As a follow up to my last post, ’20 Things to AVOID as a leader’, here are the next 5 things (6-10) to avoid as a leader, and to move your career and life to the next level.
As much as possible, DON’T do the following:
- Tell the world how smart we are: The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are.
- Speak when angry: Using emotional volatility as a management tool.
- Negativity or “Let me explain why that won’t work”: The need to share our negative thoughts even when we weren’t asked.
- Withhold information: The refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others.
- Fail to give proper recognition: The inability to praise and reward for a job well done. And don’t reserve recognition for only the giant, extraordinary things. Give praise to those who do the job their asked to do, well.
Take Action: Use the 5 second rule (not the one about eating food off the ground)- This rule explains that you should pause for 5 seconds (or 10 if you need it) before replying to questions or statements. By doing this, you can teach yourself to respond, when necessary, in positive, growth contributing ways. Additionally, and in relation to recognition, practice ‘catching people doing good’.
By nature, we seem to be programmed to seek out things-gone-wrong so we can fix them, punish for them, and in a lot of ways, be the hero. Flip the script for a month and instead focus on catching people do things well, and praising them for it, publicly. Others will see this and want the same recognition.
Check back tomorrow for the next 5 things in this series!
p.s. If you missed the previous post, see ’20 Things to AVOID as a leader’.
