Getting To Know You
One more lesson from the Super Bowl. . .
On Super Bowl Sunday, the two quarterbacks are known as two of the best in the business. Besides their athletic qualities, both have many leadership skills. One of their leadership skills is to make the players around them better. It’s the same skill you saw last season in Tim Tebow, and you can see it now in Jeremy Lin, the Knicks’ sensation who has turned that basketball team around. Making people better is an essential leadership skill in sports and business. It’s also my favorite skill, because you need to really KNOW your teammates. You need to know their strengths and their weaknesses, and you need to be a bit of a psychologist. You need to relate to them personally as well. People have different styles and requirements. Good leaders treat people equally, just maybe not the same. The common reaction to knowing each other really well could be called “love.” You see it on the field with Tebow and on the court with Lin: lots of hugging, backslapping, high fiveing – love, baby.
How do leaders get to know their people and engender loyalty? Three things are important:
1. Be genuinely interested in them. Ask questions. Long ago, I learned assuming is disrespectful; curiosity is respectful. It’s true in a marriage and it’s true on a team. Ask people what they think about a certain issue in the workplace. Do they have a family? What do they do with their time off? Do they love sports? Opera? Remember: You are only as interesting as you are interested.
2. Ask for feedback. You don’t need to wait until after you hold a meeting to ask how you did. After any discussion, you can ask if the person is clear, were you detailed enough, can the person start the task right now? Make sure your self esteem is in shape, and you’re prepared for honest feedback.
3. Never gossip. The dictionary definition of “gossip” is: “Casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true.” Gossip kills organizations. When a leader does it, it looks really bad. Make sure your facts are in order, and always take your complaint or request to the person who can actually do something about it.
So go for the knowledge about your individual people, and enjoy the high fives. Just love, baby.