Eliminate Entropy
Keep Roles Consistent. Task assignments change over time. To deliver a consistent offering, your company must have consistent roles (collections of tasks). People will grow and people may go, but the roles will stay. Great leaders define the tasks for each role first, and then find the best person to fill that role.
Prioritize Specific Qualities and Qualifications. A person’s potential is maximized when they lean in to a few talents. It’s not about being well-rounded. Great leaders identify the few qualities and qualifications that will have the greatest impact in a role and find someone with those attributes.
Prioritize Intangibles. You can give someone experience, but you will never be able to change the intangibles. Great leaders prioritize hiring for intangibles over experience.
Deconstruct High Performers into Distinct Tasks. Most employees do multiple tasks. High performers tend to do more tasks than others. When that person leaves, great leaders look at the tasks they were doing and separate them into categories. This is the process of “fractionalizing” a person’s work. Then they transfer the individual elements of work to other team roles and multiple individuals.
Recruit Potential
Host Workshops. A workshop is an interactive educational event designed to find people who have genuine curiosity in the tasks you need performed. Great leaders know that many of the best candidates may not be actively looking or thinking about a new job. But if they have potential, they will always want to learn.
Consider Potential Abilities. The most overlooked consideration in hiring is potential ability. Great leaders look beyond what a candidate has done in the past and ask, “What can the person do in the future?”
Recruit from the Bench. The bench is a community of candidates you have built over the years. It can be past employees, prior applicants, competitor employees, or people you have crossed paths with in life. Great leaders keep their bench full so they can streamline the recruiting process and fill roles faster.
Maintain a Secure and Accepting Environment
Promote Physical Safety. Employees’ physical safety is not static. Great leaders consider their employees’ safety as times and technology evolve, and when making any new business decision.
Commit to Psychological Safety for All Employees. When people feel free to be themselves, they are more productive, collaborative, and more likely to stay at the company. Great leaders go beyond to ensure employees can bring their whole selves to work.
Use Transparency to Build Financial Safety for All Employees. Revenue goals are not enough. When people understand the finances of the business it reduces suspicions or misunderstanding. Great leaders reveal numbers without compromising their confidence and privacy and provide education to help their team understand the numbers.
Establish a Retention Rhythm
Give Employees a Remarkable First Day. The first impression is the biggest impression. Get it wrong and new employees will be disconnected from the start. Get it right and they will know you are all in for them. Great leaders celebrate the arrival of new employees.
Meet with Employees Weekly. When we have a good sense of how our employees are doing—both personally and professionally—we can get in front of challenges and course-correct as needed. Great leaders also meet one-on-one weekly with employees.
Hold Daily Huddles. Building team connection and unity requires regular group check-ins. Great leaders hold short, daily huddles that allow the team to sync up on the day.
Master the Ultimate Motivational Tool
Help Employees Set Goals and Dreams. Money and career advancement are important, but they are not the whole picture. Your team cares as much—or more—about their personal goals and dreams. Great leaders ask their team to express and document their dreams, however simple, and then guides them in achieving it.
Focus on the Collective Path. Zig Ziglar famously said, “If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want.” When employees feel their individual goals matter as much as the company’s goals, they are even more motivated to see that company goal come to fruition. Great leaders align their company vision with their employees’ personal vision.
Reward Work-Life Balance. Work is a big part of people’s lives. So make their lives a bigger part of work. Great leaders incorporate life updates into daily huddles, one-on-ones, and quarterly updates.
Up-Level Employee Experience and Performance
Train for Job and Personal Growth. Personal growth programs help your employees reach their potential and become the person they were meant to be. People value organizations that value them. Great leaders give their team opportunities for both job and personal growth.
Master Individual Communication. People show and receive appreciation in different ways, and they have different skills and abilities, different strengths and weaknesses, and different communication styles. Great leaders don’t treat everyone the same way. They treat people the way they want to be treated.
Prioritize Happiness Targets. You can’t make people happy, but you can create an environment that fosters happiness and empowers them to seek it. Great leaders share revenue targets and prioritize happiness.
Adapt to Changing Work Environments
Allow Employees to Find Their Remote/In-Person Blend. Some employees work better in a physical office. Others are happier and more productive working remotely. And some prefer a combination of the two. Great leaders encourage their team to experiment and discover where they work best.
Reward Recovery. Team burnout is not only dangerous for them; it’s dangerous for your company. Exhausted teams are not high performers, and they cannot reach their potential. Taking time off allows employees to recharge their batteries, which then makes it easier for them to contribute fresh ideas. Great leaders reward taking time for recovery.
Let People Go
Graduate Employees. When an employee’s existing ability and potential ability is outside of the roles/needs the business has, they should be directed to fulfill their potential elsewhere. Their history will always be part of the business. And in some cases, an affinity can be maintained. Great leaders do everything in their power to pave the path forward for terminated employees.
Hire Slow, Fire Slower. When a good match becomes a misalignment, then try to realign before you let someone go. Great leaders take the time to reconsider the application of an employee’s potential before they graduate them.
Your Leadership Lives on for Generations
Great leaders guide others to their greatness. You don’t have to be famous, or lead a large company, or perform a heroic act that lands you on the six o’clock news. All that’s required for great leadership is great caring. And as you already know, that begins with seeing potential in people and taking action to develop it. That is what great leaders do.
You are in the role of a lifetime. You have the chance to help others be more of themselves. And perhaps, just perhaps, that is the kindest gift you can give to all humanity.
Your leadership will also have a cascading effect. It already has, good or bad. Intentional or accidental. But, today, you have an opportunity to make a choice. Will you use your powers for intentional good? Will you use your powers to grow human potential?
Great leaders create generations of impact.