A brief recap. In developing a great leadership team, we have talked about some foundational building blocks. You must:
- care about the people you are leading and managing
- clarify the major functions of your organization and select the right leader to drive and manage each function
- decide – indecision isn’t an option
- be all in – all 100% on the same page, sharing common values, a common purpose (your why) and a common thing you do to make the world a better place (your what).
One more point before we get to the mechanics of how to lead and manage more effectively.
As leaders and managers, we often tell people what to do – assign work – and expect the work to be done. We expect people to be accountable. When things don’t get done as expected, we may default to punishments or rewards to try to make our people more accountable. These rarely work to improve performance.
Great Leadership + Great Management = Accountability.
In other words, accountability is the outcome or product of leaders and managers doing specific things. There are hundreds of books out there to suggest what those specific things are. At EOS Worldwide, we condense everything to 5 things a person must do to be a great leader and 5 things a person must do to be a great manager.
Leading and managing are entirely different skill sets. We’ll examine the difference in my next post.
Here are your takeaway points for this week:
- Commit to becoming a better leader and manager before expecting more from your people. The accountability you are looking for will come as a by-product of your personal growth.
- You don’t have to read 100 books. You just need to do a handful of important things that we’ll cover in the following weeks.
Encouragement: If you haven’t been the best leader and manager in the past, don’t let that stop you. Displaying your intention to improve and grow will provide a great example for your people to follow. Again, it’s about progress, not perfection.
