Being a More Effective Leader – Apply What You Learn to What You Do (Part IV)

Taking new information and putting it into practice is never as easy as it sounds. Most new things take time and practice to make them yours and ensure you feel comfortable doing them. This is especially true when expanding into new areas. Be patient with yourself; that is how we grow.

1. Set up dedicated 1:1 times with your direct reports (provide undivided attention) 

You may already be doing this to stay connected with your team. However, it also seems to be one thing that gets cut when time gets tight on the calendar. One-on-one meetings can feel forced or unimportant when you have a heavy meeting schedule already. Or if you are working in a store, it may seem difficult to have that time away from the floor. However, I have always found these sessions to be very valuable. I can recall a three times a week meeting I had with my Store Manager many years ago. It was some of the best times of my week. We were able to discuss open items, plan for the next few days, and review priorities. I always felt like I knew what was going on and the expectations he had of me.

I do recommend that you work on having some structure to these meetings. Without a basic agenda and/or follow-up items for each session, it can be easy to cut them short, cancel them, or allow the entire conversation to trail off in unproductive ways.

2. Delegate more to others

We cannot do it all ourselves. Delegation is not a bad word or something to avoid. In fact, for many people, it is underutilized and misunderstood. Delegation is about taking things off your plate that would be best served by others accomplishing that work. It could be for skill set purposes, time reasons, or to help develop someone else. Delegation is not about just pawning off unwanted work to someone else without any thought.

We all have the same number of hours in the week. There is no getting around that. I have 168 hours, you have 168 hours, every CEO has 168 hours in their week. How we choose to use it is what differentiates each leader. If you can spend more of your time on high-value, productive work, you will accomplish more. What may not be high-value, productive work to you could be for many others. And, with that, you have the opportunity to provide them the experience they may not otherwise have. 

Sometimes we want to be in two places at once. Effective delegation can allow something as close to that as possible to happen.

3. Recognize more

Recognition is like a give one, get one promotion. Recognizing other people for their successes and accomplishments feels good. So as you are providing praise to others, you get your own reward. (Which encourages you to do more of it again in the future). It should be a simple process that creates momentum. Yet, it is one of those things that finds itself on an annual review of opportunities or just the list of things you may want to do more of in the coming year.

Here is an idea – and I do not count it as cheating at all – write it down on your ‘to-do list’ each day to recognize someone for their effort, hard work, or accomplishments. It still has to be specific, meaningful, and genuine. Just because you reminded yourself to do so doesn’t make it any less important or impactful to those around you. Once you build a habit of doing it from your daily list, you can remove it because it will naturally become something you want to do each day.

4. Take risks

Risk-taking is always easier said than done. It is also relative to your current situation. What risk means to one person or one company can vary from everyone else. What may seem extremely risky to you may be table stakes for someone else. Don’t concentrate on that. Taking risks means getting out of your comfort zone. That may mean speaking up in a conference call on a subject you are not as familiar with. Or trying a new approach to coaching or visiting stores. Those can be great starts to ease into taking larger risks later on.

To a degree, there is a risk in any decision you make. You still have to weigh the pros and cons. However, there are plenty of opportunities to go with a ‘gut’ decision that may feel riskier than usual – try it. Risk doesn’t have to be placing your job on the line, and it should never put anyone’s safety in jeopardy. Risk isn’t drama; it is about taking a chance on something that might not work as expected. You learn from it, and you move on. The upside is the experience from trying something new, the learning that comes from the outcome, and the growth that comes from expanding your own horizon.

5. Try new communication techniques and mediums

Trying new communication ideas can be frightening. We get comfortable with the way we do things, and it can be hard to shift away from that, especially for something as important as communication. The technology landscape has changed a lot, even in the last year to provide new options and alternatives for connecting and communicating with others. Now is a perfect time to explore new ideas.

If your company has begun to use a tool like Microsoft Teams or Slack, or another platform, how deeply have you embraced it? Most of these tools are so much more than an advanced messaging service. Collaboration platforms offer multiple options for how they can be used to connect different people, different teams, and cross-functional activities. 

If email has been your primary technique for communicating, evaluate what other options might make as much or more sense. If all you do is written communication, could you use video, even short ones, to share your ideas even more effectively? Even an audio message can be a great way to communicate effectively. Once upon a time, before email, there were voice messages that you called in to receive and get updates from your leaders. That wasn’t a bad idea, technology changed it, but actually, I believe it may be a lost art that would serve a better purpose today than it did then. Whatever the option may be, trying new ways to communicate to and with your team can lead to better results and outcomes – give it a try.

A challenge to you after reading this set of ideas – take one, make it yours and then put it into action in the next five days. Practice it, give it a full chance to see if it will make a difference for you. Sometimes what seems like it will make sense won’t, and other times just the opposite. If you try one, and it doesn’t connect, try another and see how that works for you.

Which idea will you try? Why? How will you apply it to your existing routines?

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