By Juanpablo Barrantes
Leader’s approach
(5 minutes read) What do people really seek from their leader? It really inspires me to be guided by an insightful concept some of my mentors —as Simon Sinek— use to relate on the challenging role of great leaders. Sinek uses to do a comparison between the role of a great leader in an Organization and the role of a great parent in his/ her family. For a great parent, his/her WHY or main purpose in life is to unconditionally LOVE his/her family. Meaning love as to serve, to provide, to educate, to dedicate time and attention to his/her beloved ones, until making each of them a great person, armed to affront this world with character and self confidence. To show by example, to be of one piece, to be always available whenever in need of support or just to listen and provide advise if asked. Not so different is the role of great leaders towards their followers. So, whenever you as a leader set your heart and mind to set your WHY towards your team in the same frequency as you do towards your family, SUCCESS is assured. Have you ever seen when a child is sticked to his/her parents? Have you noticed the magnetism great parents wield towards their children? Well, such influence might be the same from a great leader towards his/her followers. Let me debrief this meaningful concept of the magnet effect on leadership, it may be under estimated since we all see how challenging it is to retain great collaborators in our workplaces. Take note and make a deep commitment on the following behaviors IF you as a leader are having some opportunities on improving your teammates and subordinates morale on workplace retention: - Authenticity What it takes to be a magnetic leader? Authenticity is perhaps the most related trait leaders display to attract and retain followers. So what it takes to be authentic? Being true to yourself at any moment, even when you are wrong, even when you may have to recognize certain weaknesses as a leader. People working for you notice those subtle moments when you as a leader grants them permission to demand whatever they deserve from you, and you demonstrate enough respect to them because you honor your word whenever you make a commitment to them. - Transparency Magnetic leaders are relentlessly honest to themselves and to everyone around them. People working for transparent leaders notice honest and open communication towards them. Sometimes it’s hard to understand but it’s easy to feel whenever someone is being true to you, even when such honesty may hurt you or may make you uncomfortable. People feel attracted to leaders who embrace and promotes transparency simply because it’s the right thing to do! Transparency fosters a climate of safety around everyone in your team, making interactions flowing smoothly. - Continuous feedback What separates results oriented leaders from the rest of the crowd? I would bet on strong communication and relationship skills! Whenever your Organization is looking for getting the expected results, a constant dose of feedback is more than needed, and definitely you as the leader must embrace continuous feedback, either providing or receiving it. Transparency goes also hand in hand with open and honest feedback, such gesture of punctual and timely feedback is how one goes about building magnetism over teammates. Never delay feedback, and ask yourself as a leader, how much you have encouraged your team members to get back with you to give you feedback whenever they have felt uncomfortable or in disagreement with any decision you have made. Do they have the needed confidence in doing so? I hope they really do... Either way, you still have some homework to do! - Career development Reframing again on the parent-to-son analogy, one of the greatest aspirations for parents is to provide a formal education until seeing his/her beloved one as a professional or an entrepreneur ready to face the world and find fulfillment in life by him/herself. It must be pretty much the same for leader-to-follower relationships; one of the biggest cornerstones of a level four leader is to make Career development for each one of his/her teammates (as per John C. Maxwell, a level four leader is the one who has made a deep relationship based on trust and respect with his/her team, producing consistently the expected results over time and focusing also in developing them to produce more great leaders). Make Career development part of your agenda, show genuine interest in the development of your collaborators. Start by asking what expectations do they have at mid and long term in the Organization, and make a mutual commitment to work towards reaching such expectations over time. How do you gauge your leadership magnetism based on these four cornerstone behaviors? Is your answer in line with your actual talent retention records so far? Whatever your honest answers may be, my best advise is, keep leveraging on the magnet effect to make and retain great talent on your trench!