Leadership Misconceptions

I just left a meeting where an interesting conversation took place.

An Employee was having an issue with a vendor.

In the situation, the vendor was having some issues in meeting the schedules and requests of the employee. However, the employee was up to speed on all the details of how the issue began and had a solution for how to resolve it.

He was clear, concise, and quite informed. The issue was not one that could be resolved in a quick manner like one or two days, but rather about 3-4 weeks. It sounded as if the 3-4 week time line was virtually unavoidable due to certain lead time issues.

At the conclusion of the employee having this conversation, his Director Level Superior chimed in with what I found to be somewhat misguided leadership. She said, "we need this issue resolved," in a somewhat stern tone. Her goal was to intimidate the employee.

After a few other misguided comments from the Director, the employee reiterated the work around plan with clarity.

I was left sitting there with questions of leadership in my mind.

1) When an employee shows intelligence, control, and has the ability to create a successful plan of action, why would a Manager try and make them feel useless?

2) Is true leadership in an instance like this not telling the employee good job on organizing your resolution plan?

3) People are NOT leaders because they have Manager in their title. They are leaders because they can LEAD people to follow them.

4) Why would any employee ever follow or be motivated by a Manager such as the one in my example?

5) Do Bad Managers know they are not leaders or do they think they are successful because of a title?

REAL Leadership IS:

1) The ability to make your employees feel "success" in their everyday job tasks.

2) The ability to step back and allow your employees to make REAL Decisions of action.

3) The ability to say, "thank you" or "congratulations on a job well done."

4) The belief that you ONLY want to hire people that want YOUR job.

5) The confidence to "Step back" and let your employees take the Lead.

6) Giving your employees a taste of NEW responsibilities on a REGULAR basis.



Curt Fletcher is a Real Estate Professional, Business Development Strategist, Published Author of the book, "How To Sell More Homes and Increase Your Income," Sales Trainer, and Professional Speaker that focuses on improving your Likeability to increase your Opportunities for Success!