Boss vs. leader

I strive to be the best leader by emulating some of my favorite leaders. They tend to be the ones who put others' interests first, drive collaboration and teamwork, and promote and inspire a positive future.

The following two graphics demonstrate what I feel is the difference between being a "boss" and being a "leader."

I wrote earlier about the importance of being a great leader.

High-performing teams, Part II - Being proactive

There is not one thing which creates a high-performing team (HPT). Trying to define the numerous aspects of an HPT culture took me an entire blog post. However, being proactive is one key attribute required for all individuals of a high-performing team.

Doing what is expected
My prior post discussed team growth expectations. In order to achieve continuous growth, each individual simply doing what is expected of them is not enough for achieving HPT status.

Take a software developer, for example. They are expected to create X features working on Y product while collaborating with their teammates. They are expected to complete those features on time, follow proper standards, and ensure their code is efficient and secure. That is the baseline. That is expected of them each and every day. While that may sound great, my view is if everyone on the team did that year after year team growth would be stagnant. (And it may get boring for the developer!)

Being proactive
Being proactive is the key to unlock exponential growth and creativity in both individuals and teams.

The definition of proactive:

Creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.

Take a software developer again as an example: They can be proactive in numerous ways, including identifying a new solution to a problem the team is facing (without being told, of course), implementing it, and organizing a lunch-and-learn session to ensure everyone is aware and understands the new way forward.

The key is for individuals to take the initiative in looking for ways they can help improve themselves, the team, and the company. This is often where new and creative ideas emerge, which naturally leads to learning and mastery.

The proactive expectation (and contradiction?)
I argue being proactive is therefore expected of all team members.

Does this mean, however, any proactive work is then simply viewed as par for the course? Does this mean no individual can ever be seen as going above-and-beyond?

No. The beauty of being proactive is while it is expected of everyone, there are so many ways in which it can be done. Therefore, it is impossible to define exactly how to do it, so it can never be explicitly expected.

Team growth expectations

Most companies have year-end performance reviews. This is a time to reflect on how each individual has performed. Managers have a critical responsibility to also look at the team as a whole.

• Is the team growing overall?
• Where is the team this year compared to last year?
• Is the team well prepared for the year to come?

Each team is expected to continuously grow.
Each team may define growth differently, but I like to think of team growth as the collective improvement of skills (both technical and "soft"), processes, and tools. A high-performing team knows they must continuously improve to remain ahead of the competition. This implies constant growth.

New things means new challenges; expect them.
In order for team members to grow, managers must provide the space and a safe environment where trying new things and failure are OK. Managers should expect small bumps in the road ("growing pains") when new things do not work out or take time to learn. As long as they are followed up quickly by learning and more improvement, failures are OK.

Doing the same as last year is unacceptable.

These new improvements will become common knowledge, and collectively the team will grow. This sets a new bar for the team to aspire to. The collective team's growth means every individual is expected to keep pace. Someone performing at the same level the team was collectively at a year or two ago is now significantly behind pace. These individuals must demonstrate an immediate improvement.

I try to illustrate these expectations in a very rough graphical sketch below. The green line represents (at a high level) the overall growth of the team. Highlighted are sharp improvements (perhaps a new process was implemented, for example) followed by small declines, or "growing pains." The team's collective growth sets the bar for the next year, and all the individuals are expected to keep pace.

Empathy, above all else

In writing my series about high-performing teams, I thought to pause on the one key element required in all forms of leadership. Without this, your teams will not develop a sense of trust, cohesion, or feel safe. That key element is empathy.

Empathy is different than sympathy, which Brené Brown does a great job explaining in this short video:

Brown discusses what she views as the 4 qualities of empathy:

1. Perspective taking -- Being able to see something from someone else's view.
2. Staying out of judgement -- Refraining from passing judgement on someone, especially without knowing the full story.
3. Recognizing emotion in others.
4. Being able to communicate the above.  

Simon Sinek, whose talks I highlighted before, speaks to the incredible impact great leaders have in creating a culture of safety and empathy, and the positive results which follow: 

One of Sinek's most powerful examples of empathy is the military captain awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Captain William Swensen ran into live fire in Afghanistan to rescue wounded soldiers. One of the medics in the rescue helicopter had a GoPro camera, which captured the moment when Captain Swensen helped bring a wounded soldier into the helicopter, then bent down and kissed him, before heading back to the field to rescue others. 

Sinek uses the emotional story to make us reflect on our own teams. How many of your employees would you do something like that for? How many of your employees would do something like that for you? For others? I am not talking about the kiss specifically, of course, although that in itself helps to demonstrate the deep bond between the captain and his soldier. 

Sinek says, 

"In the military they give medals to people who are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may gain. In business we give bonuses to people who are willing to sacrifice others so that we may gain." 

In a different example, Google's Chade-Meng Tan describes how empathy at work helps to improve people's lives, and ultimately the world. The Jolly Good Fellow... Which Nobody Can Deny (yes, that was his official job title) recently retired from Google to pursue his mission of helping to create the conditions for world peace. I am truly inspired by him and his work.

In the video, Tan speaks about how inner peace, inner joy, and compassion help to enable happiness and reduce stress. He alludes to mindfulness and promotes meditation to raise self-awareness. This self-awareness in turn guides us to be more compassionate and live with more empathy.

I believe empathy is the single most important attribute for leaders. With it comes many inspiring and positive outcomes that can make yourself, your team, and even the world a better place. 

Why be a great leader?

Great leaders have a tremendously positive impact on organizations. Here are a few reasons why you need to invest in great leadership.

A players hire A players, B players hire C players
It takes one to know one: great talent knows how to hire other great talent. In addition, great leaders know hiring people smarter than them is a good thing, and are not uncomfortable in doing so. They focus on hiring based on how results were achieved, and less on the "what."

Not-so-great leaders tend to hire sub-par employees, at times preferring those who will take orders and simply just do the job they tell them to do.

Great talent stays with great leadership
The immediate supervisor is the single best variable which can predict how engaged an employee will be. The number one reason why people leave their job is due to them not liking their immediate manager. A great leader helps retain top talent.

Great leadership has a trickle-down effect
Studies have found the effectiveness of leadership diminishes across the organization from top to bottom. Other words, the senior leadership on average is more effective than middle management, and middle management is more effective than lower management.

The key here is what the authors of the book How to Be Exceptional: Drive Leadership Success By Magnifying Your Strengths call the "leadership ceiling." If senior management is only average, then middle and lower management will be below average and significantly sub-par, respectively. Therefore, it is crucial to have an exceptionally strong senior management team, because their effectiveness sets the bar for the other levels of management.

Great leadership drives business results
From the same book above, the authors site a large study demonstrating sales leaders receiving the highest 360-degree feedback had 6 times the sales revenue as compared to the teams being led by the lowest-rated leaders. Top leaders pull out the best in people.