Why Trust is Important

It's twice as hard to watch your front and back at the same time as it is to just watch your front.  Actually, it is probably more than twice as hard.

In order to achieve the highest levels of productivity, a team must be immersed in trust.  This means that followers need to trust their leaders as much as leaders trust their followers.  If we want people to be open, and honest, and provide their best ideas and efforts, they need to know that they are in a safe place to do so.  They also need to know that if you let them go on a limb, and it snaps, you'll be there to catch them.

There are so many reasons why we need trust in our working (and all other) relationships, but it still seems to be absent in many teams.  Just remember, without that foundation of trust, people will be reserved, and will always keep one foot out the door.  Build that trust.  Build loyalty.

Our Check Ride assessment looks at a number of criteria surrounding trust because we know that without it, your team will never truly be successful.  Sure, you might complete your projects successfully, but without that trust, your team will never reach its full potential.

Just think, have you ever worked with someone that you knew would have your back, and you knew would support you no matter what out-of-the-box idea you threw their way?

I certainly hope so, and if not, maybe it's time to foster a bit more trust.

-Alexander C. Cook MEng, MBA, PEng, PMP

Image Source: https://i2.wp.com/intelligenthq.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/trust.jpg

Improving Team Performance Through Connection

Leading others is not without risk, nor is it for the faint of heart. As important as it is for you as a Leader to set the goal to be achieved, it is more important to sense how things change as your Followers begin to align their efforts to support you. In some cases, this alignment among Team Members generates a momentum towards successful achievement of the goal that is unstoppable. Other times, factors of mis-alignment, significant changes in the environment, and unforeseen constraints pop up that are signals for you to review your approach. The key to any such review is to connect with your Followers.

Staying closely and personally connected to those who follow your lead will provide the early warning signs of emerging problem areas. Taking a moment to embrace the points of view expressed by your Followers will arm you, as their leader, with rich and immediate understanding of root causes for mis-alignments in the Team, surprises in the surrounding situation and shortages in resources or other constraints that will affect goal achievement. Not only will this close connection to your Followers enable you to act early but, also, to act in a manner informed by the collective experience and expertise of your Team.

Experience has taught me that my best and most immediate source of validation for any Leadership approach I take, is my Team. When I have embraced them, sought their feedback about what is working and what is not working, I have been able to accelerate performance. When I have relied on my own counsel, without a close personal connection to my Team, I have floundered and lost my way. A Team needs a good Leader. Leaders need to embrace their Team to be good.

-Lieutenant Colonel (ret'd) Ron Guidinger BEng, MBA, PEng, PMP

Let them Lead

I know that somewhere on this site I wrote that "we are all leaders."  The skeptics out there might be saying that we aren't, but I'm not talking about managers, or bosses, I'm talking about leaders.  We are all leaders, and for that matter, we are all followers too.  We all alternate between leading, and following, based on our skills and circumstance.

The question is, how can we foster leadership?  Not everyone can be the boss, so what does it take to make everyone a leader?  We have a generation of Baby-Boomers sitting on the tops of organizations, ready to retire.  They are the bosses, but they had better have leaders under them ready to take over.  So, we need to foster that leadership, and one easy way is just to provide a little space, and flexibility.  We all have core duties, which we need to complete, but if there is a little bit of wiggle room, then there is enough room to innovate.  Look at the Google's of the world, Google leaves a lot more than a little wiggle room, and there is innovation everywhere.  I'm not saying we all need to do it like Google, but if we give people room to imagine, and take initiative, we are giving them room to become leaders.

Its not just ideas, and innovation, but practice.  Weeks of intensive offsite leadership training often cannot replicate a little practical experience*.  Let them take their initiative, and when their idea becomes bigger than themselves, let them lead — give them some resources, and let them run with it.

You don't need to be the boss to lead a project, you don't even need formal authority.  All you need, is a little wiggle room, and a team to back you up — a team for you to back up.

Question for the crowds:  What would help you to lead, or to become a better leader in your organization?  Or your life?

-Alexander Cook MEng, MBA, PEng, PMP

*Through the use of the Leadership Check Ride assessment, Leading in the Fast Lane creates conditions that closely mimic practical experience, while providing a safe environment for learning.

Followership: leadership can't happen without it!

Many volumes have been written about great Leaders and how to become a better Leader. Very little has been written about Followers and how to be a better Follower. Followership seem to be a neglected area in the many studies of Human Interaction. My experience has repeatedly demonstrated that there are two things that are essential to willing and eager Followership: Trust and Confidence.

Trust between the Follower and the Leader is fostered differently for each individual, yet there are questions common to most Followers that must be answered affirmatively before they are willing to follow a Leader: Do I know what the Leader stands for? Do I believe in the Leader's integrity? Do I believe that the Leader will do the next right thing?

Confidence between the Follower and the Leader rests upon beliefs in each other's skills, reliability, and judgement. Again, the levels of confidence stem from perceptions that vary from one individual to the next but some questions common to most followers must be answered affirmatively before they are willing to follow a Leader: Does the Leader have a vision that I can share? Does the Leader have the skills, support and energy to effectively lead me to the achievement of the stated goal? If things start going wrong, does the Leader have the ability to help make them right?

If Trust and Confidence between the Leader and the Followers is the minimum requirement for willing and eager Followership, where do you stand? Do you enjoy a high level of Trust and Confidence with your Followers? With your Leaders? What can you do to strengthen these two vital elements of Followership?

-Lieutenant Colonel (ret'd) Ron Guidinger BEng, MBA, PEng, PMP