On A Tough Talk About Your Leadership Team: When was the last time you initiated a thorough check on your Leaders?
We put our team members through 360s, but assume our Leaders are performing at the highest, beyond reproach levels.
But do you know how they are behaving-or not?
How close are you to understand how they engage with and interact with their teams?
Do you know if they are effective or if they are pulling the wool over your eyes with a whirlwind of confusion swirling around every conversation?
Do you know how difficult or untenable they are making the workplace for selected team members?
Do they have favorites and are they proud of this?
I have friends in the industry who can offer you an Employee Experience survey on your Leadership team.
Why is this important?
1) How will you keep your current team in place if your leaders are unchecked?
2) Where will you find new people when they find better opportunities?
3) How can your company reach its full potential if poor behaviors have crept in?
4) How will you grow new, good leaders in these environments?
Here is the tricky part:
The ultimate leadership team or C-suite looks out, surveys what they have built and believe everything is fine. From 'up there' it usually does.
You believe- because you're 'nice' or distracted in some cases - that your leaders understand how you want people treated.
You believe it when your leaders (that you put in place) tell you they are 'busy'- but don't check to see what exactly is filling their day- and your pipeline of clients and employees.
You stopped encouraging their continuous improvement as you 'assumed' they would do this on their own.
👉 Ask tough questions.
👉 Hold people accountable.
👉 Raise your expectations.
👉 Culture ravels one Manager to Team member at a time.
It's quiet.
It's insidious.
It happens in the dark.
It's easy to blame on the lower level team members.
And due to many valid reasons, your people are muzzled, standing powerless and silent as they are afraid to speak up. Because you have proven you don't want to listen and retaliation is real.
So instead, they leave. And you don't ask the hard questions?
Not why did they leave?
How did our leadership team fail them, fail us?
These may be bitter pills to swallow as the sun sets tonight, but my stomach is turning- again.
Be better. Do better. Demand better.
This brief moment of success will not last.
I will be here supporting great leaders and those who want to become great leaders. While I will never have all of the answers, I will humbly maintain the courage to lead the charge for excellence in our industry.
We are #BetterTogether. Some of your 'leaders' need to give this careful consideration
#StraightTalk #Automotive #IndustryStrategist #Workplace #ToxicWorkplaces #DemandExcellence #LeadershipMatters #Solutions #Strategy #Consulting #ExecutiveCoaching
