3 Leadership Behaviors for “Getting to Awesome”

In Advantexe’s innovative new business leadership simulation, Fundamentals of Business Leadership, one of the central characters (Ellen Astor) rips into one of her coworkers and then her boss about her frustration of working with a team that just wants to get by instead of becoming awesome.  In the simulation, her personality style is aggressive and she pushes herself and her people to achieve beyond expectations.  A little bit later in the simulation, Harold, a capable, yet core performer takes it upon himself to step up his game and tries to lead a change initiative as a result of Ellen’s pushing.  Harold is in way over his head, and as we know from situational leadership, Strong Will with Limited Skill can lead to disaster; which it does in the simulation!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had several excellent facilitated discussions during our simulation debriefing sessions with leaders who are participants in the workshop around this scenario and the application discussion has been profound.  As a result of the conversations and some additional research, here are three ways for leaders to create an environment for getting awesome instead of a culture for just getting by.

• Make sure your people really understand the strategy

As the old saying goes, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”  The same is true for strategy and leadership.  “The single most impactful thing that I do as a leader is make sure I communicate our strategy and talk about how each person on my team plays a role in the execution of the strategy.  We are a company that has made a major investment in the long-term and it’s been difficult keeping people motivated to achieve greatness without that path” shared one of my participants.

• Be specific about what you want them to do to achieve awesomeness

“The people on my team are employees working for a company, not mind readers” another participant shared.  “They can’t read my mind and I know it sounds so easy, but I have found one of the best drivers of success is to share with each member of the team what I expect great to look like well beyond their job description.  I have quarterly huddles and the results have been excellent for most because they understand what I want and how to achieve success.” 

• Exit the weak performers

“There is no reason in today’s competitive workforce that you should keep employees who don’t want to be awesome and don’t want to achieve tremendous success.  Actually there is one reason; overbearing HR departments who will not let you fire people” was a dialogue from one of the leaders in the session.  “I have a copy of an Inc. Magazine article on my desk that talks about firing 10% of your workforce every year to keep the organization fresh and moving forward and it’s something I try to do because I don’t have room or time for employees who think my (technology) business is a 9-5 play ground.”

In summary, there really are three easy, common-sense leadership behaviors that can have immediate and long-term impact.