The Ghosts of Leadership Past, Present and Future

In the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by four spirits: One is his old business partner Jacob Marley. The other three are the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. In keeping with that theme let's imagine a visit from the ghosts of Leadership past, present and future...

"Ooohhhhh! (That's what ghosts say!) I'm the ghost of Leadership Past and I wanted to show you how things used to be at your company. Remember when we first opened our doors? Remember the excitement we felt because we were a start up? Remember the great 'family' feel our organization had? Wow, we had some great ideas and a 'nothing can stop us' attitude. And isn't it funny how looking back we don't really think about the stupid mistakes we made - only how great everything was then compared to now? Remember that one great leader - she was awesome! Nothing like the leaders we have now. If only we could make our company like it was then."

"Bah! Humbug! That's all history. I'm the ghost of Leadership Future and I'm here to say the past doesn't matter. What's important is the future. We need to forget all of that history stuff because it's not going to help us be ready for upcoming challenges and opportunities. We need to be embracing new strategies, technologies and, yes I'll say it, leadership styles! If we're not constantly breaking new ground we're moving backwards. Let's make way for the next big thing!"

"Oh My! No wonder you guys are dead. I'm the ghost of Leadership Present and I've got to tell you you're both wrong ..... and right. The past is important. We need to build on the things we've done really well and leverage our legacy strengths - but we can't pine away for the past at the expense of the present or the future. Yes, some things may have been better back in the day, but be honest, some things were worse. And the future is very important - but not so important we sacrifice our core principles. We have to make sure we never lose site of those key values that made us who we are. I'm a bit partial but I think we need to stay grounded in the here and now - holding on to the things that got us here but keeping our eyes open to the future."

God Bless us everyone and Merry Christmas!

Effective Leadership: 20-60-20 - a win-win-win scenario

In our Coach Me 2 class we spend a little time discussing the 20/60/20 rule. This rule says that on a given team roughly 20 percent of our agents will be superstars, 20 percent will be strugglers and 60 percent will be average performers. So, with which group should the manager spend the most time?

The manager should dedicate the most time to the middle 60 - because that's the majority of his team. Unfortunately, however, many of the managers I've talked with say most of their time (and energy) is spent managing the bottom 20. Wouldn't it be great if there were a way to ensure that our top 20 and middle 60 got the same level of attention as our bottom 20? "But there just isn't time" you might say. Well today is your lucky day!

This is one of the most effective things a leader can do: use your top 20 to help you develop your bottom 20. This is a win-win-win scenario. The first winner is the top 20 agent. He or she feels appreciated and recognized when you say to them "You do a really good job at X. I would like for you to spend some time with (insert bottom 20 agent's name here) and show them some of the things that work well for you. Then report back to me and let me know how it went." Interestingly, one of the key workplace motivators for an employee is being entrusted with additional responsibilities. This scenario fits that bill quite nicely.

The second winner is the bottom 20 agent. They will benefit from getting some one-on-one "coaching" from a successful practioner, and them getting it from another face can't hurt either. And, let's be honest, if we have been in a management role for awhile we may not be as good in the trenches as our top 20 agents are; so tips and tricks coming from these folks might hold a bit more weight than those coming from us.

The third winner is the manager. Obviously, by leveraging our top twenty to work with our bottom 20 we've created much more time for ourselves to work with our middle 20. We could spend alot more space talking about all the cool things that come about from using the 20/60/20 rule but all we really need to know is that it works. Give it a try and see what happens.