My Door Is Always Open

When most people stop to consider what qualities and attributes contribute to someone being a good leader, they generally cite qualities such as honesty, integrity and trustworthiness.

 

Aside from these particular personal attributes, it is also common perspective that good leaders must be effective problem solvers, decision makers and communicators.

While many leaders actually embody these qualities and attributes, their leadership potential is often thwarted due to an absence of another essential leadership element that is all too often overlooked.

This important element is “accessibility”. As you think back over your working years, just how many of your various leaders professed to have an “open door” policy, yet somehow they never happened to be available when their people needed them?

When individuals who have been placed in leadership roles declare that “my door is always open” and then fail to be accessible to those who they are charged with the responsibility of leading – They are ultimately doing a huge disservice to their people, their organization and their own career.

From an employee’s perspective, when their leader tells them “if you need me for any reason, my door is always open to you”… While it may sound good, perhaps even reassuring to some degree, the vast majority of employees simply aren’t buying it based on their prior experiences.

The truth of the matter is that most employees are apprehensive about availing themselves of an open door scenario. Only in the most dire and urgent of situations will they actually consider approaching their leader. And even then, more so out of necessity than actual want to.

For the organization and the leader, the consequences are that you won’t know that there is a problem until such time as it has already become a “crisis”. The important questions, concerns, complaints and creative ideas that would have impacted your organization either positively or negatively… will simply never surface to see the light of day. 

The day to day reality of business at any level is that people have questions that require real answers, instructions that need clarification and problems that need solving. In like fashion, they also require general direction, support and encouragement.

However, when employees continuously find that their leaders are perpetually on the phone, in a meeting or out of the office – the rank and file is left in the daunting position of having to fend for itself. The results of which usually come at the expense of the organization.

While a quintessential function of leadership is that of dealing with challenges, especially people challenges – It is the very challenge of being an individual leader, that most leaders collectively struggle with.

The more successful that you and your organization become, the more exceeding are the demands for your “time”. Your finite amount of time on a daily basis is divided up between an ever increasing number of people and situations. Your prerequisite challenge is that to become an authentic leader, you must also truly be an available and accessible leader.

Leadership’s Catch-22 very much parallels Newton’s Law of Physics, where for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For when you as a leader devote your time to a particular person or situation, you are conversely taking time away from other people and circumstances that are concurrently competing for the finite amount of time you have to work with.

This is precisely why you must learn to become proactive as an accessible leader who clearly understands their need to be visible, accessible and involved with the people whom you lead.

Given that leadership is also about recognizing your priorities, make it your daily priority to visit with your employees, have meaningful two way communication with them and consequently learn firsthand what is really happening in this segment of your organization’s operation.

For when you do, not only will you truly be an accessible leader… you will be a highly respected leader that people willingly choose to follow.

As your valued resource partner, we can readily assist your organization, its leadership and your people to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

 
Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC

In The Absence Of Integrity

One of the hallmark qualities of an authentic leader is his or her “integrity”. And when a leader violates their own integrity, they also violate the leadership role that they were responsible to fulfill, as well as violate the people who had come to trust them as their leader.

In the course of the past week, there have been two high profile circumstances of leadership integrity being violated in dramatic fashion. First came NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor Brian Williams who was exposed for falsely embellishing his news reports. Next came the resignation of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber amid a growing corruption scandal.

When hundreds of millions of American workers (just like those in your organization) arrive home at the end of their workday and turn on the evening news, their expectation is to not only catch up on the news of the day – It is also their expectation to receive the factual truth about what is happening in the world around them. For whatever reason yet unrevealed, Brian Williams decided to go down the road of something other than the factual truth.

As a society, we have come to live in a time when the integrity of leadership is constantly under the microscope and more often than not in doubt. Most people simply lack confidence and resultant trust in their civic leaders, business leaders, government leaders and even religious leaders.

The corruption scandal driven resignation of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber comes on the heels of former Virginia Governor and once hopeful Presidential candidate Robert F. McDonnell having been sentenced to federal prison after being convicted along with his wife Maureen, the former First Lady of Virginia, on corruption charges.   

Even during the weeks leading up to the recent Super Bowl, issues of integrity swirled in the midst of professional football’s “inflate-gate”. The issue of leadership integrity being comprised is no longer an isolated circumstance now and then. Rather, it seems to be taking on epidemic proportions as stories of failed leadership integrity continue to surface week in and week out.

In view of today’s unprecedented breaches of leadership integrity on a global scale, it isn’t any wonder that people everywhere have become particularly suspect of their leadership in the workplace. Just like their evening news, when people show up at their employer’s place of business each day, they too “expect to receive the factual truth about what is happening in the workplace around them.”  

 

Like the hub of a wheel, integrity is what connects so many other vital aspects of leadership. And when integrity is lost, it causes an adverse cascade much like that of a domino effect. Without integrity, there is no respect. Without respect, there is no trust. Without trust, there is no credibility. Without credibility, there is no cooperation. I need not elaborate further.

A major leadership lesson that authentic leaders have emphatically learned at the hands of the former leaders who compromised and then subsequently lost their integrity is that… the “truth” matters. Ethics matter. The reason they matter is because whether your success manifests as tangible or intangible, success will always be substantive. Success in what every form it comes, is something of value, something to behold. Therefore, it must not only be “earned”, it must be earned fair and square. 

 

Simply stated, you can’t short cut, cheat or steal your way to success. That is precisely why there are patent and copyright laws. They protect the integrity of people, their work and their future accomplishments.

As President Dwight D. Eisenhower put it… “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army or in an office”.

In the absence of the highest degree of integrity, your organization will be absent of the prerequisite leadership that is necessary to fulfill its potential and that of its human resources.

As your premier training resource partner, we can readily assist in the development of your leadership, your people and their ability to … Learn more… Do more… Become more.

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC

When Talent Walks Out The Door

Have you ever lost an employee that you didn’t want to lose or possibly couldn’t afford to lose?

For most organizations, the material costs of employee turnover are more than evident. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), its cost estimate for replacing a salaried employee is between six and nine months of that employee’s salary on average.

The SHRM cost estimate may actually fall at the lower end of loss scale, as other industry experts and economists state that replacing a talented employee can cost as much as two times their annual salary.

Regardless of where you exactly peg it, the replacement cost that occurs when talent walks out the door is huge. Moreover, the important caveat here is that this is only the “replacement” cost. While the material/financial costs of employee turnover are clearly substantial, there should be an equal and commensurate focus on the intangible cost to your organization from the ripple effect that talent loss permeates throughout the organization.

The ripple effect ever so subtlety makes it way to the shores that stretch from the boardroom to the boiler room. Executives begin asking… “What is causing our organization to keep losing such talented people, especially after the substantial investment that we have made in them.”  All the while, front line employees throughout the organization are asking “Why did John Smith suddenly decide to leave the organization?”

These are upfront questions that could be considered normal, reasonable and to some degree predictable. Of course, every organization has its culture and its internal grapevine. So before long, reasonable questions turn into rumors and speculation that ultimately lack substance.

Let’s be honest here… It’s no secret that employees in mass recognize the talents and abilities of their fellow peers. And when a talented individual chooses to jump ship, it is most assuredly going to raise the question “why”. However, the questioning process doesn’t stop there. Rather, it serves as the beginning of a series of questions, such as… “Did John Smith know something that we don’t know?” “Did John Smith get off a sinking ship before it actually sinks?” “Is our company in financial trouble and we don’t know it.” And… the beat goes on.

These are the kind of ripples that travel much more like a tsunami and their effect is just as destructive. For when attitudes become “infected”, many detrimental things can occur beginning with poor moral and declining productivity.

Given that human nature and human behavior are often quite predictable, the act of a hardworking and talented individual like John Smith suddenly leaving the company and catching his peers off guard is certainly bound to raise some red flags.

Unfortunately, it is also bound to create a very real sense of job insecurity, worry and anxiety. As I recently cited a few weeks back, 70% of American workers don’t feel secure in their job and with their company/organization.

In many cases with diligent-hardworking-talented people… organizations just like yours, don’t see the warning signs until the employee is sitting there smack in front of you informing you that they are leaving and there is nothing more that you or the organization can do to change their mind.

The reality of this scenario which plays out every business day is that all of the compliments, pats on the back, awards, raises and even promotions don’t in the end provide the true measure of what the employee has been longing for all along.

They don’t merely want to be appreciated for their talents, abilities and technical skills… because in the age of robotics, they perceive themselves to simply be one and nothing more in the eye of your organization. As stated earlier, human nature is highly predictable. Ever since their early childhood when these individuals were endlessly trying to gain their parent’s approval, the thing that they wanted most in life was to be “valued” as an “individual”.

Once your organization has been afforded an ample opportunity to measure up and subsequently failed to meet the employee’s litmus test of being truly valued… talent will walk straight out the door and never look back.

It’s important to remember that your organization’s culture and practices are a vivid reflection of your organizations leadership and its attitudes toward employees… And that your people are staring into that mirror 24/7.

As your valued resource partner, we can readily assist your organization, its leadership and your people to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC