Bottom Line
By Michael Gunther ~
The adage “perception is reality” may actually not be correct. I have discovered that a leader’s perception is not necessarily the reality from their teams’ perspective.
Most leaders truly want to be great at inspiring and directing their teams to accomplish the outlined goals. The truly effective leaders realize that they need to be consistently growing to develop a solid, high-performing team. Yet, most leaders are not pushing the boundaries of their own knowledge enough.
This, in my mind, makes leadership one of the most rewarding, yet challenging, roles one could have in life.
My belief is that you never become an “ideal” leader. Instead, it is a continuous journey of assessing, learning, evolving and shifting strategies, skills, and processes to adjust to the ever-changing workplace demands.
What worked yesterday may not work today. If you are not constantly questioning what is or isn’t working with your team, you are probably losing your edge. I call this the “slow spiral downward to irrelevance.”
A unique leader is one who is willing to challenge their status quo or belief system. I realize this is easy to say, and I believe it is difficult for most leaders to constantly evaluate themselves.
I know through my own experience of using the Collaboration Assessment (a tool that compares your perception to your team’s perception on how well you are building a high-performing team) that receiving feedback is critical.
Emotionally, this feedback is sometimes hard to hear. At the same time, I have found it extremely valuable that my team has taken the time to provide insight on our alignment of perception and our team’s effectiveness.
Putting my ego aside, this tool has allowed me to fine-tune areas of my own leadership style and develop a much stronger team.
The other value of performing ongoing assessments is that things can change rapidly within a team dynamic.
Team members come and go, which can have an impact on a team’s performance. New challenges or opportunities can shift the organizational focus, which may also influence a team’s ability to collaborate.
I have learned that by constantly receiving a pulse on the interactions of my team and my role, we have been able to enhance our communication and focus on building impactful collaboration.
Bottom Line
When was the last time you analyzed your perception of how well you are doing in building a collaborative and effective team? Are you sure your perception is the reality? My hunch is that you may be surprised; that you are probably missing some key elements that may be holding you back from being a better leader. Maybe it’s time for a checkup.
This is another article in Michael Gunther’s series about his journey as a Collaborative Leader. His entrepreneurial story focuses on building solid teams by improving engagement, developing leadership skills and growing businesses to reach their potential. To read previous articles, visit his blog at: www.Collaboration-LLC.com.
At the core of every engaged team within successful and impactful organizations is collaborative leadership. Collaboration Business Consulting is a team of highly skilled business professionals who are dedicated to assisting proactive individuals develop themselves as collaborative leaders. This inspiring team is led by Founder and President, Michael Gunther. Bottom Line is a regular feature of Tolosa Press.
