Tag: Jackie Lauer

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Great Leadership Is All About Authenticity

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When it comes to leadership, the words that often come to mind are “strong”, “bold” or maybe even “tough”.

We expect our leaders to be fearless and know how to make decisions.

A good leader absolutely needs confidence and must be willing to make difficult decisions. A great leader must also be able to build trust. Nothing builds trust like authenticity.

Someone who is authentic is willing to be transparent. Is willing to admit to a mistake or misjudgment. They speak from the heart. They aren’t afraid to be vulnerable.

Being authentic and vulnerable isn’t about crying or giving insincere pats on the back. In fact, nothing will sell you out faster than trying to fake authenticity. You can smell it a mile away. Faking authenticity will destroy your credibility.

Let them see you sweat

Some people take the advice “never let them see you sweat” a little to literally. It’s fine advice if you’re about to start an arm wrestling competition or facing off against an angry dog. It’s terrible advice if you want to lead a functioning team.

Too many people think of vulnerability as a weakness. In fact, there is nothing more courageous than admitting you have flaws or that you’ve made a mistake. It shows you are willing to be accountable. It builds trust. If your team can trust you, they will respect you. Those are the most productive teams.

Finding your authentic self

Not everyone demonstrates emotion the same way. You don’t have to fundamentally change who you are. If you’re not comfortable with showing emotion, you can still show your authentic self.

The first step is to really know yourself. Be honest and understand your weaknesses. Listen to the feedback of others. It’s not a condemnation, it’s just admitting that you are human and have flaws.

Don’t be afraid of your humanity

You know that guy who can never admit that he’s made a mistake? Don’t be that guy.

Be open to saying, “Yeah, I was wrong about that.” If you mess up, say you’re sorry. If you need help, ask for help. If there’s something you don’t understand, ask for it to be explained. Those are not signs of weakness or incompetency.

On the other hand, if you are someone who really believes that you’re always right, you have more work to do. Just because you think it, doesn’t mean it’s true.

Start by being aware of your thinking and your feelings. Check in to make sure you are dealing with fact and not interpretation.

I often tell my clients to tap into what they “Think, Feel and Want.” In any situation where there’s tension or disagreement, take a breath and take a moment to work through “What do I think is going on right now? How do I feel about it? What do I want?”. When you have access to what you think, feel and want you’re reactions are a choice and much more authentic.

Check it out with the other person. This is not easy but when you’re direct, it removes any ambiguity. It should not be an accusation. You are just checking to make sure you have the right information. Hopefully the other person is authentic with their response, but you can’t control that. However, it will make your thoughts and feelings perfectly clear.

It takes practice

For many of us, being vulnerable and authentic takes practice. As a society, we are taught to hide our feelings and lack of perfection. Leaders who are open to showing their true selves, and allow other to do the same, build teams that trust each other.

Teams built on trust are more productive, aren’t afraid to be innovative and can handle change better. After all, they aren’t wasting time trying to hide their flaws.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jackie Lauer is a Corporate Culture Guru and founder of Heart of Culture, a passionate leadership coach and often invited keynote speaker. She is also the Accelerator Centre’s Leadership and Culture mentor. Known for her no BS approach and sense of humour she’s here to help you transform your company’s culture into a thriving workplace.

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Creating Meaningful Core Values That Drive Success

 

47942710_illustrationThis post originally appeared on Jackie Lauer’s LinkedIn page

Most leaders see the benefits of having formal corporate values. With the right investment of time and energy, corporate values lead to greater engagement, improved performance and overall success. When they’re not done properly, you end up with hollow statements that no one takes seriously.

Meaningful core values are part of a company’s DNA. They articulate what an organization stands for, highlighting the expected behavioural norms and skills. They form the core of its culture.

Your company’s core values influence the employees you hire and how your company spends its time and money. When tough decisions are needed, it’s your values that drive them.

Core values: more than “the CEO said so”

Too many times, a company’s values are determined by direction from above. “The CEO says this is what we stand for. Send it out to employees and put it up on the wall.”

Taking that approach can cause more damage than not having any values statements at all. First and foremost your leaders must be committed to upholding your values no matter what.

Being committed may seem like a no brainer, but when a situation comes up that calls for a difficult decision, it can be tempting to forget the values. If one of your values is respect in the workplace and you have a key, brilliant executive who is a well-known tyrant, are you willing to confront the issue and invite them to leave if they refuse to change? If your values include quality in your products, can you turn down a client if they ask you to cut corners for the sake of speed?

Nothing will kill your efforts faster than leaders who do not lead by example. Your values will be rendered meaningless, which creates cynicism, destroys employee engagement and reduces productivity. Bottom line: it’s bad for business.

I am blessed to be a mentor at the Accelerator Centre in Kitchener Waterloo. I am often asked by our start up clients if identifying their core values, or even their culture, matters at such an early stage. The answer I always give is a resounding YES! The reality is that the core values already exist within the founding partners but they are just not conscious of it. Somewhere in their decision to become a company and to partner with each other they were honoring some values that were very important to them. My job as their mentor and facilitator is to help them to consciously articulate their mission, their vision and their core values. Those core values are what they use to hire those first critical employees in their startup and those same values, much like big business, are used to drive behaviours, decisions, and ultimately performance.

Tips for working on your own values

Developing your corporate values takes time. The process should never be rushed. Leave room for reflection to make sure you can actually live with them.

  1. Pull together members of your organization. Include your leadership and also involve a broad representation of your employees and members of your customer groups and partners.
  2. Share stories to uncover what’s actually important to your company. Ask questions like why did you want to join the company? Why do you continue to work here? Why do you buy from us? Ask for tangible examples of a recent awesome moment or important decision that demonstrates what’s important to the company. Remember, values guide our behaviour and our decision-making.
  3. As you go through the stories use a facilitator to listen for action verbs and capture the value statements.
  4. Once all the values have been captured, identify the common ones and look for those that overlap with similar or same meanings. Get your list down to four or five key values to live by.
  5. Now it’s time to ensure these really are your core values. Look at important decisions that were made in the past month or quarter. Identify where those values were not really honoured. On the other hand, what values were honoured when those decisions were made? Meticulously review every part of your operations to understand if there is any place in your organization where you cannot honour your values.
  6. Now that you have your list of four or five core values, ensure your team can describe them in detail. Values must be seen as fundamental, enduring, and actionable. If they are too vague, no one will know how to follow them. The best test is to figure out how to explain them to a new employee, with concrete examples so they know what your values look like in action.

Living those values in the day to day

It will take time and effort to weave your values into everything you do, from your hiring methods to customer service. They will impact performance management, how you reward employees and dismissals. Your values will be at the heart of what you promise customers and how you react to complaints. You’ll witness a definite connection between your internal culture and the brand you present to the world.

When a company is operating according to its values, it’s like a well-oiled machine. There’s a surge of energy. It’ll be reflected in your employees, they’ll feel connected and proud of their work. Productivity can improve dramatically as teams and departments are aligned to the right priorities that support common goals. Conflicts are quickly mitigated and even prevented.

You’ll stand out against organizations that make empty promises. Your customers will see it too, making it easy to feel good about choosing you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jackie Lauer is a Corporate Culture Guru and founder of Heart of Culture, a passionate leadership coach and often invited keynote speaker. She is also the Accelerator Centre’s Leadership and Culture mentor. Known for her no BS approach and sense of humour she’s here to help you transform your company’s culture into a thriving workplace.