Principles For Leaders vol. 2
All of the sections here have been pulled from different sources and either quoted and attributed directly or paraphrased for brevity. All of them are so great that I thought they should be passed along to you.
“My Business Principles”
A favorite list by one of my business mentors. He is the gentleman that helped me craft this leadership training. This is his list of business principles that lead him. They are so good I included them here and share with you just as he does with his team.
Never compromise on our non-negotiables. (For Wonder Dog, this is our list of mission, values, vision and cultural tendencies.)
Micromanage until there is trust.
What brought us here won’t get us there. (Think different!)
No one has 100% job security. Even the founder or CEO.
Create positive peer pressure by challenging one another.
Beat your prior best.
Treat the company’s money like your own.
Be open-minded but not easily persuaded.
Fight any and all temptations to lower standards and expectations.
Create an environment where our team is taken care of financially and professionally.
Other things he lets his employees know that don’t sit well with him: feeling entitled, complaining, being negative or pessimistic, leaking secrets, not taking care of ones health, gossiping & taking advice from the wrong people.
Learn Love Languages
As leaders it is our job to reward (and punish) people. But people get a lot more from being rewarded than they do being chastised (in most cases.) As leaders its our job to reward people in ways that they like to be rewarded.
A great way to do this is to learn the love languages of humans and then your team. The five love languages are…
Quality Time
Words of Affirmation
Gifts
Acts of Service
Physical Touch
As a leader its our job to figure out what motivates the person (or the dog, LOL) and then reward the person.
To re-write the golden rule a bit: “Do unto others the way that they want to be treated.” A good example of this I got from a mentor of mine is he knows a CEO who has a salesman who makes $825K/year doing sales.
After the sales persons biggest month ever he said to his boss (the CEO) “You didn’t even call me.”
Why is this important? Because the sales person doesn’t care about the money. He wanted words of affirmation. Which just goes to show that leaders, life partners, family members, friends, etc. we need to reward people the way they want to be loved.
So let’s say you’re a Lead Trainer and have a Dog Pro working for you who does something spectacular, find the way that person wants to be rewarded and reward them in that way.
If it’s gifts, give a WOW bonus. If it’s quality time, take the time to call and thank them. If it’s words of affirmation, take the time to praise them. You could do this by telling them or sharing it with the team as well. Acts of service? Find something special for them and serve them. Physical touch? Give ‘em a big ole hug.
Ideally, by now you get the point. But this same principle transfers to people in our lives as well. Hint: It also transfers to clients as well.
Questions To Ask To Reach Each Person Individually
How as leaders can we get to people and reach each person? On the level they want to be reached? Well, below there are a few questions we can ask ourselves to reach each person. In some cases with people that are harder to figure out we can even try asking them directly.
What makes this person tick?
How does this person want to be loved?
What makes this person feel appreciated?
What’s the most effective way to show that I care?
What action will best land on this person?
Trust = Momentum
In any organization but particularly organizations like ours on a huge growth trajectory, there is a simple principle that allows us to grow quicker. It’s simply this: Trust = Momentum.
The higher the trust between you and an individual the faster & the more effective way you can progress.
Principles of Trust = momentum
1) Showing that you care about them brings out their best. As a result, they become more dependable. And all the elements of the business move faster.
2) Trust takes a long time to build and a short time to burn down. Be mindful of this as you lead.
As a Team Member
If you get done what you need to get done and are responsible with what is given to you and do what is asked of you, this allows your leaders to build trust in you. And as trust is built within you from your leadership team, they can then impart more responsibility into you. As they can trust you with more responsibility, then we can move faster & more effectively as an organization. Trust = Momentum.
The Seven Love Languages Leaders Speak to Teams
There are five love languages for individuals, but there are seven that great leaders speak to their team.
We need you. Giving people responsibility is a great way to show them that you need them. There are people who need to feel needed. When you let people know you need them and give them a reputation to live up to, they often do just that.
Recognition. If you look at companies that are stagnant, you will often find that recognition is not part of their culture. This is the opposite of what we want to do here at Wonder Dog. We want to recognize and call out great behavior in our team as opposed to just handing out cash bonuses all the time. This doesn’t make most people tick and companies get this wrong a lot of the time.
There are some people on your team who say “Oh, I don’t need recognition.” BS. LOL. The people who say they don’t need recognition need double the recognition. The denial of the need for recognition is often a disguise and they are afraid to go above and beyond because they are scared they will not get the recognition they need.
Praise: 3 Types
Below are the three types of praise. Knowing the person will help determine which type of praise to give.
A) Private: This can be in-person, text, call, email, etc. It is just a simple recognition to the person saying you notice them doing X or growing in their position.
B) Public: This plays on recognition in the above context. This works best for those who like to shine and be in the limelight. Talk about them in public forums and meetings.
C) Behind their back: This can be very powerful if you know the individual and this would work best for them.
Clear Direction. As a leader of a team (or clients and dogs) you need to give clear direction. An example with a teammate would be: “I need you to do X and have it done by X time. Can you do this?” Client Example: “I need you to do 50 reps of come when called to get a jump start on the homework. Can you do this?”
Exact deliverable. Exact timeline. This is much more clear than a general task.
Vision. Most people don’t take time to look in to the future. Especially as they are bogged down by life and work, bills, etc. So as a leader, manager, etc. it is up to you to cast a vision of the future. If you are a manager, do this by letting the team know the best days are ahead of us. Talk about what is happening next. As a Dog/Eval Pro talk to clients that better days of behavior are ahead. Paint pictures of the future for people. As leaders, it is our job to provide a vision so big, other people can see the vision for their life coming true INSIDE your vision. And if that is possible YOUR vision becomes THEIR vision.
Dreams. Let people know that what they are doing today can help them accomplish their dreams they have for tomorrow. If you want to inspire your people you must speak the dream language.
Involvement. Constantly ask the team for their feedback on things and involve them in the discussion. Ask what they think you need to do next. People want to be involved in the future and planning and what is going on. The key to this is acting on the things that people bring you if they bring you ideas that are valuable.
“Inspect what you expect.”
Another simple principle but powerful one is what you just read above. If you expect it from someone, inspect it. From the top down in the organization we all have tasks, responsibilities, priorities, etc. And we all have checklists to follow.
Dog Pro’s to Eval Pro’s and Training Assistant’s all have lists.
Lead Trainers and Lead Eval Pro’s have lists to check in on the lists of the positions under their leadership.
Branch managers check-in on the Team Lead’s.
Regional Managers keep up and check-in on Branch Managers.
Division Managers keep up and check-in on Regional Managers.
I am sure you get the point by now. But if you expect something to be done, INSPECT IT.
If you skip this, then things will slip. Stuff won’t be done. Period.
Example: We had a Dog Pro one time who checked all her boxes and got all her stuff done for months including new student and graduate posts she was assigned to (the get hot part of the cultural tendencies section). She never had to be asked to get something done and always did what she was supposed to. As her personal life got more stressful and hectic her social media posts started to slip and she did less and less. Until at one point she stopped all together.
There were two whole months she didn’t post new students and graduates on the Facebook page. Two whole months.
How did this happen? The Lead Trainer got comfortable because she always did what she was required to do and so the inspecting part stopped.
We finally caught it and worked it out of course, but there were two whole months where no dogs or graduates got posted.
So, micromanage until there is trust. Watch your team and their production like a hawk in the beginning and then reign it in as they prove themselves. But never stop spot checking and inspecting your team as they work.
Top Down Leadership
This principle of leadership has a lot to do with what you learned in the last section about leading by example. But in organizations and life leadership stems from the top down.
What you do, how you perform, your standards, etc. all stem from the top down.
This is why leading by example is crucially important.
Whatever you do flows right down to your team and anyone under your leadership.
Examples of this may be making inappropriate jokes, letting cuss words slip during meetings, etc.
So as you lower the bar for yourself your team, etc. everything else starts to slip. That is why having a high bar, raising standards, keeping your word, etc. is SO crucially important.
As leaders we must lead by example because all leadership stems from the top down.
Complaints Go up The Ladder
If you have something you are upset about/want to change/don’t like/criticism/feedback/etc. that goes UP the ladder and the “chain of command” not downwards or laterally. Complaining downwards to someone on your team is not only toxic to the culture, but it is also a culture killer.
Example: The leader the level above you wants to implement a new idea or strategy. You don’t like the idea for a number of reasons. Rather than give your feedback/ideas to the leader above you, you complain to the people on your team. This not only undermines your leaders ideas/strategy, but it creates distrust between your team and YOUR leader.
Do you see the problem here?
Let’s say for example that you are doing some sort of entry level job and we use the same scenario. The leader 2 levels above you gives your direct leader a new idea/strategy to try and implement. Your direct leader is on-board and likes the idea. And your other two teammates and your closest colleagues like the idea/strategy too. BUT in this scenario, you don’t like the idea. Rather than passing that up the chain though to your direct leader, you start to complain about the idea to your teammates. Then because you are close/friends/etc. they start to disbelieve and dislike the ideas/strategies. Now you have taken 2 people that were on board for something that could of been a game changer for the company and turned them against it.
Do you see the problem here?
In both of these scenarios, if you wouldn’t have complained downwards or laterally, then you wouldn’t have sown distrust in your team for the leadership teams.
The clear solution here is though is a fairly easy one: Complain/critique/give feedback UP the ladder. Not downwards or sideways. Pass all that stuff upwards and come up with solutions. If you don’t you’re going to add toxicity into the culture here and potentially ruin all that we are trying to build here.
The inverse
While leadership and vision stems from the top down, feedback comes from the bottom up. As a team member, your feedback is crucial to keeping the organization moving and winning. Because leaders send instruction, goals and vision down the chain of command but we can’t move things forward without feedback.
A great example of this is corporate restaurants. If you’ve ever been to Chili’s or Seasons 52, they make their servers say lines that are just off throughout the dining experience. The reason they do this is because in a corporate setting, it sounds like a good idea to say these lines. In a tactical setting when waiting tables though these lines don’t make sense and come off as canned and awkward. The corporate teams would know this IF they took feedback from their employees on the front lines.
The Difference Between A Boss And A Leader
A boss drives employees. A leader coaches and guides them.
A boss depends on authority. A leader relies on goodwill.
A boss inspires fear. A leader generates enthusiasm.
A boss says “I”. A leader says “We”.
A boss places blame for breakdown. A leader fixes the breakdown.
A boss knows how it’s done. A leader shows how it’s done.
A boss uses people. A leader develops people.
A boss takes credit. A leader gives credit.
A boss commands. A leader asks.
A boss says “Go”. A leader says “Let’s go”.