Monday Morning Leadership – Week 2

Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

If every time you turn around you find yourself donning fire gear and a hose, then you're not being a leader. Leaders are to whom people turn during a crisis, but they should not be continuously putting out fires. You can't lead when you're the one holding the hose.

Instead, a leader should keep themselves and their group focused on their goals…the main thing. The leader needs to ensure the group knows and understands the goals, rather than just assume they do. "... [W]hen you depend on another's perceptions to match your expectations, you're setting yourself up for disappointment." You have to make certain everyone is paddling the boat in the same direction.

What if your boss is a poor leader with whom you have no relationship? Cottrell suggests that the relationship between a leader and his boss affects the workers and he's absolutely correct. I've been there.

I remember how frustrated I was with that person and how much I sincerely did not understand how they were in their current position. I soon realized my poor relationship with her was affecting my relationship with my associates. I had to do an about-face and work to develop a positive relationship. It was a difficult task. Instead of ignoring her and only giving her the basics of what was going on during the course of a day, I coached up. I put together my own spreadsheets and reports and started tracking the information I believed needed to be tracked from a daily and weekly stand point. I then began reporting it to not only her, but to her boss during our daily and bi-weekly meetings. After a few weeks passed Not only could I tell a difference in the relationship, but so could her boss and my associates. It forced her to be more in tune with the needs of the department which led to two things: 1) She had to spend more one-on-one time with me and 2) The positive relationship developed.

Do you know what the main thing is in your area? Is there more than one main thing? How's your relationship with your boss? Is it positively affecting you and your group?