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A newly minted sale Manager held a meeting with her staff to discuss the company shortfall for the past quarter. One of her sale agents missed her targets and the manager became verbally abusive to the agent in front of the entire team. But what happened next shocked the entire team. Within a week of the incident, the sale agent resigns, and the manager found out later that the agent was in a bitter divorce and custody battle with her ex-husband that took a toll on her life personally, emotionally and professionally.
Now there are people who will read this and think well "you need to leave your personal issues at home because work is work"
If you have personal issues, deal with it; the company is not responsible for helping you. I heard this from someone whom I had a conversation with and it is always amazing when I encounter "leaders" who treat their people like commodities as opposed to people, you know a human being with a heart and feeling. But what is even more bizarre is that these "leaders" would complain that their company is not living up to its potential.
Leadership requires that you build a relationship with your team. If one of your people is dealing with a major personal issue and you are oblivious to it or your employee chooses not to talk to you or even mention it then something is wrong with the culture or worst the company is severely over-manage and under-led. I read this story once about someone who experienced an extraordinary moment at their job during a very challenging project with his team. The CEO of the company, sensing something was wrong gave a compelling and motivational speech that left each person believing that they can achieve anything.
Half an hour later everyone left the room looking at each other and saying: “Yes, let’s do, let’s go for it.” Most times, managers can drive businesses, but what separate the great companies from the good ones are inspirational leaders. According to Fernando Vilas, these leaders can inspire others to follow them, even in very adverse situations.
For example:
- inspirational leaders can transmit a message to each person in their team.
-They spread enthusiasm and integrity, acting as a role model.
-They are great at setting real-life examples which make people identify with them.
-These leaders can leverage the meaning of goals and tasks.
-Their emotions are magnetic, touching the most buried feeling inside of their people.
- They give purpose to the organization, explaining the personal reasons to achieve them as opposed to following an order from a manager.
Contrary to what managers usually do, they develop each employee individually, with full credibility. They understand their employees’ needs, and they genuinely care about them. They give to their people the importance they deserve by soliciting feedback and engaging their people in personal topics as well.
They enter into real valuable dialogues that build a healthy relationship between leader and follower. That’s what leaders do, that’s what leadership is all about. If you have no relationship with your team and you are comfortable with your people coming to work, completing their task and leaving with no type of interaction, please, do us a favor and don’t call yourself a leader.
By the way, can you guess the sale manager reaction when she found out about the agent situation; yes, you guess right, the manager showed no remorse and indicated that any agent personal problem is not her problem, her only concern is meeting and exceeding her targets.
What a company to work for!
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About Gifford Thomas
I am the founder of Leadership First and the author of The Inspirational Leader, Inspire Your Team To Believe In The Impossible. At Leadership First, we are committed to publishing the very best inspirational leadership quotes and articles to inspire our 136,000+ community of leaders to believe in the impossible, while creating an environment free from toxic, fearful and intimidating leadership. We believe everyone can and should enjoy their work, but it must start with the leadership leading by example. Follow our community of leaders HERE, and let's change the leadership status quo to help inspire and motivate our leaders to make a difference and create an organization their people will love.
You can download a copy of my book The Inspirational Leader and Inspire Your Team To Believe In The Impossible by clicking on the word inspirational below: