Committed leaders create committed employees

“Committed leaders don’t allow non-performers to remain on the team.”

Nathan Jamail – Keynote Speaker, Best Selling Author

Part 2 of 4

Welcome to part 2 of ‘committed leaders create committed employees’.  In part one we talked about not allowing bad performance employees to remain on the team.  We continue with the second commitment leaders must make in order to create committed employees.  As leaders we want to believe we are committed to our employees as much as we are committed to our organization and the overall team.  In most cases we feel we are more committed to our employees than our organization, but our actions, more times than not, prove that to be wrong. 

Most leaders care about their employees and truly feel their employees are the most important- but caring is not the same as being committed.  Now, as a reminder these leadership commitment issues we are reviewing are not based on lack of integrity or malicious behavior.  These are mistakes, we as leaders make, because leadership and coaching is a difficult responsibility- and as leaders we usually have the best intentions.  Let’s get to commitment mistake number 2.  

As a reminder here are all four of common leadership mistakes that show a leader’s commitment or lack there of:  

1. 1. Leaders allowing non-committed employees to remain on the team 
   2. Leaders only get involved after employees fail
   3. Leaders are not willing to hold all employees accountable
   4. Leaders don’t spend time looking for new, better team members

Commitment Mistake #2: Leaders only get involved after employees fail

A leader does not spend time doing one on one’s weekly and or consistently “role playing” with employees everyday, preparing them for their next meeting or important conversation. Most leaders don’t spend time practicing or preparing their employees because they themselves feel they don’t have time; they are too busy dealing with customer issues, company reports, boss’s requests or any of the other 1000 things a leader must do.  All of these are very real obstacles.  But like in life- we must prioritize our time and behaviors and make our people’s development more important than our other tasks- and this does not mean dropping the ball, rather it means doing and/or assigning it all. To do this it requires our own leaders to develop us to make us better just as we develop our own employees- or for us to make a commitment to ourselves for our own development.  

The excuse many leaders use to keep from this commitment/responsibility is the bullshit excuse/statement, “I hire good people and let them do their job”.  Lets’ put this in perspective: if a leader only gets involved when an employee needs help or fails, then that leaders involvement is a response to failure and has a very negative feeling associated with it.  This is why in business- the goal of most employees and leaders is, “to be so good my boss leaves me alone”.  Why does an athlete seek his coach’s attention and an employee seeks to avoid it?  Simple- a coach in sports spends time with those employees that deserve it and the player and the coach know that they are preparing the player to be even more success in their next game.    This should be the same for the employee in business.  

The GAP:

Most leaders agree with the coaching concept, but like many things in life- other urgent, yet less important tasks, get in the way.  This gap is where the commitment of so many leaders falls into and not because the leaders does not care, rather they are not as committed as they would like to be (or even think they are).  Most leaders will not do weekly one on ones with their employees because they ‘don’t have time’ and use the excuse that “they talk all the time” or they don’t have that much to say, etc.  But the truth is, as a leader who is committed to making their employees better, we can never stop preparing them for their upcoming week’s meetings or activities.  

The Commitment: 

Commit to your employees that you will make them better every week, not just more experienced. Commit to role playing (scrimmaging) with them, even if it makes you uncomfortable or vulnerable.  Commit to their skill development the same way you would help your child get better at a sport or homework- by doing drills and focusing on the basics.  Lastly keep your commitment and schedule the employee and their development as a priority and they will keep their commitment to you and the organization.  

Last note:

A leader’s job is to make their employees better, not just more experienced.  Help others get better and get them to where they want to be and you will get where you want to be!