It may be Labor Day weekend, but for many leaders, the work doesn't stop.
In the current shaky economy and uncertainty business future, you have to stay sharp and on top of things. If your team or company slips, you could be in big trouble.
That's why being a leader is always about striking a balance. Yes, you need to rest and recharge. You need to make sure your work stays sustainable. However, you can't lose focus.
My hope is our newsletter helps you keep some of those skills sharp, and keeps you thinking about the kinds of things you need to be doing to keep your team performing at their best.
In today’s edition, we cover a time when leaders should actually go first, how to handle growth when you or your team members can't be promoted, a new reader survey where you can win a free book, and more.
Let’s dive in…
Table of contents:
- 🥘 Food for Thought on When Leaders Must Go First
- 🙋🏽 Ask Lighthouse on Growing as a Leader without Getting Promoted
- 🗳️ Tell Us Your Views in a new Lighthouse Reader Survey for You
- 📖 Your Leadership Long Read on Growing Your Team Members When You Can't Promote
- ❓ Poll of the Week on How are You Using AI?
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Note: This is a preview of our weekly leadership newsletter, Lighthouse Leadership Weekly (LLW).
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🥘 Food for Thought
"It isn't nearly so difficult to listen to a recital of your faults if the person criticizing begins by humbly admitting that he, too, is far from impeccable." - Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People
This is one of the more unorthodox lessons that has really stuck with me from this book we've been featuring all month.
While many of the lessons on giving praise, remembering people's names, and being a good listener are rather straightforward, this one is a bit different.
The truth is, if you're going to call out issues or address a problem, the first thing you need to do is look in the mirror.
Are leaders first or last?
There are a lot of times where leaders should go last:
- When discussing ideas: If you share your ideas early your team may feel pressured to agree with you rather than bring up innovative and creative alternatives.
- When eating: As the saying goes, "Leaders eat last", which can be helpful symbolism to your team to remind them that leadership is a service-based role.
- When celebrating: Congratulating your team and giving them credit is the best way to recognize your team before you take any credit or ownership for a win.
Yet, like so many leadership rules, there is a time that "going last" doesn't fit, and that's what today's Food for Thought is focused on.
When you should go first.
As the Carnegie quote reminds us, it's easier to admit you made a mistake if the person you're speaking with already took some responsibility or accountability themselves.
As a leader, this is the situation where you should go first.
Because when you admit fault, and accept how you contributed to a problem, you make it safe for your team to admit how they contributed, too. This is how you shift culture from passing the buck, to shared accountability.
Take more of the blame than you think you deserve.
One of the advanced tactics I see great leaders follow is they actually shoulder more of the responsibility than they probably deserve. They often make their mistakes out to be bigger than they were, and accept that if their team made a mistake, it's ultimately on the leader.
Remember:
- You played a role in the selection of your team, coaching them, and choosing their assignments.
- You accepted the project that your team took on; whether begrudgingly or eagerly, it was still your choice.
- You chose how to monitor the work, which impacted how quickly (or slowly) you noticed the issue that led to the discussion you're now having with your team.
Now, this can be a tough pill to swallow, but it really pays off.
Accountability >>> Blame
The most powerful part of this approach is the culture shift it creates.
Instead of your team passing blame (like you would be doing if you only blamed others but not yourself), they'll take accountability in some ways just like you already did. And anyone who doesn't will be an outlier culturally, which you can deal with in private.
Yet, it's not just less finger pointing, it shifts the whole conversation.
Rather than debating whose fault each aspect was, you can spend more time on what to do about it.
Because when everyone takes some responsibility for what went wrong, it's easy to pivot the discussion to the important things like:
- How are we going to fix this?
- How do we prevent this from happening in the future?
- What should we do different next project?
This is how you turn even a mediocre or poor team into a great one.
And it starts with YOU being willing to admit you were part of the problem, and being accountable to help solve it.
Are you willing to admit to your team you contributed to big problems?
🙋🏽 Ask Lighthouse on Growing as a Leader without Getting Promoted
A LLW subscriber wrote in with a great question:
"How can I grow as a leader, when there's not a clear way to get promoted? My boss isn't going anywhere, but I love my job. And I also love the feeling of growth and being challenged. What can I do?"
There's a lot to love about this question:
- It's realistic about what work really is like: You can love your team, the work, and many other things, and still have something that kind of bothers you.
- It shows an enthusiasm for growth and learning: The best leaders are always eager to learn (which is probably why you read this newsletter), which means you never want to feel like your growth has stopped.
- It acknowledges the reality of catch-22s: Sometimes you can be in a great spot, but also kind of stuck. It's a paradox that you have to learn to live with or be ready to make a very bold change.
And in today's economy, it's common to not see a lot of promotion opportunities; when your company is fighting to survive, or simply plateaued, there aren't going to be a lot of promotions opening up.
So let's take a look at some ways you can grow as a leader while staying in the role you have today.
How to grow as a leader when you can't get promoted
If you're feeling stuck in your current role and looking for ways to grow, here are a few places to get you started:
- Grow your people: The more they thrive the better the leader you become, and great companies value leaders with a proven track record of developing stars and turn around struggling performers.
- Assess yourself and fill in gaps: No one is born knowing how to be a great manager. You have to learn, often largely on your own, which means that there are always some gaps to fill in. (For starters, try these 8 areas)
- Take on special projects to help your company: One of the best ways to expand your skills is to stretch yourself with projects you take on. It can also help you get noticed if you really drive great results, whether for your resume and your next job, or with your current company.
- Look to lead in other places: Leadership happens every day all around us. You can grow your skills quite a bit by stepping up at your church, in your community, or even being a better leader for your home/family. If you can motivate some tired teenagers, or guide some 6 year olds on a hike, you might just learn something you can bring back to work, too.
- Focus on self-improvement: Work is often do X, Y, Z, or master skill A, B, C, to get result 1, 2, 3. It can make promotions feel almost formulaic. Yet, there's another level to life: who are you? Fix those patterns that you used to just work around. Do that inner work you've put off. Develop parts of yourself that have been lacking.
There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. There are always ways you can spend some of that growing in some dimension of yourself.
Spend some time this Labor Day weekend reflecting on where you think your greatest opportunity for growth is. You may be surprised what the answer is, because it may not be found at your desk.
Regardless of what you find, or where you find it, it's one of the most rewarding things you can uncover. It's the first step towards unlocking the next level in your life.
How can you grow most as a person right now?
🗳️ Tell us what you want in our Lighthouse Reader Survey
We're always looking to learn from our readers and so we have an important new survey we'd really appreciate you taking 1 minute to complete.
If you enjoy this newsletter this is a $0 way you can help us make this newsletter better and ensure the future of us as a business by clicking here.
And best of all, we'll randomly select one respondent to win a free leadership book of their choosing (delivered to an address of your choice, or to your Kindle).
Tell us what you want and help us learn from our readers by taking the survey here: https://forms.gle/UVJnFHWSfAhjgNrh9
📖 Your Leadership Long Read on Growing Your Employees without Promotions
Are your team members growing?
It may not be something you've thought about lately, but you should.
Especially your best people are always growth hungry. They want to tackle new challenges and feel like they're learning and growing.
And if they don't have those things, that's when they get restless. And before you know it, they're catching up with a friend who has an exciting opportunity, they're warming up their resume, and starting to look for the door.
But Jason! We're on a tight budget! We have a hiring freeze! No one is getting promoted!
There are a lot of reasons you might think growth is impossible for your team, but you'd be wrong.
You can retain your best people, keep your team motivated, and help them grow, all without them getting promoted.
And that's what this week's Leadership Long Read is all about:
Learn now "How to Grow Your Employees with no budget, no promotions, and limited time"
❓ Poll of the week
Last week, we asked you about your habits as a leader around talking about career growth, and I was pleasantly surprised by the results:
88% of you that took the poll are talking about your team's growth at least once a quarter. That's great!
That means your team member has a chance of making semi-regular progress on their career goals, which means they're likely to stay with you long-term. It's when good people feel stagnant that they start considering other opportunities beyond your company.
If you're struggling with career conversations, or not sure how to have them, here's some of our best advice to help you:
- Starting from scratch? Here are 6 ways to start career conversations.
- Need to grow managers that report to you? Here are the best professional development goals for new managers.
- Have a team member that doesn't know their goals? Here's how you can help get them discover their goals.
Have other career conversation challenges? Reply and let me know so I can help you.
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This week we look to the future, to see how / if you use AI to help you be a manager:
How much are you using AI? Share your perspective by taking the poll here.
