Here are four tips I think every leadership team needs to be aware of:

1. Follow the advice of Good to Great author Jim Collins and get the right people on the bus. Be willing to let go those who aren’t buying-in or don’t show a passion for the company vision. I like the ‘bus’ analogy. It implies that some people ride with you the whole route, while others get on later or get off sooner. In other words, expect the leadership team to change. It would be wonderful if the whole team could ride together the whole way, but its rarely the case.

2. Make sure everyone on the leadership team can train others. Leaders who can’t train can’t duplicate themselves, and are automatically limited in their effectiveness (and profitability) for the company.

3. Make sure everyone on the leadership team knows how to listen. Companies that practice top-down one-way communication alienate their employees. What’s worse, it leads to miscues from poor information flow. Picture a river rafting trip on which the guide (the leader) is not listening to his crew tell him that their oars are broken. He can yell “row!” all he wants, but by not listening to feedback he and his crew are in for a rough trip. 

4. When getting feedback, don’t punish people for being honest. The quickest way to kill communication is ask for feedback and then yell at people or cut them down because things aren’t going just right or they say something you don’t want to hear. I’ve watched a leader “put people in their place” for giving answers he didn’t want to hear – funny, he wonders why his team doesn’t talk much during meetings.

Obviously the list is not exhaustive. But why not do a quick inventory with your leadership team. How does your team stack up? What’s just one thing you do different? Starting when?

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Filed in Work, Business, Training, Motivation, Management, Leadership, Team Building, Workplace, Train the Trainer, Meetings