The Most Important Thing About Us
Incompetent leaders are pushed around by negative environments.
Skillful leaders create positive environments and manage emotion.
The way people feel, while they work, is leadership’s opportunity. You can’t control people’s feelings, but you can create interactions and environments that have positive impact.
Leader as environment builder:
- Commit to environment-building. The way we treat each other, while we work, is the most important thing about us.
- Paint a picture of a place where people love coming to work. What words best describe positive environment?
- Eliminate behaviors that work against positive environments. Culture sinks to the level of behaviors you tolerate. Building environments includes saying, “We don’t do that here.” Eliminate:
- Rulemaking. Rules are the answer to incompetence and desperation.
- Working on long-term projects that don’t have short-term milestones.
- Persistent over-work.
- Micro-managing.
- Complaining without solutions.
- Blow-ups.
- Focusing on weaknesses at the expense of maximizing strengths.
- Blaming without taking responsibility for your own life.
- People who don’t fit.
- Embrace behaviors that build positive environments. (Start with #2 on this list.)
- Ask about the things you want to achieve. “How can we do our best to build an environment where people love coming to work?”
- List three behaviors that make people feel supported. Do them today.
- Set a few achievable goals. Every goal doesn’t have to be a stretch goal.
- Describe success. How will you do your best to honor success today?
- Prepare people for accountability by telling them the questions you’ll ask in the next meeting.
- Bring up a festering topic with kindness and patience. Try making things better, not perfect.
- End short interactions by asking, “What’s the next step,” or, “How may I help?”
- Choose challenges that energize at least 70% of the time. You can’t do what you hate and expect to love work.
- Have conversations rather than making rules.
Which behaviors are most detrimental to building positive environments?
Which behaviors are most important to building positive environments?
What words best describe positive environment?
How about ‘positive, energizing, supportive, fun’!
When the boss says ” We’re in this together.”
Thanks Peter. “We’re in this together.” Think of the power of that idea when we believe it’s true.
Love this post! We often fail to take the time to build culture or realize that the issues we are having are culture/relationship issues rather than lack of ability. Attitudes and effort are shaped by the culture we create. It stands to reason that we work more effectively when we are happy in our environment whether work, organizations, etc. Wouldn’t it be nice if families did this too!
Thanks Vicki. I enjoy that you included the term “happy” in your comment. We work on getting results but in the process forget to work on the way we get results. All it takes is identifying the key behaviors that express who we want to be while we do the work.
Dan,
I love, love, love this post! When you’re in an environment where poor leadership reigns, this post speaks volumes. From my own leadership perspective, I appreciate your “eliminate” list on #2. And then to follow that up w/ an “embrace” list on #3 is powerful. I will refer back to this one often. Thanks so much!
Blessings,
Beth
Thanks Beth. The more I work with leaders and organizations, the more I see the power and importance of posting.
Good morning Dan;
I like both list Dan, ‘Eliminate & Embrace’. Organizations don’t become Fortune 500 companies due to their leaders level skill, talent, and effort only.
Leaders must invest time in building and maintaining positive work enviroments. They must be assesable to their followers and ‘listen’ intently to thier
concerns, (I suggest you learn to LISTEN as well as you HEAR). Sucsessful leaders make every effort to connect with those who work for them, they
learn individuals strength’s and weakness’s. These leaders have an edge or an advantage over their counterparts that don’t trake the time to build
honest community. These leaders are able to assemble ‘Cohesive’ Teams for addressing Critical Mission’s.
It’s no secret. When you give, or, create a reason for people to (want to) BE & DO THEIR BEST, negativity disappers, as positive attitudes become
contagious. Start with positive inter-personal relationships, while building a positive working enviroment that create’s a feeling of ownership among your
people. “THAT’S A RECIPE FOR ORGANIZATIONAL SUCSESS, THAT’S A RECIPE FOR INDIVIDUAL SUCSESS…”
Cheers Dan;
SGT Steve
& you place your company, “and your career”,
Quoting: “Working on long-term projects that don’t have short-term milestones.” Routine self-assessment is critical for making the refinements to efforts that will almost always be important – at least for meaningful situations. Can’t be effective if short-term milestones are not identified.
Also, as I know you are aware, I share your valuing the use and implications of ’embrace’ in applications such as this. The word has such rich expectations!!!
Which behaviors are most important to building positive environments?
Leaders who don’t SAY “We’re in this together” (talk is cheap), but leaders whose behaviours, actions and approaches send that message.
Which behaviors are most detrimental to building positive environments?
Somewhere where the top managers / “leaders” say “We know you’re not happy. Come up with solutions that don’t involve spending time, money or effort, and we’ll think about doing something”.
Dan,
I noticed you included “How may I help?” I appreciate the transparency of the work to challenge your own perspective, and then act on it. 😉
Dan, here’s my “opinion” to your last two questions:
1) Lack of respect for authority
2) Lack of assumption of responsibility
3) Inability to communicate and express emotions pro-socially
4) Lack of ability to have trusting relationships
5) Lack of gratefulness to someone or something…perhaps even nothing
6) Unwillingness to work within the organizational structure
[Addendum: Don’t these characteristics seem like criminal commonalities–foundations of convicted criminals and prospective traits of future criminals? When the ordinary tasks of growing up and maturing can be a series of perverse exercises, frustrating these person’s needs, stunting their capacity for empathy, and diminishing their ability to live the community of home…and then in the community of man?]
I see these as being focused more on those being led rather than those leading. If a leader wants to build a positive environment, then what behaviors by the leader are detrimental and which are positive?
Good morning Books;
Once again, you are firing on all cylinder’s. (YES), these are common Criminal Characteristic’s. Your list of #6 opinions closely mirror’s a list that’s been on my mind as well for quite some time.
The generation entering the workforce today, (that’s the I-pod, Facebook, Twitter, text me, skipe me generation) exhibit ‘all’ of these negative attribute’s. This is becoming an issue in my profession. These people ‘Shut down’ when faced with Critical Situations. Face to face dialogue comes to an abrupt halt when tensions get high. I propose it is time to entertain the idea of implementing a class on Simple Inter-personal Communication starting at the grade school level up to and including College cources on Critical Thinking and Communications…
“Just uh thought.” Hava good day Book’s!
SGT Steve
Thank you, Joseph and Sgt. Steve. When I think before I write, I always think of myself as a staff member, first, and then a manager. I am very hard on myself as a person responsible for others. My six “opinions” started out as specific management behaviors detrimental to organizational success and staff member esprit de corps, Yet, when I got into them, I saw them as common to staff members as well. Focus on them and they become motivating factors…I believe.
And sometimes, I really don’t know what I am writing–for whom and about what. I do some pro bono low-level work for the Prison System and the Juvenile Justice Courts. All of the sudden–as I was thinking and writing about the workplace environment, leaders and staff members–I envisioned criminals and even our educational climate. I could truly SEE how anyone–youth, adult, worker, manager–who doesn’t learn to respect authority at home or how to have trusting relationships–is likely to have some trouble in life and society. Thanks again.
Good Evening Dan,
In reading your post I agree with what you’ve mentioned about positive environments and leadership. Over the past two years have we have steadily worked on this in my building. In order to make a positive change in our building environment I created a leadership team of willing staff who committed a summer to professional development with working meetings to define a positive behavior program suited for our school. During the last two years that we’ve implemented the program we’ve gone from constant negativity and lack of teamwork to a positive environment with roughly 95% buy in from staff and students. Each summer we continue to meet and review the past year to continue to improve on the upcoming year.
Great insight, Dan: “The way we treat each other, while we work, is the most important thing about us.” And, one thing that will follow a leader – and his/her staff members – along every mile of their journey throughout all areas of life.