Why would your team follow you?
Mr. Collins lists five stages of decline businesses go through, and how to identify, manage, avoid or recover from them.
But outside of the stages we go through, I’d like to address something specific about what keeps a business from decline. That is, real leadership. Mr. Collins says, “The signature of the truly great versus the merely successful is not the absence of difficulty. It’s the ability to come back from setbacks, stronger than before.”
How do you that? How do you even begin to avoid decline in the first place?
What you do is you earn trust. CEOs can’t lead from ivory towers disconnected physically and emotionally from their teams. To lead today, you need to be a man or woman of the people. Leaders need to be relatable, real, fallible – human. People are too smart to actually believe that their leaders are perfect. So demonstrating who you are is fundamental. This is not something you haven’t heard from me before. But I bring it up again in this context because who you are as a leader is of the utmost importance in leading – and succeeding.
Your willingness to show vulnerability, emotion and weakness is of course ingratiating to your team. But what are your intentions? This must be crystal clear.
If you were undergoing a transformation, if you were asking your teams to push the envelope and take giant leaps of change, would they do it? Why would they believe you? Why would they follow you?
That is fundamentally why some teams pull together and others don’t. Leadership is about leading your people – first and foremost. Having a vision, inspiring your teams, driving success, taking responsibility for you, for them, their families, and for your customers. That’s what it’s all about.
A lot is riding on the CEO’s shoulders – the good and the bad. If things are good, many don’t care as much. But when there is a hiccup, when you need the loyalty of your team, when you need their confidence and perseverance – your intentions, your character, your presence, availability and connection will be huge for all involved.
And you can guarantee that in a time of great change and uncertainty – whether due to the time we live in or a transformation of your business – that there will be hiccups and missteps. This is the time when your leadership matters most. When it inspires deep trust and commitment to the business and in turn, each other.
Fonte: The Globe and Mail
