Recent customer quote: “Change the worst of your reputation without changing the best of the story about you — that’s what Change Masters does.”
If I ever wanted a reason to continue coaching, that’s a great one!
Executive Tip – Carol Keers
The Best Bosses are Humble Bosses
The publicity seems to go to leaders who are not humble. Yet, high hubris leaders tend to ruin their companies because they are overconfident and do not listen to others. Followers often feel disrespected and unmotivated.
Results are achieved by humble leaders. Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” has been a best seller for years. A key result of his extensive studies was that “Level 5 Leaders” inspire the greatest company success. There were several traits, but the foundational trait was humility.
Ongoing studies have reinforced the fact that a humble leader is not a weak leader. A recent Wall Street Journal article said:
“Humility is a core quality of leaders who inspire close teamwork, rapid learning, and high performance in their teams, according to several studies in the past three years. Humble people tend to be aware of their own weaknesses, eager to improve themselves, appreciative of others’ strengths and focused on goals beyond their own self-interest.
“Among employees, it’s linked to lower turnover and absenteeism. These strengths are often overlooked because humble people tend to fly under the radar, making outsiders think it’s their team that’s doing all the work.”
The article lists the Hogan Assessment Systems that help identify the humble leaders. Attributes of humble leaders include truthfulness, modesty, sincerity and avoidance of manipulation. Such leaders tend to foster executive teams that work well together.
High Quality Listening Attention
“Change Masters coaching ensured that I give people small, short capsules of high quality listening attention. It is helping me to drive the conversation faster and gives me the perceived listening commitment I always wanted to show.”
Change Masters client who was promoted to Vice President of a multinational company
Executive Presence tip – Carol Keers
Benefits of Civility
Smiles are contagious. Smiles improve the chemistry in our body and impact our emotions … and smiles are free.
When we are treated with respect and kindness, we feel better. When people feel they have nice co-workers there are a number of benefits:
- 56% healthier
- 92% more focused
- 55% more engaged
Being treated with respect is one of the strongest motivators in and out of the workplace. People tend to be less stressed, more productive, more cooperative and make fewer mistakes.
But nice people finish last …
Why does it seem that uncivil people get ahead? They don’t. The Center for Creative Leadership has found insensitive leaders are less successful. If they gain power they lose it when the inevitable difficulties arise.
Uncivil behavior studies have found significant reductions in productivity and commitment. 12% of people will leave a company if they feel disrespected. Disrespect or lack of civility has a major negative impact on the person being treated poorly. It also has a major impact on those who observe, or even hear about, uncivil behavior. Cisco Systems has estimated uncivil behavior costs the company over $12 million.
Nice leaders finish first
People perform better when they feel respected. Leaders who are respectful, smile and listen have a significant advantage. Good leaders can be very civil and still have high standards and hold people accountable. Christine Porath in her book, Mastering Civility, identifies 400 touch-points per day that we can chose civility. It may be a smile in the hallway, a “thank you” or another respectful gesture. You can improve your workday and the life of those around you by making an extra effort to smile and be civil, even when busy or stressed.
Acts of kindness
Unexpected acts of kindness are particularly powerful. My wife and I were standing in line for a piece of cheesecake after seeing a show in Los Vegas. It was late in the evening for the family in front of us who had an overactive toddler. We engaged with the boy and distracted him long enough for his father to complete his transaction. It was fun for us. We were next to make our dessert selection. The father surprised us by buying our cheesecake. It was very memorable, and encouraged us to pay it forward to someone else. Small acts of kindness can have a big impact. The father would have been justified in being tired, frustrated and focused on his plight. Instead, he choose to brighten our life with a surprise. I suspect it improved his feelings that evening also.
Doing kind things for your coworkers can have similar benefit for you and them.