Do you have an idea? Maybe it’s something great that will change your workplace or improve a process?
Business classes are filled with course material on how to be an effective leader and how to communicate well, but what will you do once you have properly communicated your point? taken into account your audience, I have created new teams inside of my church organization.
It just might take people to help you achieve your goal?
Here are three things I wish I knew before I started leading teams.
1) No one cares as much as you do.
Gary Vanderchuck said in an interview that if you can find an employee to care 80% about what you are doing do everything you can to keep them (learn more about GaryVee). You can foster and develop some care, but not complete care.
If someone else cares as much as you,
you don’t care enough about what you are leading!
Maybe this is why my dad was always frustrated about me not cleaning my room, or how he noticed all the spots I would miss washing the cars on Saturday. I honestly didn’t care as much about the task as he did. He owned the house and cars.
Find people who believe in what you are doing and can connect with your vision. Once you find those people on your team build ownership as soon as possible. Ownership is build by empowering people to make decisions. By the very definition of the word, ownership is had by something belonging to a person. Allow your team to shape their areas into something that reflects them as an individual, while aligning under the overarching vision, mission, and strategy.
2) The most difficult thing you will do is communicate.
You know exactly what you want to accomplish. Your vision swirls inside you mind constantly. Yet how to you communicate that to those you have brought along-side you to help reach your goal?
What is your goal? Can you communicate that goal to a child?
For a church, mission is easy, “go to all the world and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
That is something that every Christian agrees on. But what about strategy and vision, how do we accomplish our mission?
That is the leaders main job, to be the visionary, leading the charge forward. God places a vision and unique expression in the leader to accomplish his mission.
Followers gather and watch – leaders partner and work
There will always be those who watch what you do, admiring from afar. The may even be gracious enough to share their opinion about what you’re doing. But they don’t actively contribute to accomplishing the mission.
Then there are those special few who come along and
When you feel like you are driving a point into the ground, the people listening are just starting to hear you.
You can never over communicate.
3) Structure lays the framework for creativity.
This point seems a little counter-intuitive. During my stent in the military, I was able to see how a very structured organization promoted creativity. Every unit did the same things; everyone wore the same uniforms, lived by the same standards, and followed the same processes. Yet the individual identities of who they are were unique.
In our personal life, it’s the same thing, the majority of things we do are the same as everyone else. It is our ability to operate within the guidelines of structure that we see true creativity flourish. Exploring how to take something from good to great requires the ability to see the exact same thing as everyone else from a slightly different angle.
Every musician learns the same rules (theory) of music. There are keys of music with chords that fit within them. Specific notes that comprise each chord. Those rules must be followed in order to take noise and turn it into a symphony.
It is through your individual ability to express yourself within the rules that you find your most creative expression.
Why do some lawyers succeed and become the exception to the rule? Did they learn different material in college? No. Are they held to different standards of practice? No. Every lawyer follows the same laws, regulations, and guidelines set by their governing bar and federal law. It’s those individuals who are able to see the law and how their cases uniquely fit within that context that makes them exceptional lawyers.
Both of these examples have starting points:
Musicians begin learning single notes. They then move on to scales, chords, and patterns. It is a long process before they begin to learn how to compose musical pieces.
Lawyers (U.S.) begin learning ethics, civics, and the U.S. Constitution. Then they study case after case of trials that have defined legal precedent. They first learn what our laws are built upon, before they are able to defend, interpret, or prosecute.
There is the adage “rules are meant to be broken“. What that is saying is not that rules are unimportant. Rules provide the context and starting point for creativity.
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
― Pablo Picasso
Every artist begins as a child with a piece of paper. On that paper is an outline of a puppy, flower, cookie, or unicorn. They scribble like made, disregarding every guiding line. They produce refrigerator art. As they learn to stay within the lines, the pictures and drawings begin to look like the items they are drawing. Then eventually the lines fade away and they are left with a blank canvas. The only guiding lines are those within their imagination; still accompanied by the rules of color and process.
“Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
[tweetthis display_mode=”box”]Creativity thrives within the boarders of structure.[/tweetthis]
Bonus: one of the toughest tasks to carry out is making a process scalable. It’s not hard to identify what needs done. The difficulty comes in allowing someone else to do it. You are training someone to replace yourself. That means you are no longer doing that task; which challenges your value and self-worth. Once you have replicated someone in a position, you can scale as your organization grows.
We are all filling an interim position.
Inevitably the next person will put their own spin on your creation. One thing the military definitely taught me was that I am replaceable. Every 3 – 4 years you are relocated, not to a different department, to a different military installation. You transition from what you learned to do and where you knew how to do it, to a new place where you get to learn how and where they do it.
I loved that experience. about one year before you transition, you begin planning. Six months out your replacement arrives and you begin to train him on the ins and outs of the job. You literally train your replacement. If you do it well, your work center continues on after you leave, as if you had never left or even better.
If we keep those two things in mind less of our identity will be defined by what we are doing.
- We are only in our current position for a limited time.
- Those coming after will do it different.
Work to train upcoming leaders; thinking about succession. Who is going to replace you?
What do you think?
Share your #1 leadership lesson in a comment below.