Sam Walton

Whose vision are you following anyway?

lead-followYou have a vision for where you are leading your team and your team is following you.

If you are doing this right, you’re leading your team where you are following – your boss’ vision. Everyone in every company is both leading and following someone at different times. Whether you are a one person show, a middle level manager, or the CEO of a large corporation you are ultimately following your boss’ vision.

Walmart founder, Sam Walton, said, “There is only one boss. The customer. And they can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending their money somewhere else.”

It all starts with the customer’s vision of what they want. Then it leads to the head of the company’s vision on how to organize to deliver the customer’s vision. Next it comes to the manager’s vision on how to fulfill the company’s vision. Lastly it is the individual employee’s vision on how to complete the job that provides the output needed for the manager’s vision.

You will be at different places on the chain of leading and following throughout your career. Be involved, give all you can and learn all you can to take with you on your next role.

“Followership, like leadership, is a role and not a destination.” – Michael McKinney

Just because you are following someone’s vision, it doesn’t mean you ignore your knowledge and wisdom. You have something unique to add to every plan and person. Be willing to speak up when needed.

“If I had to reduce the responsibilities of a good follower to a single rule, it would be to speak truth to power.” – Warren Bennis

Your ultimate goal in all situations is to achieve the positive outcomes set out by the vision. You don’t need to be the one given credit for creating the vision, but you do want to be part of that which accomplished the vision.

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” – Edith Wharton

 

Leaders Shine the Light

shining a lightIn entertainment, light focused into spotlights bring attention to the people who possess such great talent and skill that audiences will flock to see and hear them perform. In medical procedures, light focused into x-rays can illuminate areas in need of repair. Each of these examples brings about the opportunity for positive results.

Leaders in all walks of life also have the ability, and the responsibility, to use light in the exact same ways in order to bring about positive results. The actions that leaders should take are rather straight forward, as we will discuss below, however only the most confident leaders can help their team shine brighter than themselves.

Spotlight Leadership Opportunities

These are the basic light shining opportunities that every leader knows they should do, many leaders do well, and most underestimate the impact. Think of everything from one-on-one meetings, team meetings, and town hall meetings. Think of phone calls, emails, and announcements. Any time a leader can shine the light on their team’s success they should do it, and here’s why:

Shining a light recognizes accomplishments. Everyone needs to hear they did a good job. It’s an easy way to keep up morale.

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” – Sam Walton

Shining a light rewards achievement. Everyone already knows who does the work, but does the leader know and publically acknowledge those that made success possible?

“Share success with the people who make it happen. It makes everybody think like an owner…” – Emily Ericsen, VP of HR, Starbucks Coffee Company

Shining a light raises awareness. Everyone wants to be successful in what they do. When you shine a light on successful results, people will imitate the actions that brought success.

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” Thomas J. Peters

X-ray Leadership Opportunities

These are the harder light shining opportunities that every leader knows they should do, some leaders do well, and most underestimate the impact. Think of everything from one-on-one meetings, mentoring sessions, and performance reviews. Think of project updates, status reports, and meeting debriefs. Any time a leader can shine the light on their team’s opportunity for improvement they should do it, and here’s why:

Shining a light reveals faults. If something is not working than a leader owes it to their team to point out the facts and let the team figure out how to get it back on track.

“Have an attitude of fact finding, not fault finding.”

Shining a light removes fear. Nothing causes fear more than the unknown. Providing the opportunity for a regular review of progress helps your team act and ensure success instead of reacting to failure.

“FEAR has two meanings: Forget Everything And Run, or Face Everything And Rise.”

Shining a light restores focus. Success relies on having a goal, developing a plan to reach the goal, and executing the plan. The best leaders know that plans are always adjusted but only with a keen focus on the goal.

“Your focus determines your success.”

Listen While You Work

“Leadership is influence, nothing more nothing less.”  I learned this from John Maxwell and I teach it to everyone I mentor.  The beginning of influence is trust, and trying to influence another person without first eliciting trust is as futile as trying to boil water outside of a kettle.  Trust, like the kettle, is the vessel in which all things work together to generate powerful action.

Developing trust comes from understanding one another.  Ralph Nichols, an expert in the field of listening, says, “The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.”

If you think about the command and control leadership style, you can picture the leader in front of a room filled with their employees and a microphone in their hand. They talk from the beginning of the meeting to the end of the meeting; telling their team what they need to hear.  That style of leader doesn’t understand their team, won’t develop trust with their team, and can’t influence their team.

Kevin Turner, the COO of Microsoft and former CEO of Sam’s Club once described the secret to Sam Walton’s success.  He said, “Walton didn’t have an open door policy; he had an open ear policy.”

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