The name of this blog comes from our mission at INFLUENCE: “To empower people with clarity and confidence.”
Our objective is to provide brief but meaningful topics (under 500 words) that inspire, educate and empower leaders through resources both inside and outside of INFLUENCE. This week’s edition is provided by David Salmons.
We’ve written in the past about the need for humility and a service mindset, and how a lack thereof produces reactive, difficult leaders and employees who spoil team environments.
Something we perhaps haven’t focused upon is the fact that media messaging along these lines can be confusing for anyone.
Here’s what we mean. On the one hand, as individuals, we all know we’d prefer not to work with pompous jerks. Doing so is miserable. On the other hand, some celebrities, politicians, and prominent business leaders behave like narcissistic children. And as their brattish behaviors draw media attention, we’re frequently bombarded by the worst of their worst.
All of us then are left with what may feel like two separate voices. One, hopefully an inner voice, speaks to the values of humility, service, and respect. The other, a collectively loud voice that shouts across multiple media channels, speaks of ego-driven selfishness. Unfortunately, many of the latter come to us from individuals in some form of a leadership role, which means their ugly sound bites become confused with leadership behavior.
Or worse, they become confused with success.
To keep this post practical instead of philosophical – and business focused instead of personal – let’s keep in mind that it takes 12 positive customer experiences to repair a single bad experience, AND ALL businesses have customers, both internal and external, who expect respect. That means if any employee or leader believes that disrespectful, ego-driven and childish behaviors create success, there’s a cliff ahead for them as well as for the businesses in which they work.
They may not fail today, but they will fail, and they will create toxic, miserable, environments for those around them.
To avoid this, leaders should address the potential for ego-driven problems head on. How so?
First, leaders lead by example. That means showing your team – and especially team leaders – the respect you expect them to show others. It can also mean talking openly about humility and service as values that sharply contrast against immature yet highly publicized, ego-driven behaviors.
In the applied sense, these educational moments should culminate in a firm focus on how businesses give and lose respect, and what exactly that looks like in each role of the organization.
Second, if you do discover a pattern of disrespect on your team, address it sooner rather than later. In doing so, again model the values you represent as you discuss your concerns with individuals privately. Six points for doing this:
- Be sure you know what you want to get across.
- Create a safe environment for the discussion. Without it, openness is absent.
- Demonstrate that you understand their goals.
- Make sure they understand you care.
- Be candid about your concern and expectations.
- Seek feedback that demonstrates understanding.
The importance of catching these patterns early cannot be overstated.
In conclusion, proactivity is important because the collective voices of ego aren’t likely to stop. Still, while some voices celebrate ego, drama and disrespect, your team and business can benefit from humility, service and genuine respect – when lead through the open conversations that develop awareness, and the private conversations that drive adjustments.