LEADING

Dec

2023

Leading Through the Holiday Stress

The holiday season. A time of joy, celebration, and…stress. As a leader, I am sure you understand all too well the struggle of managing stress during the holidays. It’s a time when our personal and professional lives collide, and the pressure to juggle it all can often feel overwhelming. Maybe one of these ideas will help decrease stress levels without adding to your already full plate.

Set Realistic Expectations

The level of work for both you and others can increase during this time. Whether the pressure of closing the year and meeting certain goals or personal pressures from family commitments. The holiday season is not the time to take on more than you can handle. Understand you and your team may not be able to accomplish as much during this time, and that’s okay. Be mindful of your limitations and communicate them to your team. This will help alleviate some of the pressure and prevent burnout.

Delegate or Purposefully Procrastinate

As business leaders, we often feel like we need to have our hands in every aspect of the business and everything is top priority. The truth is, you have a team for a reason. Trust in their abilities and delegate tasks to them. If you don’t have a team then look at what you have to do and decide what can I purposely put off until after this season? This will not only help alleviate your workload, but it will also empower your team members and make them feel valued.

Self-Care

We can get to the other side of this season and feel exhausted. Part of this is from not taking care of yourself during this time. It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but it’s important to carve out time for self-care. Whether it’s taking a long bath, going for a walk, or simply taking a few minutes to breathe and recenter yourself, make self-care a priority. When you take care of yourself, you’ll be better equipped to handle the challenges that come with this busy time of year.

NO is Your Friend

Depending on your personality, this may be difficult, but don’t be afraid to say no. As business leaders, we often feel obligated to attend every holiday event and say yes to every request that comes our way. But the truth is, it’s okay to say no. Your time and energy are valuable, so be selective and strategic with how you choose to spend them.

Create a Supportive Culture

Regardless of the time of year this is important. During the holidays which can be extra stressful professionally and personally, fostering a positive and supportive work culture is important. Encourage your team to take time off and spend it with their loved ones. Offer flexible work hours or remote working options to allow them to handle personal holiday commitments. This will not only reduce their stress levels, but it will also create a sense of goodwill and loyalty within your team.

As you look at each of these areas, which one will help you navigate this season the best to reduce you and your team’s stress levels? Focus on that area to lead your team even better as you work through the holidays and enter the new year. Lead Well.

Nov

2023

Leading More Experienced Team Members

In one of my first jobs, I was in charge of leading a group of volunteers who were just a few years younger than my parents. I was the one with the title and in charge, but really everyone else in the room had ten times the wisdom and experience.

Maybe you are in an organization and have been entrusted with leading a team of experienced people. This can be challenging and even intimidating. Allow me to provide a few ideas that may help you if you are in this situation.

Tap Into Their Experience

I didn’t know what I didn’t know about life, this community I was leading, or many other aspects of the situation. On one level, that served me well because I was willing to take risks, but consulting the wisdom of the people around me helped me be more calculated in my risk-taking.

You have the benefit of years of experience around you. Tap into it. When you get stuck and are unsure about a decision, gather feedback from your team. Learn from both the successes and failures of your experienced team to help everyone succeed. One reminder: when success comes, give credit to the team, and don’t take it yourself.

Set Clear Boundaries

I was an umpire for baseball when I was thirteen. At one point, an adult coach was yelling and arguing with me about a call I made. I could have caved, but I was confident in my decision and knew I had the authority, so I turned around and confidently threw the coach out of the game. I heard nothing else from him that game.

Maybe you got the position instead of someone else with more experience. This could create tension and a team member may try to undermine you. Use what author Kim Scott and former top leader at both Google and Apple calls radical candor. Pull the individual aside and have a conversation with both candor and care. Demonstrate care by trying to understand where they are coming from and candidly explain the issue and the line that was crossed. Balancing these will set and maintain clear boundaries.

Demonstrate Confident Humility

In his book Good to Great Jim Collins describes a level five leader as someone with intense drive and great humility. These two traits demonstrate this confident humility. As the leader, be willing to work as hard as your team. At times, work alongside them so you can understand them and what they do. Coming alongside the team demonstrates humility and a desire to learn.

Confidence comes from a clear vision. You have been entrusted with this role for a purpose. Do you know the purpose for your team? What do you want to accomplish with your team? What are you moving toward beyond the bottom line or some other practical goal? Why is what you do as a team so important? Get clarity on these answers and confidence will grow and overflow.

Develop a Learning Culture

“A shared vision . . . provides a rudder to keep the learning process on course when stresses develop.”

Peter Senge

The vision that gives you confidence should be shared with the team. As that vision becomes clear create a learning culture where you discuss the vision together. What will this organization/team look like in a year? Answer that together, establish the steps to achieve that vision together and you will have a team that is learning, unified, and doesn’t care about the age or experience of the leader. You will have a team going in one direction together toward a clear goal. When this is happening, you will be leading well.

How are you doing in each of these areas? Which one do you need to think into more? Contact me and I’d be glad to help you. If you find this helpful, please share it with others. Lead Well.

*Thoughts from others on this topic are below

https://medium.com/small-business-strong/how-to-lead-people-older-and-more-experienced-than-you-a16a564b11b2

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/269563

https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/how-to-manage-people-who-are-older-than-you-0717

Jun

2022

Leading as a Father

Three boys. By the end of the summer they will be ages 17, 15, and 12. That is overwhelming. I’m not sure if you are a father or the spouse of one. Maybe you have lived through this stage and are now the parent of adult children which has its own challenges . . . so I hear.

I remember holding my oldest who had oxygen tubes up his nose, born a month early, and was 5 pounds 4 ounces fitting between my elbow and fingertips. It was an overwhelming moment to think this human was going to look to me for guidance on what it means to be a man.

That infant is now slightly taller than me and can grow a better beard than me!

Since I am writing this on Father’s Day, I wanted to share a few thoughts on how I see my role as a father. I am on this journey and don’t have it all figured out, but I do know that I need to pay attention to the following three areas to continue to lead well at home.

Navigator

Recently my youngest son and I got up early to hike to a natural bridge in Arizona. I’ll share more about this journey in another post. As we walked on the trail we would come to intersections and decide where to go. My job was to read the signs, know the final destination, and keep us going in the right direction.

As a father our children have many situations they need to navigate. Many of them we have experienced, but some may be new (i.e. social media as a teenager). As a dad I am learning how to walk alongside my sons and help them navigate life’s challenges without just telling them what to do. It feels easier to tell, but I’m more effective by their side listening, teaching, and guiding.

Thermostat

Early in our marriage my wife and I would fight over the thermostat. Have you had that fight? Now we never would fight over a thermometer. Why?

The thermometer tells you the temperature, but the thermostat can help raise or lower the temperature. I realize in my home I can be a thermostat. That is a heavy weight. My attitude and presence can either bring fun and positive energy or it can do the exact opposite.

When my wife and I battled over the thermostat we each would choose to raise or lower the temperature. As fathers we have a choice. Our attitude and mindset is a choice. I can choose to take out a bad day on my family or not. I can choose to snap at my children or remain calm. The list goes on the choices I must make as a father to be a thermostat. The bottom line is I choose to set a temperature in my home that is peaceful and not chaotic, and this takes effort.

Example

As I said in the beginning holding my son was overwhelming at the thought that he would be looking at me for an example on how to be a man. I know I am perfectly imperfect and at peace with that, but the words of Spiderman’s uncle come to mind on this point:

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

I have a responsibility as a father to continue to be growing and aware of myself. I find the clearer I am on who I am the better example I can be. My sons don’t have to be clones of me (one of me is plenty!). The example they will catch is how I love my wife, how I treat others, my character, and the kind of man I am. What do we need to do as fathers? Be humble and teachable so we can allow others to point out our blind spots that may negatively impact our children and grow and keep growing as the example.

Being a dad is a rewarding and difficult journey. We need other men in our lives to journey with. If we lead well at work but fail at home I would suggest we have missed the goal. Need someone to journey alongside you as you seek to lead well at work and home? Not sure how to have conversations about important issues with your son? Go here and check out a resource I created to help you have important conversations with your son as you navigate life with him. Want to talk one on one? Contact me for a no cost thirty-minute thinking partner call. Lead Well!