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Simple But Not Easy Ways to Earn Your Leadership

December 1, 2022November 30, 2022by johneadesLeave a comment

The modern workplace says you’re a leader when you have the title of manager. It’s true being a manager means you have a phenomenal opportunity to lead. However, most managers aren’t leaders.

Anyone who has put in the work and effort to receive their work title should be proud. However, your title doesn’t make you a leader; your actions do.

Hierarchy is an important concept in various fields, including the workplace. By definition, a hierarchy is a system or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority. It can link entities either directly and indirectly or vertically or diagonally. Every organization has some form of hierarchy to assist decision-making and create clear lines of responsibility. However, the dark side of hierarchy is it provides a constant temptation that someone is “above” others, therefore, better or more important.

The truth is being a manager is a given job, being a leader is earned in action.

Being a manager is a given job, being a leader is earned in action.

This column is not meant to describe all the differences between being a manager and being a leader. That has been covered many times before. However, If you are looking for ways to earn your leadership, here are a few ideas to help:

Be “With” Them, Not “Above” Them.

Before we talk about leadership, it first helps to define what it means to be a leader in today’s modern workplace. I defined a leader in Building the Best as “someone whose actions inspire, empower, and serve in order to elevate others.”

It’s tempting to think and believe you are above someone when you are higher on the organizational chart. There is a good chance you make more money, your opinions carry more weight with others, or you have more experience than them. However, it’s leaders who are humble and choose to be with instead of above their team that are impressive.

According to research in the Academy of Management Journal, humble leaders actually “embolden individuals to aspire to their highest potential and enables them to make the incremental improvements necessary to progress toward that potential.”

Being a humble leader that is “with” and not “above” pays off in the performance category, but what’s most remarkable is the vast majority of humble leaders have every reason, because of their accomplishments to reject humility but instead, they embrace it. They don’t just talk about it, but it’s built into who they are and how they lead. It’s as if, deep down, they understand that the path to effective leadership is paved with humility, not pride.

Great leaders understand that the path to effective leadership is paved with humility, not pride.

Humility and being “with” instead of “above,” is a mindset before it’s an action. However, in behavior, it doesn’t mean you do someone’s work for them or micromanage every decision. A great way to see this in action is to watch this short video of the way current head coach Mike McDaniel versus previous Head Coach Brian Flores is leading Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa. Coach Flores was “above” Tua, whereas Mike McDaniel is “with” Tua.

Make the Hard Decisions

There are entirely too many managers who refuse to confront reality and make hard decisions. As easy as this is to write, putting it into practice is hard. Take Joel, a manager at a Fortune 500 company, as an example. In a coaching conversation when covering the topic of people and whether he had the right team, he said, “I have one guy that I have known for nine months isn’t in the right role or a good fit for our team, but I just keep kicking the can down the road.”

Joel demonstrates to us that making decisions, especiall around people is hard. The takeaway is this; if you choose leadership, you are in the decision-making business. It means being willing and able to gather insight, information, and opinions and make the call even when it’s complicated.

Choosing leadership means you are in the decision-making business.

Making the call can be challenging and unpopular. However, you earn your leadership when you do. Team members might not like or agree with a hard decision, but deep down, they respect a leader willing to make them.

Closing

To earn in the context of leadership means to gain deservedly in return for one’s behavior. It’s not easy to gain something deservedly, which is why most people won’t do it. It’s easier to rely on your title and authority to get people to do what you want them to do.

However, you are different. You are in the business of earning your leadership. Now is the time to be “with,” not “above” your team and make the hard decisions for the company’s or team’s best interest.

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About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades

Why Small Courageous Acts Are Required to Lead

November 2, 2022November 2, 2022by johneades1 Comment

Courage is the most important leadership skill you can have. Without it, you can’t lead. Those who fail to develop a courageous muscle through actions big or small aren’t inspiring and aren’t worth following.

C.S. Lewis famously said, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.” Lewis got it right because every skill a leader needs to possess will meet its testing point at courage.

However, the value of courage is consistently overlooked. Part of this is because when we first think of courage, we tend to think of heroic acts like landing a plane on the Hudson or saving a company going up in flames. Right behind heroic acts, courage is often thought of as an attribute that only a few extraordinary leaders possess because they are born with it.

While these are widely popular views of courage, it is a far cry from how it’s leveraged by leaders daily. Most courageous acts are small, but they are never insignificant.

Most courageous acts are small, but they are never insignificant.

Small courageous acts stacked upon each other add up. It’s having a crucial conversation, even when it’s inconvenient. It’s doing the right thing, especially when it’s not easy. It’s trying again right after failing.

I define courage in Building the Best as the “ability to do something that frightens you.” It comes from the Latin word cor, meaning heart. Courage comes from the heart. In other words, acting from your heart and doing things that frighten you is a sign of leadership.

What Happens When You’re Courageous

When you have yet to make many courageous decisions in your life or career, it’s tempting to believe you are just not a fearless leader. Instead, reject this negative thinking with all your might.

Neuroscience research suggests that some people innately possess a thrill-seeking or “Type T” personality, courage is still required to act whether you are wired with higher risk tolerance levels or not. Courage is a skill that anyone can develop.

In coaching leaders with different experience levels and industries, one thing always happens when leaders are courageous. They create clarity in the future.

Clarity in the Future

One of the things many professionals are struggling with right now is clarity in their journey. There is so much uncertainty and doubt surrounding us right now; it has many questioning their purpose and pathway. Ironically, when you are frightened and decide to do something anyway, it creates clarity, not confusion. It shows us that we are on the right or wrong path, whereas if we did not act, we would remain stuck in the same place, filled with uncertainty.

Leaders Who Act Courageously Create Clarity, Not Confusion

While we aspire to have clarity as quickly as possible, it is also true that the clarity we want may not find us at our own timeline but later. However, it should provide confidence to know that when you choose courage, you are on the path toward clarity.

How to Be More Courageous

Since courage is essential in leadership and provides significant upside, we must work hard to exercise it. Here are a few of the strategies I have seen be effective:

Write Down the Worst Possible Outcome. Our brains are fascinating because we have an almond-shaped mass called an Amygdala. This part of our brain has become best known for its role in fear processing. This means that this area in our brain controls fear and our responses to it. You are naturally wired to run from or avoid things that can be harmful. Getting in the habit of writing down the worst possible outcome from acting on something that frightens you often provides insight that the worst scenario isn’t actually all that bad.
Quantify the Best Possible Outcome. Since our brains constantly evaluate either the pain or gain in every situation, highlighting the benefits of courageous leadership is a powerful method to encourage action. Regardless if the end outcome meets or even exceeds our expectations, the practice of allowing your brain to visualize the possible benefits in a situation is a decisive step in the process of being more courageous.
Lean Into the Emotions. Acting as if emotions such as doubt or fear do not exist is a false path to courage. Being open and honest about your emotions is not a weakness; it is a strength. Dr. Susan David a leading expert on the topics of Toxic Positivity and emotions, said, “Emotions are data, not directives. We get to choose who we want to be; our emotions don’t.” The wisdom in Dr. David’s words can’t be overstated. Allow yourself to experience the emotions that would cause you not to act courageously and then decide to move forward despite them when it makes sense.

“Emotions are data, not directives. We get to choose who we want to be; our emotions don’t.”

Closing

The better you get at acting as a courageous leader, the easier it will be to set your fear aside and lead people, teams, and organizations to a better place than they are today. To quote the great Nelson Mandela, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

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About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.

Why Reducing Burnout Is About Great Leadership

October 13, 2022October 13, 2022by johneades1 Comment

Nothing makes burnout worse than acting like it’s not happening. Unfortunately, many organizations are oblivious or don’t seem to care that their employees are struggling. Conversely, front-line leaders are experiencing team members at their breaking point and are unsure how to help their team and themselves.

Take Paige, an experienced Regional Vice President, as an example. For two decades, her teams experienced high engagement, consistent growth, and low voluntary turnover. Then the combination of the Covid-19 Pandemic, constant pressure from her management team for double-digit growth, and a shaky economy had her team working around the clock with no end in sight. At first, she acted like it was no big deal, expecting it to be a short season of hard work. But no relief came; eight quarters later, the problem is more significant than ever. What started like a rock making a small crack in a windshield has now grown into long cracks moving in all different directions.

For the first time in her career, she had double-digit voluntary turnover, open positions with no candidates to fill them, and stress levels that caused a short stay in the hospital.

In a recent coaching session, she asked a simple question, “John, how do I make things easier?” My answer was simple, “Instead of wanting things to be easy, prepare for them to be hard.” I continued, “There is nothing easy about leadership, which is why most people don’t do it. However, your leadership is needed most in uncertain and difficult times.”

Instead of wanting things to be easy, prepare for them to be hard.

Burnout is a Real Problem

Before we go any further, let’s clarify what burnout is. The Mayo Clinic describes it as a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.

In a survey of over 1000 respondents by Deloitte, 77% say they have experienced burnout at their current job. 91% say that unmanageable stress or frustration impacts the quality of their work, and 83% say burnout can negatively impact personal relationships.

Achieving anything meaningful requires a relentless work ethic and a willingness to consistently do what the ordinary person does occasionally. However, burnout goes beyond this kind of effort. Burnout isn’t a badge of honor; it’s the start of your life unwinding.

Burnout isn’t a badge of honor; it’s the start of your life unwinding.

What starts as a bit of stress can quickly become health problems, severed personal relationships, and the pursuit of a meaningless life. So admitting you or your team is burned out isn’t a weakness; it’s a strength.

Top Causes of Burnout

Research by McKinsey Health Institute found toxic workplace behavior is the single largest predictor of negative employee outcomes, including burnout symptoms. Here are some examples of toxic workplace behavior:

Unrelenting Leadership Communication – Managers and executives who communicate at night and on weekends expecting immediate responses
Unrealistic Expectations – Unsustainable activity or performance levels.
Consistent Micromanagement – Inability for professionals to be empowered to do their best work.
Lack of Community and Relationships – Sustained periods of loneliness or lack of support.
Sole Focus of Monetary Gain – Primary objective is profit above all else.

If you didn’t notice, leadership is the common denominator in all the top causes of burnout.

Why Solving Burnout is Essential

No one desires stress, anxiety, depression, or the like. However, eliminating work or retiring isn’t the answer to burnout. The late great psychiatrist Victor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning, said, “People can find meaning in one of three places; work, love, and courage.” Former CEO of Best Buy Hubert Joly wrote in his book The Heart of Business, “Work, love, and courage often converge at work because doing something significant often involves caring for others and overcoming adversity.”

Work isn’t the enemy. Not only does it provide financial means, but it can create meaning, purpose, and community.

Simple Ways to Unleash Change

There is no silver bullet or a one size fits all approach to unleashing the kind of change necessary to solve burnout in your team or organization. However, here are a few of my favorites:

1. Focus on a Deeper Purpose

People work harder and overcome adversity much easier when they know their effort is for a meaningful cause. Study after study shows that people who are connected to a meaningful purpose behind their work are more engaged. The best leaders recognize that even a tiny dose of meaning makes a significant difference in reducing burnout.

Even a tiny dose of meaning makes a significant difference in reducing burnout.

It doesn’t matter what you do. There is some more profound purpose behind the work you or your team does, and it’s your job to be connected to it.

2. Enable Personal Growth

Evidence suggests that personal growth, development programs, and learning opportunities effectively tackle burnout and engage and retain employees. However, new research by KPMG suggests the vast majority of CEOs (91%) are expecting a recession within the next year, with about a third anticipating it to be mild and short. This means layoffs and budget cuts around training development are likely.

However, companies and specifically Human Resource or Learning & Development Executives, that commit to investing in their employees will make meaningful contributions to people and business metrics.

Companies committed to investing in employees will make meaningful contributions to people and business metrics.

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3. Hold Yourself or Managers Accountable

Almost all roads of burnout lead to executive management teams and managers in the organization. However, many organizations measure their leaders based on one thing, and that’s results. So I would like to suggest an alternative approach, one that looks at both results and culture. You can see the impact of effective leadership in more ways than one.

The best organizations hold managers accountable for results and the culture they create.

Which would you rather have;

Manager 1: Delivers double-digit revenue growth yearly but has an 80% turnover rate and a highly dysfunctional team.

Manager 2: Consistently delivers single-digit revenue growth, but has low turnover, develops talent, and a highly engaged team.

Your answer to this question should show you a lot about how you are holding managers accountable.

Closing

It’s time to bring burnout from the shadows into the light because nothing is worse than acting like burnout isn’t happening. Focusing on a deeper purpose, enabling personal growth, and holding managers accountable won’t solve the problem, but they will reduce it. When it comes to burnout, helping even one professional reconnect and find meaning at work is worth it.

Take the Free Leadership Skill Quiz – You know how most professionals are confused about why they aren’t progressing in their career? It turns out they are too focused on their technical skills instead of their leadership skills. Enter the SkillsLoft LeaderSkill Quiz. Discover Your leadership skill level in 5 minutes or less.

John’s New Book Sign up to get early access to John’s new book. By doing so, you will be entered to win a free signed copy when it’s released Sign up here.

About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.

How the Best Organizations Develop Their Leaders

September 21, 2022September 21, 2022by johneadesLeave a comment

When an organization struggles, it’s easy to point at outside factors like market conditions, strategy, or the division’s performance. However, more often than not, a failing organization boils down to ineffective leadership.

In the not-so-distant past, every critical decision was left to the CEO or Management Team. In today’s rapid change environment, this practice can and will be detrimental to an organization’s existence. Organizations that are highly effective at overcoming adverse conditions have leaders at every level, not just at the top.

Unfortunately, most organizations believe they have leaders at every level because they are designed hierarchically. But, just because you have managers doesn’t mean you have leaders.

Just because organizations have managers doesn’t mean they have leaders.

Instead of going into all the differences between managers and leaders, let’s get on the same page about what it means to be a leader. As I defined in Building the Best, “someone whose actions inspire, empower, and serve in order to elevate others.” Want to discover you are elevating others in your leadership style? Take the free leadership style quiz here. Every manager can learn to elevate others, but it doesn’t mean they are.

On a recent episode of the John Eades podcast, Dr. Garland Vance backed this up, saying, “Leadership is a set of skills that have to be practiced, developed, and honed over time. There might be people that are born with it, but the people who get really good at it are the ones who work at it. Just like Steph Curry is naturally a good basketball player, but he practices like crazy to become great.”

Just because you can lead doesn’t mean you are.

Why Some Companies Don’t Invest in Their People

It’s no secret that some organizations don’t invest in their people. The list of reasons is long, but traditionally training can be expensive, time-consuming, and ineffective. If that weren’t enough, organizations can spend a lot of time, money, and energy to help develop someone, and they could leave. I love the CFO to CEO-conversation around this:

CFO Asks CEO: “what happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?”

CEO: “What happens if we don’t, and they stay?”

Richard Branson backed this up by saying, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don’t want to.” While Branson is right, every organization would be more effective if professionals willingly invested in themselves as leaders instead of relying on their company.

Most people won’t willingly invest in themselves, especially when it comes to their leadership development.

Unfortunately, people avoid leadership development because there isn’t a clear and guaranteed outcome like money or entertainment at the end of the course or book.

Growth Takes Time and Action

The less talked about reason organizations don’t invest in their people is they aren’t patient, and they can’t control the outcome. The world has become so short-term focused, we forget that growth takes time. As much as we want to become great at anything, it takes repetition and experience. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut other than training, effort, and coaching, and even then, the outcome isn’t guaranteed.

Growth not only takes time, but it also takes action. Too often, leaders forget that growth isn’t a goal, it’s a byproduct of what happens when we take action.

Growth isn’t a goal, it’s a byproduct of what happens when we take action.

I constantly have to remind myself and others that great leadership doesn’t always show up in short-term results, but its impact is always realized in the long term in the people that experience a great leader. If you need a quick reminder about the importance of making an impact, watch this short video from my recent keynote.

Don’t Leave Leadership Development to Chance

Here are two simple strategies to ensure you don’t leave leadership development to chance on your team or in your organization.

Create a Culture of Growth and Learning

Leadership, like many things, is a journey and not a destination. Many organizations know this and have built internal leadership development academies/universities. These include things like year-long courses, learning tracks, workshops, coaching, and mentoring, to name a few.

Formal learning is fantastic, but learning can and should take place anytime. One of the best ways to embed this in a culture is to ask a simple question of yourself and others:

“What’s something you have learned in the last 24 hours?”

Promote the Coachable

Since the best leaders are learners, being coachable is essential for any leader. More often than not, a person’s ability to say or do something significant is built on the backbone of hard work, dedication, and being coachable.

What’s interesting about coachability is that it’s not a technical skill or inherent to us. It’s a mental mindset that anyone can embrace. Being coachable is how you show the world that you have a hunger to get better and are willing to put in the work and effort.

Being coachable is how you show the world that you have a hunger to get better and are willing to put in the work and effort.

Nick Saban, the legendary head football coach at Alabama, constantly preaches to his players and coaches to “respect the critical eye.” This means that instead of getting defensive, embrace when someone is coaching you with a critical eye because they are trying to improve you.

Organizations that promote coachable and “respect the critical eye” professionals at every level will have more leaders than those who do not because coachable people eventually pour that knowledge into others.

Closing

All kinds of strategies dramatically improve the effectiveness of leadership development programs. A few of my current favorites include:

Provide proven content
Include one-on-one or group coaching
Subscribe to Cohort Based learning

Whether you use these tactics or not, great things happen if companies have the desire and commitment to developing leaders. Frontline employees provide a better experience to customers, managers will have healthier teams, and parents will have a stronger family structure outside of work.

Take the Free Leadership Style Quiz – Discover your current leadership style for free in less than 5 minutes.

John’s New Book Sign up to get early access to John’s new book. By doing so, you will be entered to win a free signed copy when it’s released Sign up here.

About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.

3 Reasons Employees Quit and How to Fix It

September 8, 2022September 8, 2022by johneades1 Comment

It used to be that employees just wanted a good job with a steady paycheck. Many would sacrifice their passions and tolerate an average job. However, thanks to a strong employment run and the rapid advancement of the gig economy, the veil of scarcity job thinking has turned into abundant job thinking by many professionals.

The power of employment is now in the hands of talented professionals, and the best companies recognize it. Whether you call it the “Great Resignation” or “Quit Quitting,” there is no doubt this is the time period of the professional. Research by McKinsey suggests that 40% of employees are considering quitting their jobs in the next 3 to 6 months. Most professionals who have left or are thinking about it aren’t walking away for a small pay raise. Instead, they are focused on moving towards something better. They move toward leaders and companies who care about them and intersect with their passions and purpose.

Professionals are moving toward leaders who care about them and companies that intersect with their passions and purpose.

Why People Quit

Employees quit jobs for many different reasons. Many people believe, that “people don’t leave companies, they leave managers.” While this isn’t always the case, one of the primary reasons people leave is because of a bad boss. I shared some insights in a recent video here.

McKinsey’s research of why people quit highlights what I call “The Big Three.”

Lack of Career Development / Advancement
Inadequate Compensation
Uncaring / Uninspiring Leaders

None of these by themselves are shocking or insightful. However, in my work coaching leaders and helping build organizational culture, people often leave when these three interact. You can think of it this way; people are much more likely to quit when they have an uncaring/uninspiring leader and are inadequately compensated. Or they lack career development/advancement and have an uncaring /uninspiring leader.

Employees leave when two or more reasons they would quit interact with each other.

How the Best Organizations and Leaders are Adapting

While no company or leader is perfect, the best organizations know employee retention is a great business practice. On average, employee turnover costs organizations between 1x-2x a year’s salary once they have been in the organization for over three years. A Google study found that the average employee that turns over within one year costs about $50,000. The cost of turnover is expensive, and retention is essential.

However, in the current talent market, retaining high performers and great team players deserves a dedicated strategy corporately and implemented by each manager. Because the best leaders build systems as if their employees will stay forever, even though they know it isn’t true.

Build retention strategies as if employees will stay forever.

Adapt Retention Strategies Quickly

As a leadership coach and consultant, I have the privilege of sitting in the front row as companies bare the truth about their recruiting and retention techniques and strategies. More often than not, companies focus more on recruiting than retention. While recruiting talented people is an essential element of leadership, the best leaders focus more on retention than recruiting because fulfilled employees do a lot of recruiting because they are raving fans of the company.

The best leaders focus more on retention than recruiting.

The best retention strategies revolve around four key elements:

Purposeful Culture – Provide meaningful work and make people feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves.
Training and Development – Invest in managers’ development so they can lead more effectively. Provide learning opportunities for all employees to create a learning culture.
Ample Compensation – Compensation that exceeds the average pay by industry average and exceeds personal needs.
Empowerment and Flexibility – Create an environment that allows employees to take ownership of their work, decision making, and schedule.

Closing

The “how-to” strategies to improve retention around creating a purposeful culture, providing training and development opportunities, giving ample compensation, and sharing empowerment and flexibility are endless. If you want to know if you’re doing a good job, look for these as proof:

Leadership development programs
Best-in-class technology tools
Core values designed and discussed
Culture of coaching and mentoring

I hope that instead of blaming, complaining, and acting as if people are disposable, you will do your part to make a difference in people right where you are. Use the opportunities in front of you to “bloom where you are planted” because that’s exactly what the best leaders do.

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About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades

Caring Yet Demanding: How Great Leaders Succeed

August 25, 2022August 25, 2022by johneades2 Comments

The temptation for leaders to lower the bar has officially arrived. The combination of the “great resignation” and a two-year run of an employee-driven market has caused many leaders to have an easy-going mentality. While it’s essential to care profoundly and treat people with dignity and respect, lowering the standard required for success will hurt everyone involved.

Take Gabrielle, a sales manager, at a large technology company, as an example. She had been in leadership for 10+ years and her teams consistently performed at elite levels. However, due to higher than normal turnover and a fear she was demanding too much of team members, she lowered the bar on expectations. Specifically, she began tolerating lower activity levels, below average work, less than outstanding effort, and bad attitudes.

It didn’t take but a few months for the results of her changes to show up on the scoreboard. Instead of being at the top of the sales team rankings, they had moved to the bottom. In Gabrielle’s attempt to appease her team, unfortunately, she demonstrated a key leadership principle from Building the Best:

The instant you lower the standard, the instant performance begins to erode.

You and I are just as susceptible to act or behave like Gabrielle. However, to be a great leader, demanding excellence while demonstrating the highest level of care is a part of the job. In my work studying, interviewing, and coaching leaders, it’s evident that people need help and assistance from others to perform at their best consistently.

The best leaders demand excellence while demonstrating the highest level of care

Before we get off track, let’s get on the same page about what it means to be demanding yet intensely caring as a leader. Demanding is best defined as ‘to meet high standards.’ It comes from the Latin Word Demandare, which means to “hand over or entrust.” Being demanding with care isn’t a negative; it’s to help others meet high standards by entrusting them and encouraging them. However, most leaders demand excellence from others, but they forget an essential element.

Relationships Always Matter in Leadership

At LearnLoft, we researched extensively how the best leaders elevated others by using high levels of love and discipline in their leadership style. If team members don’t feel cared for before a leader demands, it will have an inverse effect. The reason is simple:

Leaders must connect before they correct.

Or said differently, rules before relationships lead to rebellion. Not understanding or believing these two simple leadership principles cause many leaders to fail and are the reason research shows 65% of employees would give up a salary increase if they could fire their boss.

I covered some specific strategies for quickly and effectively building relationships and connecting with others in a recent episode of the John Eades Podcast, titled, “Connection Isn’t Just Nice, It’s Necessary.”

Demand with Care vs. Demand with Neglect

Even using the word demanding as a leader is extreme in today’s work culture. With so many employees struggling with burnout, stress, and anxiety, how demanding a leader is at a given time is a critical decision to make. The mental and physical health of people must always outweigh any short-term achievement that comes because a leader is demanding.

The mental and physical health of people must always outweigh any short-term achievement that comes because a leader is demanding

Mental and physical health removed, all demanding seems a cause, not for joy but pain; later, when paired with care, it provides great fruit.

Below is a visual example of those leaders who demand with care vs. demand with neglect.

How to Demand with Care

There is a fine line between confidence and complacency. No one is immune to being complacent or giving less than optimum effort. The best leaders recognize this in themselves and others which is why they demand with care.

One of the best and often overlooked strategies is to pair communication with an expression of care. An example of this would be coaching a team member hard but giving a handshake or a pat on the back before they leave. Another example in a virtual environment would be pairing tough feedback with, “I am telling you this because I believe in you, and I know you can do it better.”

The “5 Love Language” Advanced Care Strategy

An advanced leadership strategy I teach leaders is knowing a team member’s “love language” in a non-romantic way. This allows you to express your intense care for team members in alignment with how they most recognize it. If you’re unfamiliar with Gary Chapman’s five love languages here, they are:

Words of Affirmation – Encourage, Affirm, or Appreciate
Physical Touch – Use Handshakes, Fist Bumps, or High Fives
Receiving Gifts – Thoughtful gifts or gestures
Quality Time – One-on-one time or uninterrupted attention
Acts of Service – Alleviate their workload or help complete a task

Closing

One of the most potent questions any leader can ask is, “how would others describe you?” While there is no correct or perfect answer to this question, if there isn’t a strong consideration for the words “caring” and “demanding,” there is some work to be done.

Effective Leadership Communication Workshop – In less than 1 hour, refine your communication skills. Sign up for the next live workshop or access the OnDemand Course.

John’s New Book Sign up to get early access to John’s new book. By doing so, you will be entered to win a free signed copy when it’s released Sign up here.

Free Leadership Focus Tool There is nothing easy about staying focused. So we put together a quick tool to see how focused you are. Download it for free here.

About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.

How to Leverage Clarity to Dramatically Improve Your Communication

August 17, 2022August 17, 2022by johneades1 Comment

Communication is essential in every aspect of life that deals with relationships. However, when it comes to leadership, a failure to communicate consistently is the beginning of the end. However, just because it’s critical doesn’t mean most leaders are good at it.

In research from the SkillsLoft assessments, clarity is the most common leadership skill plaguing high-performing and low-performing leaders. When leaders struggle to communicate with clarity, it creates confusion.

Leaders who struggle to communicate with clarity create confusion.

What is Clarity and Why Do Leaders Struggle?

For clarity (see what I did there), let’s get on the same page about what it means in the context of leadership. Clarity is the ability to be clear, concise, and impactful when communicating verbally or in writing. Leaders tend to struggle with clarity for one of three reasons:

False Assumptions – Leaders live so much in their heads that they assume people know, and often they don’t.
Premature Thoughts – In our fast-paced business environment, it’s almost encouraged to say or write something before it is well thought out or complete.
Incomplete Information – There is a growing sense to communicate regardless of whether managers have all the information or not.

Of the three, false assumptions are the most important to unpack and solve. “Clarity is not only kind, it’s essential. Clarity brings oxygen into the room, so it isn’t filled with worry, doubt, blame, and fear,” said Jason Barger, author of the new book Breathing Oxygen, on the latest episode of The John Eades Podcast. His words are wise because, in the absence of clear communication, team members will fill the gaps with their own incorrect stories.

In the absence of clear communication, team members fill the gaps with their own incorrect stories.

Too often, leaders make assumptions that they have communicated with clarity. In one of my favorite books of all time, The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz, he wrote, “Assumptions set us up for suffering.”

Assumptions in Communication Set Everyone Up for Suffering

Small Changes Make a Big Difference

Since each leader might be transparent in their communication one day and struggle with it the next, small changes often lead to big gains. For these small changes to take effect, they must be made prior to communicating instead of after.

Small changes in communication can lead to big gains in comprehension and execution.

A straightforward strategy I coach leaders to leverage is to ask themselves one of three questions before communicating. These questions take less than one minute and

Is what I am about to say or write helpful?
What action do I desire others to take?
Is this making the waters clearer or murkier?

While these three questions are simple, it doesn’t mean they are easy to answer. However, if you get in the habit of asking yourself one of these three questions before hitting send on an email or text, I promise you will improve your clarity.

Here is the tricky part, this is much easier to do with written communication. Verbal communication is much more difficult. Often you are speaking off the cuff or after an emotional response, thus making it exponentially more difficult.

A tiny strategy you can use is to ask the person or people you are communicating with a simple question when you are finished speaking:

“What was your main takeaway from what I said?”

While this technique might make you feel a little bit like an elementary school teacher, it dramatically reduces the likelihood of assumptions taking place.

Closing

Being more clear in your communication won’t be easy. The challenge to you this week is to get in the habit of asking yourself one simple question before communicating. I promise others will thank you.

Effective Communication Workshop – In less than 1 hour refine your communication skills. Sign up for the next live workshop or access the OnDemand Course.

John’s New Book Sign up to get early access to John’s new book. By doing so, you will be entered to win a free signed copy when it’s released Sign up here.

Free Leadership Focus Tool There is nothing easy about staying focused. So we put together a quick tool to see how focused you are. Download it for free here.

About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.

5 Beliefs You Must Embrace to Be a Successful Leader

August 10, 2022August 10, 2022by johneadesLeave a comment

Leaders embrace a different set of beliefs than managers. As much as CEOs and Human Resource Executives want all of their managers to think and act like leaders, it happens so rarely.

While leaders possess a plethora of skills, capabilities, and competencies, there is often something missing from managers that are required to lead; the right beliefs.

A belief is a reinforced pattern in your brain.

This definition is important because it shows that we aren’t born with beliefs; they’re developed when things are experienced and reinforced until they become patterns in our brains. When it comes to leadership and life, our beliefs are fundamental because our beliefs become our behavior.

Beliefs become behaviors

Take a 25 MPH speed limit in a school zone as an example. Most drivers will slow down and drive the speed limit through the school zone because they believe speed will keep kids safe. Thus their belief becomes their new behavior. This is the good news. The bad news is that most of our beliefs might be wrong.

Research from the book The Four Agreements found that 95% of the beliefs we store in our minds are lies. Many people have beliefs about themselves or situations that aren’t true, and this holds them back from practicing the right kind of behavior.

Leadership Beliefs to You Must Embrace

Based on our research of thousands of leaders, we’ve found that the best leaders carry a few common beliefs, regardless of their roles, circumstances, or situation.

1. People Can Change and Improve

There is this common misconception that people can’t change. We have all heard the quote, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” and it couldn’t be more wrong. People change all the time, and it’s required to be successful.

Leaders assume that people cannot change when they try to force changes on others instead of empowering those people to unleash it.

Too many leaders force change instead of looking for ways to unleash it.

Of course, change requires a willingness to be coachable and to put in consistent effort. Often, people rely too much on excuses and hold themselves back from making the changes necessary to thrive.

Reject the thoughts of putting your people in a box. So many leaders make the mistake of passing judgment on who a team member is or what they can accomplish. Be the kind of leader who challenges others’ thinking and coaches them to become a better version of themselves.

2. Good Things Will Happen

Jon Gordon, famously said, “Being positive won’t guarantee you’ll succeed. But being negative will guarantee you won’t.” Tony Robbins backed him up:

“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited about what could go right.”

As easy as that is to say, believing good things will happen and choosing positivity is difficult. The reason is simple; research from the late Trevor Moawad found that negativity is 4-7 times more powerful than positivity. When you say something negative, it’s 40-70 times more likely to end with a negative result than if you didn’t say anything.

The great news is that you can change your beliefs. Start with the daily habit called the Rule of Three Positives. The rule is simple; each day, write down three positive things you did or experienced.

3. Failure is Not Final; Failure is Feedback

Achieving business success isn’t easy, regardless of your industry. Great leaders not only know this, but they embrace it. A breakthrough isn’t going to happen without some failure along the way.

I wrote about Callaway Golf CEO Chip Brewer’s story in Building the Best. He told his team early in their transformational journey, “I do not care how we have to do it and how many things we have to fail on, we aren’t going to launch products that aren’t demonstratively superior and pleasingly different.”

Brewer believed failure was not final; failure is feedback. It’s not if you or your team members will fail or make mistakes, it’s when. Carry the belief that “failure is not final, failure is feedback” with you moving forward.

4. Responsibility Lies Where You Have Control

The best leaders take extreme ownership. However, they don’t take this kind of responsibility for everything, only the things they can control. If I only had one belief that I could transfer to every leader in the world, it would be this:

Be ruthlessly responsible for the things you can control.

There are simple things every person has control over; things such as attitude, effort, and mindset are good examples. Too often, we forget this simple truth and try to control things like the decisions of others, markets changing, or adversity.

One of the most common characteristics of the highest performing teams is when each team member embraces this belief as well.

5. Patience is a Virtue

Patience is hard for many people, and it’s become even harder in the world of “what have you done for me lately.”

The word patience means the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. The keywords here are “accept or tolerate delay.” This doesn’t mean you shy away from aggressive goals, but that you’re willing to accept or tolerate delay because you know you’re playing the long game.

This mindset allows you to make decisions that are in the long-term best interest instead of the short-term.

Closing

While all leaders who have had success might not have the same beliefs, there is a good chance many carry these five with them daily. Since beliefs are a reinforced pattern in your brain, you can embrace these beliefs. They aren’t only meant for the select few.

What beliefs do you carry that help you be an effective leader that isn’t on the list?

John’s New Book Sign up to get early access to John’s new book. By doing so, you will be entered to win a free signed copy when it’s released Sign up here.

Free Leadership Focus Tool There is nothing easy about staying focused. So we put together a quick tool to see how focused you are. Download it for free here.

About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.

Why the Best Leaders Refuse to Lose Focus

August 3, 2022August 3, 2022by johneades1 Comment

When you lack focus, you’re going to grow resentful. You will be frustrated with failing to meet unrealistic expectations of yourself and others. You eventually start to question whether you are good enough or even have the talent to achieve positive outcomes.

Unfortunately, this is the situation many leaders find themselves in today. Aggressive revenue and growth plans have caused most leaders to try and accomplish too much at once. If you take nothing else away from this column, take this:

Talented teams will achieve ordinary results with unfocused leadership.

Common sense tells us that being open to more will provide more. But that rarely is the case. Bill Gates backed this up by saying, “Only through focus can you do world-class things, no matter how capable you are.” There isn’t an in-person or virtual leadership workshop that goes by that I don’t reinforce his wise words by telling participants, “leaders often don’t lack talent; they lack focus.” What I have learned from observing and coaching leaders is there are three levels of focus:

Three Levels of Focus

Level 1 Wide Focus: Wide Focus, the lowest form of focus. Leaders and professionals with level 1 focus have difficulty prioritizing what’s most important. They aren’t sure which direction to go, so they often go in whatever direction looks most accessible and most appealing at a particular time. Usually, the wide focus creates a “shiny penny” view of their business or team. Unfortunately, due to their lack of focus, everything looks appealing or worth exploring. There are times when “diamonds in the rough” are found, but it’s few and far between.

Level 2 Moderate Focus: Moderate Focus is good, not great. Leaders and professionals with level 2 moderate focus have a good sense of direction and find it easier to say no to things or opportunities that would have them lose focus. They typically have a solid list of priorities, but sticking to them and working on the right things daily can be challenging.

Level 3 Narrow Focus: Narrow focus is the highest form of focus, and it’s precise. Leaders and professionals with level 3 narrow focus have priorities and perspective. They know precisely where they or their team are trying to go. They are on a mission, and it’s challenging to get them off of it. They have a daily and weekly system they rely on. They communicate that plan to ensure everyone stays on the same page and executes at the highest possible level.

Regardless of what level of focus you find yourself or your organization in today, there is no judgment because staying focused is hard work. The reason why is because it’s harder to keep focused than to explore distractions.

It’s harder to stay focused than explore distractions.

It takes discipline, accountability, systematic thinking, and vision to reject opportunities to explore distractions. If that wasn’t enough, according to research, our attention span has markedly decreased in just 15 years. In 2000, it was 12 seconds. Now, 15 years later, it’s shrunk significantly to 8.25 seconds. In fact, scientists believe we now have shorter attention spans than goldfish, who can focus on a task or object for 9 seconds.

However, just because it’s hard to stay focused doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive for it. Here are a few ways to help you, including Leadership Focus Tool. Download it for free here.

1. Know the Mission

Alone is a documentary show produced by The History Channel and streamed on Netflix. The premise is that ten people are sent into the wild independently at the same, and the one who survives being alone the longest wins $500,000. It’s a fascinating show about human resolve, problem-solving, and overcoming broken beliefs.

Beyond these, it’s all about the mission. Each participant agrees to take on the challenge because the mission is clear, “last the longest in the wild and win $500,000.” Because they know the mission, they create priorities to improve the odds of winning.

2. Define the Priorities

It isn’t easy to achieve any mission without knowing the priorities required to get you there. In the case of “Alone,” each participant immediately focuses their priorities on safety, food, and shelter. It doesn’t matter what you do, what size organization you work in, or what size team you lead; if there are more than five priorities, that’s too many to execute well.

If leaders have more than five priorities, that’s too many for a team to execute well.

What priorities allow you to do is “keep the main things the main things.” Personal priorities might look something like this:

Faith
Fitness
Family
Work

An example of Work Priorities that I wrote about in Building the Best look something like this:

Excellent Employee Experience
Exceptional Customer Experience
New Revenue Generation
Innovation and Development

3. Execute Key Initiatives

In the end, it’s not intentions that matter its execution. It’s not the plan, it’s the execution of the plan. Many excellent books like Eat the Frog, The 5 AM Club, or Atomic Habits highlight habits, actions, and execution as keys to success. One of my favorite lines on the subject is from author Austin Kleon, “Lots of people want the noun without doing the verb. They want the job title without the work.”

Lots of people want the noun without doing the verb. – Austin Kleon

The best leaders and elite teams execute key initiatives against the priorities. They aren’t afraid of doing the verb because they know it’s what’s required for them to be successful.

Closing

The most exciting part of focus is it’s entirely within your control. Dwayne Johnson said, “Success at anything will always come down to this: focus and effort. And we control both.”

Regardless of how focused you have been in the past, what I want you to be concerned with is how focused you will be starting today by knowing the mission, defining the priorities, and executing key initiatives.

Keep leading your best.

John’s New Book Sign up to get early access to John’s new book. By doing so, you will be entered to win a free signed copy when it’s released Sign up here.

Free Leadership Focus Tool There is nothing easy about staying focused. So we put together a quick tool to see how focused you are. Download it for free here.

About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.

How the Best Leaders Shift the Energy on Their Team

June 30, 2022June 30, 2022by johneades1 Comment

The energy on a team is no accident. When it’s in the room, it can’t be mistaken. People are engaged, excited and strive to perform at their best.

The tricky question is, where does it come from, and what is it?

Energy is defined as the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity. In the context of leadership and teams, I simplify it as “the ability to do great work with optimistic effort.”

When teams have the right kind of energy, it impacts the consistency, intensity, and speed at which members give effort, work together and perform. On a recent episode of Work-Life, Hubert Joly, the former CEO of Best Buy credited energy as a key to the company’s transformation and turnaround. He said, “I needed people’s help from the beginning, and that created energy to attack the real problems together.” Joly facilitated this by asking associates and general managers three simple questions:

What’s working?
What’s not working?
What do you need?

What Joly understood was traditional thinking about energy on a team only coming from results wasn’t entirely true. Energy ultimately comes from people. If you take nothing else away from this column, I want you to take away this;

One person can completely change the energy on a team or in a room.

This principle can be positive or negative, depending on the situation.

Energy Roles on a Team

John Wooden, one of the best college basketball coaches and examples of leadership, said, “Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm. Our energy is infectious, whether it’s lethargic or enthusiastic is a choice we make each day.”

What this ultimately means is the energy each person, especially a leader, brings to a team can be positive, negative, or even neutral. I summarize these into three roles.

The Reducer- A reducer is an energy suck at its core and is destructive. People who choose to be a reducer enhance feelings of doubt, worry, and frustration. They cause team members to get negative and blame each other for mistakes or bad outcomes. These people are what my friend John Gordon, the author of the Energy Bus and Power of a Positive Team, calls an “energy vampire.”

The Neutralizer – A neutralizer, doesn’t bring energy one way or another. They rarely create positive or negative energy, but they go along with the current energy or what they experience around them.

The Enhancer – An enhancer is constructive, lifts people up, and encourages themselves and others to look for opportunities in every situation. Enhancers aren’t blindly optimistic. Instead, they embrace reality but choose hope.

Regardless of your role on your team, there is one certain thing. The best leaders find a way to enhance energy, not reduce it. They find ways to build up, not tear down. They find creative ways to elevate the energy of their people.

Great leaders find a way to elevate the team’s energy.

However, it’s easy to tell yourself and others to be an enhancer, but that doesn’t mean it will happen. Intentionally choosing and being a leader that constantly thinks about and modifies the energy of a team isn’t easy. Creative methods and techniques often are required to trick your brain and others into looking at the light instead of the dark. Here are a few ways to make it happen:

1. Cultivate Energy in Yourself

While it’s true some people wake up with excitement that mimics the energizer bunny, most people don’t have that luxury.

What’s required is doing and consuming life-giving, not life-depleting things. While each person is different, the shared examples include exercising, writing, reading, praying, journaling, competing, meditating, and fueling (diet). Since energy, like motivation, is a depleting asset, creating daily habits that cultivate energy in yourself is required.

2. Appeal to Emotions Through Mantras

Mantras may only be a few words long, but they can have a powerful stirring up emotions that create energy in an individual or team. After studying great leaders in different industries, it’s clear they tap into their power to help inspire their team. I refer to these in Building the Best as “Maximizing Mantras.” With just a few words, you create the inspirational drive that helps inspire future successes.

One of the most recent (and well-known) maximizing mantras was college football coach P.J. Fleck’s “Row the Boat,” which helped bring the previously overlooked Western Michigan football team into the limelight with a winning record and a spot in the 2017 Cotton Bowl. The mantra has come to define the coach and his teams, even after moving to a new job at the University of Minnesota.

In an interview with MLive, Fleck explained that the mantra referred to three parts: the oar, which provided the energy, the boat, which represented the sacrifices that team members, administration, and fans were willing to make for the program, and finally, the compass, which symbolized the direction the team wanted to go. Combining all these ideas into a single phrase served as a powerful motivator for the team.

When you find short, simple phrases that encapsulate big ideas, you can quickly create an energy in yourself or in a team that didn’t exist before.

3. Shrink Negativity to 1 Minute or Less

Most people would say to eliminate all negativity regardless of the cost. In a perfect world, this is excellent advice. But this isn’t possible since you lead yourself and others in an imperfect world. Instead of trying to eliminate negative energy, look to shrink it.

A negative comment or a poor reaction to an unfortunate situation won’t eliminate all positive energy, especially if you shrink it to one minute or less. What ends up happening is both you and your team will become more self-aware of their comments and reaction that hurt future performance versus help it.

Closing

The best leaders understand that energy on a team isn’t an accident. It’s something they constantly monitor and intentionally choose to enhance daily. If you prioritize cultivating energy in yourself, appealing to emotions through a maximizing mantra, and shrinking negativity to 1 minute or less, you will be mimicking the best leaders.

Will it be easy with all the negative news of a possible recession or uncertainty in the business world? No, it will not. But you wouldn’t be in the position you are in today if you weren’t capable of elevating your team’s energy.

John’s New Book Sign up to get early access to John’s new book. By doing so, you will be entered to win a free signed copy when it’s released Sign up here.

Free Downloadable Coaching Cheatsheet There is nothing easy about coaching. So we put together a list of eight of the best coaching questions to help you. Download it for free here.

About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.