Of Everyone

Garth Beyer

It’s tough to lead. You’re busy prioritizing moments of your own life and planning each step of the business, constantly reevaluating, constantly making changes and updates.

It’s a lot to handle.

Stop a second. You’re forgetting someone?

Some of the worst counts of leadership failure that I have seen have come from leaders neglecting the priorities of their team. Not in the sense of what each team member needs to do for the business, but the moments of their own lives they are working on prioritizing.

If you came to lead your life and the business, you’ve really came to fail.

Great leaders help their team lead their own lives too. There’s a reason many refer to great leaders as sources of inspiration, encouragement and guidance.

 

Stay Positive & Are You Truly Leading

Are All Members Accounted For

Garth Beyer

I know a thing or two about teams. I’ve made runs – some successful, some not – at creating teams for many different creative projects. I’ve led a strategy team for a startup. I’ve led over a dozen writers for a newspaper. I’m a strong believer in the idea that you can’t be a leader without a team. So it goes, I know a lot about team membership.

My favorite team role is also the member of the team that ambitious leaders forget about most. That member is what I call the Enforcer.

It’s not uncommon to find a team that’s lacking an Enforcer. Most believe the leader is supposed to be the Enforcer. This is untrue. There’s a strong distinction between leading and enforcing. A simple difference is: the leader points in the direction the team needs to go and the Enforcer makes sure they go that direction. Two separate roles.

If you’re leading a team and finding incomplete tasks, unmet deadlines, stalling morale… it’s not that you’re a poor leader, it’s just likely your missing a member of your team.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Forget The Enforcer

 

Most Don’t Want A Leader

Garth Beyer

Captain O Captain

But they want to be told what to do, they want to be given deadlines, they want you to check their work, they want you to take what they give you and combine it with what someone else gave you, they want you to answer the big important questions, they want you to solve their problems and decide between “this” and “that”.

They want to be lead, but they don’t want a leader.

A leader isn’t a position to be filled, it’s a type of person. Leading doesn’t mean you have different responsibilities, it means that you have more added on. Leading is about trust, not control. Leaders direct from a chair, while those who lead are on deck.

Ask yourself. Are you leading or a leader?

 

Stay Positive & Captain O’ Captain

Garth E. Beyer

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How Do YOU Know?

Garth Beyer

Whether you’re the one asking or being asked, the answer has little to do with the mind.

You can analyze, strategize, and organize a project so that the results you want are surely the results you will get. But you never actually know.

Boy asks girl what her favorite color is. Girl says purple. Five years (or five months, or five minutes later – it doesn’t really matter) go by. Girl asks the boy what her favorite color is. Boy says purple. Girl frowns. “It’s blue,” she says.

Everything is networking and networking involves connecting with people and people change their minds more often than their clothes. What needs to be understood, though, is that despite these changes (e.g., fear based step-backs, road block detours, juxtaposed worldviews, popped filter bubbles.) the results aimed for can still be attained.

When you are at the phase of “how do YOU know,” you are immediately the authority, the leader, the one looked up to.

Truly, what they want to know is if they can trust you. If they can benefit from following you. And if you answer with “I just do,” you’re answering with your heart, not your mind.

And THAT is how you know.

 

Stay Positive & If You Don’t Feel It In Your Gut, Aim For Different Results

Garth E. Beyer