The Leader of the Pack Makes All the Difference!

As I sit with yet another client (not mentioning who, what, where or when) I find it utterly ridiculous that a senior leader could be so detrimental to a team. A leader who comes in and sits down with a new team of people and runs the meeting like this:
• “I am here to change things up and (points with a finger) you, you and you need to change how you are working right now”

• “I don’t care how this makes you feel – this is who I am and this is how I work – take it or leave it!”

• “This is not personal – it is work”

So I ask you as a reader of my blog – how does this make you feel? Even if you were taking over the toughest, worst and unproductive team of people, would you start like this? How dare anyone in a leadership role today treat people so poorly? People, I might add, are what make a company function – a leader alone can’t produce the results needed. Maybe this leader has a lot of work to do and doesn’t feel the team in place can do it. How can this leader make this decision so fast?
So my message today for any of you taking over a new team –
• Start with a clean slate
• Give a motivational and energetic welcome to all employees
• Lay out your plan to make some positive changes that will affect everyone in a positive way
• Share your ideas of how you are going to turn things around for more productivity
• Meet individually with all your direct reports and have a candid, open and honest conversation while listening to them as well
• Attend each one of your direct reports first meeting with their departments to hear how they give “your message” and correct any of the “he said, she said” stuff
• Treat everyone as if they are the most important person on your team and give them solid feedback and direction so that they understand what is expected of them so they can live up to it

At the end of the day, you can continue to replace “people” but who may need replacing is the leader that just doesn’t get it!