Loyalty: more than a quaint notion

Executive Leadership Vol. 23 September 2008
ExecLeadership.com

Not everybody is ready to step up, so congratulations. Here are a few guiding principles on building loyalty and trust:

Leave your ego in the parking lot. Yes, you need self confidence, but a leader’s job is not about empowering yourself. It’s about doing that for everyone around you.

Grow antennae, not horns. Think about meetings this way: You’re going in there to find out what’s messed up and how to fix it.

Show maturity. Leaders exhibit a good sense of timing, think before they act and put themselves in other people’s shoes.

Build trust. If you don’t follow through on your promises, or if you appear to mock people when you’re just joking around, you will have a hard time winning their loyalty. Mistrust is reversible, but it might take a while.

Give away glory. If you have ever been tagged as a narcissist, now is the time to lose that label. Take every scrap of blame on yourself and give away all the glory. This is not merely so you can act like a sponge and soak up bad news. It should also poke you to question and improve your processes, which will be really hard at first, before it becomes really fun - when your team starts winning.

Keep learning. Making yourself comfortable at one skill level is not an option. Don’t foist onto someone else the responsibility for operations you don’t understand. Constantly ask what will work better.

- Adapted from “Building Blocks of Leadership,”
Ken Bradford, The Leaders Course,
www.leaderscourse.com

See you in the trenches - vmsteveo