Earning credibility and being taken seriously continue to be challenging issues for many Gen-Y employees as they step into roles of increasing responsibly.
In preparation for advancement, many training programs focus solely on building “competencies,” the cornerstones to success. I agree the ability to negotiate, communicate, influence, and persuade others are indispensable qualities when it comes to leading successful teams. And there is no doubt that enhancing these skills builds one’s credibility and sets the groundwork for long-term success. However, for Gen-Y Leaders, the risk of undermining that credibility early on is very real thing. Many sabotage themselves, losing control and credibility before they even have the opportunity to utilize there abilities, simply by falling into classic traps that are easily overlooked.
Highlighting this point, authors Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio, offer some basic and practical suggestions that lay the foundation for being taken seriously when moving into the role of team leader. The following ten steps can be found with greater detail in their book, The Girl’s Guide To Starting Your Own Business.
1. Be on time every day. It’s your business. Lead by example.
2. Don’t make a habit of leaving early. Your employees will resent you if you walk out the door at three and call them from the gym at five-thirty to check in.
3. Don’t go drinking with your assistant. Or swap stories. You need to set the example. What you do in your private time away from the office should remain fodder for your peers, not your subordinates.
4. Don’t ask them to do anything that is not work-related. It’s rude and fosters resentment. This includes walking your dog, picking up your dry cleaning, and buying your personal holiday presents, unless, of course, the job is personal assistant.
5. Don’t let them hear you on personal calls. Not only will they will imitate you for months if they hear you refer to your spouse with pet names, they will feel entitled to be on their own calls all day.
6. You are not their friend. Be a pleasant boss, but never leave the door open to talk about personal drama. You want your employees to feel comfortable talking to you about serious personal problems (especially if they will impact her job performance) - a sick mother or child-care problem, for example. But the last thing you can afford is to become a surrogate therapist for employee dating or marital woes.
7. Pitch in when you can. If you have assigned what you know to be a tedious task, such as mailing five hundred company brochures, spend at least a few minutes pitching in. This is your team; make it happen together. A little willingness to get your hands dirty will go a long way when you need a really big ditch dug.
8. Do not share company financial issues or problems. If your employees suspect things are not going well, they will be looking for another job before you know it. There is a whole philosophy of open-book management that works in big public companies (the law requires it, anyway), but in small companies you don’t need your employees second-guessing your decisions.
9. If something goes wrong with a client or customer, you have to take the blame. As the boss, you are responsible for everything running smoothly. If you have a problem employee, you need to monitor him or her closely, provide more training, or let her go. You cannot make bad employees the scapegoats for mistakes.
10. Manage, but don’t smother. Granted this is your business and you’ve got the most to lose, but you’ve got to let your employees take responsibility for their workload. Guide, cajole, pester — don’t suffocate.
What other suggestions would you offer from your experience?
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Some Very good points here including lead by example, getting your hands dirty, only guiding employees (give them some room to do it the way they want to because they will be more productive), and take the blame.
One disagreement I have is with, dont share problems with employees. I agree you shouldn’t leave your books open to be publicly viewed, you need privacy. However if you set a company culture where people can develop friendships and learn to trust eachother then the employees will have more faith in you as a manager and be more productive.
Also, one thing I learned from my favorite leader, Howard Schultz is to always be honest. If their is a problem in the company analyze it first and try to create a solution. Then let your company know about it and ensure them that you are positive for the future and can work out of it through the solution you have developed. If some employees decide to leave as you stated, then those are the ones you don’t want in your company anyway. You want people that are passionate about what they are doing and wont leave at the first sign of trouble.
My favorite one on this list is definitely “If something goes wrong with a client or customer, you have to take the blame.” This one is a huge credibility builder and allows your employees or people under you to see you as a great leader. There have been many times when I, among the other individuals that should be at the forefront taking the heavy hits, had to go and give the bad news, take the disappointment and keep going. Afterwards, there are leaders that I looked up to that I simply didn’t anymore…but yet there are people that found more respect for me. I like that you also added to “train her more, monitor, or let her go”. The only way to fix the problem is to monitor the problem right?
Great post!
Absolute punctuality is my favorite one. Be on time every time. As it is told in Scarface “I’ll I have in this world is my WORD and my B*LLS and I don’t break them from nobody.”
If you show up to a meeting late, you don’t look “fashionable,” you look like you don’t care about yourself OR the other person you are meeting with. Keep a day planner with you at all times. Also make a to-do list on a notepad everyday and carry that paper with you.
“Lombardi time” is the principle that one should arrive 10-15 minutes early, or else be considered late.
Thanks for this post…just shared it on Twitter.
Bradley Will
Good information here. However, I have two minor issues.
First, I agree with RyanFreed. People are very observant and fear uncertainty. If a leader clams up and refuses to discuss organizational woes then all kinds of damaging rumors will get started. The best way for a leader to handle something like this would be to be to brief the employees about the existance of the problem, how the problem was caused, and what course of action the team is going to pursue to rectify the problem. This will ensure that confidence in the organization and leader stays high, and is not eroded by fear due to uncertainty.
Secondly, some of these rules could be combined. For instance, rules 3-6 could be combined into a single rule entitled, “Don’t mix work with personal.”
With these things in mind, this is still a very good post and I realize that you are summarizing what others wrote in a book. Thanks for bringing this book to light!
-Kyle