Leadership
starts with tough decisions. Let me share with you my recent leadership
challenge and the leadership secrets you can use in any team building situation
for great leadership results.
I have the
honor and pleasure of volunteering for many groups and causes. In many
situations, I am called upon to lead as chairperson or co-chairperson.
Recently, I had the honor of co-chairing an event that involved leading and
motivating a team of volunteers to work together for a successful result.
Overall, the team volunteers are leaders in health care, education, business,
media, the arts, and faith-based organizations, etc. In other words, this team
of volunteers consisted of very motivated and accomplished people who wanted to
make a difference.
One
committee member became increasingly negative in her communication and actions
at the expense of the other committee members. She behaved in a manner that was
not in line with our overall mission. After a coaching session agreeing on what
was expected from her in relationship to our mission, her behavior became
increasingly worse. The final straw was a very negative e-mail that stated she
was the only committee member who was doing anything and personally attacked the
other committee members.
After
consulting with the event organizers to gain agreement on a plan of action, I
called this person to let her know that this was not acceptable behavior and
invited her to meet with me to discuss how we could bring her behavior more in
line with the mission of our project. She rejected my invite, and I let her
know that by not excepting my invite, she was no longer a participant in our
event. I followed up with an e-mail and letter reiterating my verbal
statement. She made the choice to “fire herself.”
As leader of
the event, I made telephone calls to committee members to explain the committee
change, let each committee member know the wonderful job they were doing, and
shared with them where we were in relationship to our mission and goals. While
making these calls, I soon found out that some committee members were not as
involved in the project because of the one negative committee member. Some
members had stopped attending meetings, stopped communicating, and weren’t
giving 100% for the event. After assuring them that they were valuable team
members of the project and that this “negative member” would not be involved in
the project’s going forward, we experienced a new level of motivation and
participation that took our event to a new level of success and broke a record
for attendance.
You may be
in a similar leadership position whereby the success of the organization,
project, or team depends on how well and how fast you make decisions when faced
with challenging situations. The following five leadership skills will keep you
on the leadership track during challenging situations, no matter whether your
organization is for profit or non-profit, so that you can achieve your goals:
-
Live the Mission When
Making Leadership Decisions
Live the
mission by constantly communicating the mission so that everyone of the team
understands the mission and acts to live the mission. Ask team members the
following question, “What did you do today to live the mission and achieve the
goals of the mission?” Develop clear and concise team member descriptions so
that everyone understands how they make a difference. Motivate and reward team
members based on how well they lived the mission.
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