Friendly happy diverse team workers talking laughing eating pizza together in office, cheerful workers staff group chatting sharing meal enjoying having fun at work, good relations at lunch break
Most leaders want to be liked by their team members, yet some have a difficult time drawing the line between personal and professional relationships in the workplace. As a leader, you don’t want to seem unapproachable or standoffish; but you also don’t want your team to forget that you’re there to guide them. A smart leader seeks to find a balance in this area.
Following these simple guidelines will ensure your work relationships are meaningful and productive:
Get to know the people you work with
Great leaders know who they lead. It’s no secret that personal connection creates a better work environment and leads to better results. Jason Goldsmith is a perfect example of someone who leads out of personal connection. In Jason’s work as a performance coach to top professional athletes, his first priority when taking on new clients is to ask lots of questions to get to know them better. Experience has taught him that bonding with his clients makes him more effective at his job. To learn more about Jason, check out his podcast on DavidNovakLeadership.com.
It’s simple to connect with those you lead. Start by asking your team members for three interesting facts about themselves. Ask about their background, dreams, and families. Doing this shows you care about them as individuals. Once people know you care about them, they will care about you.
Make sure you keep enough distance to be objective
While it is important to connect with the people you lead, you don’t want to get so close that you are unable to be objective around them. Sometimes being a leader requires you to take a step back and be a coach. This is hard to do if you become too involved. Leaving enough distance will allow you to keep an objective view about your team members so that you can still gauge a person’s talent and capabilities while giving the right feedback when necessary.
If you implement both of these approaches, you’ll have no problem striking the right balance with your team.
[cs_content][cs_element_section _id=”1″ ][cs_element_row _id=”2″ ][cs_element_column _id=”3″ ][x_image type=”none” src=”https://davidnovakleadership.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/ryan-serhant-circle.png” alt=”” link=”false” href=”#” title=”” target=”” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover” info_content=”” style=”border:8px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.10);border-radius:50%;”][x_share title=”Share this Post” share_title=”” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” google_plus=”false” linkedin=”true” pinterest=”false” reddit=”false” email=”false” email_subject=”Hey, thought you might enjoy this! Check it out when you have a chance:”][cs_text][/cs_text][/cs_element_column][cs_element_column _id=”7″ ][cs_element_audio _id=”8″ ][x_gap size=”30px”][cs_element_content_area_modal _id=”10″ ][cs_text]Edward D. Herlihy is co-chairman of the Executive Committee and has been a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz since 1984, focusing on some of the largest and most complex bank and financial institution mergers and acquisitions and recapitalizations throughout the United States. He is often called upon to represent companies involved in takeover battles and proxy contests, including investment banking firms in connection with a wide variety of financial institution matters.
Mr. Herlihy writes and lectures regularly on issues involving banking and financial matters. Mr. Herlihy graduated from Hobart College in 1969 (B.A.) and from George Washington University Law School in 1972 (J.D.)[/cs_text][x_gap size=”40px”][cs_text style=”margin-top:-20px;”][bctt tweet=”“The best leaders have an incredible commitment and will to accomplish it and get it done. No matter the obstacles. No matter the challenges.””][/cs_text][/cs_element_column][/cs_element_row][/cs_element_section][cs_element_section _id=”14″ ][cs_element_row _id=”15″ ][cs_element_column _id=”16″ ][cs_text style=”line-height:1;”]ON HOW TO DISTINGUISH YOURSELF FROM THE REST:
[bctt tweet=”“Take responsibility, make recommendations, get the facts, don’t be afraid to break glass, state your views and be definitive.””]
Becky recalls a significant failure in her career. She was working with someone she respected to launch a new product. Becky thought they should do it in a specific way, but her colleague didn’t agree. Becky relented, and later a competitor launched the product her way with great success. Becky knew she was right but second-guessed herself. Despite the failure, she is grateful that it happened when she was young. She learned that the next time she needed to fight harder.
Have you ever experienced a failure? What did you learn?
If your colleague disagreed with you, how would you respond?
Becky has the following thoughts on recognition:
Feedback is a gift, something we have lost in Corporate America. Becky says, “If I am not giving you feedback, then I am not investing in you. If I’m not getting feedback, people aren’t invested in me.”
What is the best piece of constructive feedback you’ve ever received?
There are tons of benefits to have part-time employees: they reduce the workload of your full-time staff and when you can’t afford to add more full-time employees, part-time workers provide the skills needed without breaking the budget. While there are countless benefits to employing part-time workers, leading them isn’t without its challenges.
With a part-time team, you’ll probably need to adjust the way you lead. Different methods are needed to engage them. To get the most out of your part-time team, here are two tips to consider:
Let them know they count, even though they aren’t full-time. Everyone on the team is important. Don’t differentiate between full-time and part-time workers because regardless of how many hours they clock in, the role they perform adds value.
Empower your part-time team members by giving them more responsibility. When people feel more ownership in their role and have a bigger stake in the company, they’re more likely to give their best.
Follow these tips and you’ll have part-time staff who are more connected and committed. Plus, you’ll see more synergy between your full-time and part-time workers—and a team who works well together achieves better results.
Heartwired and Hardwired Leaders know how to inspire and motivate their teams. Take this quiz now to find out if you are a Heartwired and Hardwired Leader.
Presentation. Show. White Board. Design Studio. Multi-Ethnic. Project. Creative. Look. People. Designers. Young Specialists. Choose Colors for Design. Teamwork. Discussion. Brainstorming. Workplace.
By: Gregg Dedrick, Co-Founder & President of David Novak Leadership
What is your True North as a leader? Tough question, I know. Identifying your True North requires hard work, and then intense determination to stay the course when people or circumstances tempt you to give up or change directions. And how do you identify your True North anyway? If you read my blog, Three Questions You MUST Ask and Answer as a Leader, you know the three questions that help you identify your True North. If you haven’t read it, I recommend checking it out.
When I was President of KFC, I identified KFC’s True North by answering these three questions:
Who are we?
Where are we going?
How are we going to get there?
Once I answered these questions, my next step was to communicate KFC’s True North to the team. The Pyramid Slide was the outcome.
Did you know I used the same Pyramid Slide for five years? This single slide provided a roadmap for KFC brand revitalization, which was much needed at the time, and it helped us stay the course over the next five years. Our True North, or the top of the Pyramid, was Brand Positioning. All other levels of the Pyramid were viewed through the lens of Brand Positioning. We asked questions like the ones below around each level of the Pyramid to stay on course: Given who we are as a brand,
Menu Vision – How do we create food that’s consistent with who we are?
Operations – How do we design the Back of House to meet our menu vision? How do we realign operations to deliver the menu vision?
Asset – How can we ensure our assets look like the brand and carry out our brand promise?
Values – How do we work together as a franchise organization to deliver who we are in a way that exceeds customer expectations?
The Pyramid Slide answered the question “Why are we doing this?” for my team. They knew before new initiatives could be added, they first needed to fit somewhere on The Pyramid Slide. For example, we made a decision to remodel 3,000 restaurants. We didn’t take this on for the sake of remodeling. We ultimately took on this initiative because we were revitalizing the expression of the brand through the asset. Our goal was to provide our customers with a great KFC experience, and brand remodels were one way we could accomplish our goal. I wanted my team to know the reason we took on this initiative tied back to our True North rather than have them think it was just another “to do” on a long list of “to do’s.” My team knew every initiative had a purpose.
We also had to think beyond a single initiative to reach our True North. Remodeling 3,000 restaurants impacted other parts of The Pyramid Slide. If we remodeled the asset without investing time and money into team training, we would veer off the path towards our True North, because a beautiful restaurant with poor customer service would not lead to a Wow! experience. We made sure team training was implemented prior to the remodel and grand reopening of the asset so our customers had an amazing overall experience, not just a shiny new building.
Are you starting to understand the beauty of The Pyramid Slide? It always brought us back to this is why we’re doing what we’re doing and it helped us remember what was most important. As initiatives were added, changed or completed, the Pyramid Slide was updated to reflect how our actions aligned with our True North. By reviewing the slide (at every single meeting, I might add), my team was constantly aware of the plan for reaching our True North – KFC Brand Revitalization.
Identifying your True North is one thing, but sticking with it is a totally different challenge. In the movie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln says, “The compass points you True North but does not warn you of obstacles and swamps along the way.” If you’ve identified your True North, but you’re unsure about how to handle the obstacles and swamps along the way, you don’t want to miss the final blog in this series. I’ll explain how focusing on the vital few helps you avoid the seduction of shiny objects.
In the meantime, who can you invite to help you identify your True North as a leader? Share this blog and learning guide with them and spend some time discussing what you learned and how to cascade this to your team. You’ve got what it takes to be successful! Go Lead!
By: David Novak, Co-Founder & CEO of David Novak Leadership
What’s your leadership mindset? Do you believe that you have to know more than everyone else on the team? Effective leaders know they don’t have all the answers. They approach each day with the mindset that there is always more to learn, and everyone I meet knows something I don’t.
I’m convinced that one of the keys to my success is I always make an effort to prioritize knowledge and ideas over ego and ownership. Why is this so important? Well, obviously the more I know about a problem, the more likely I am to make a good decision. But even more important than that, being able to admit up front that I don’t have all the answers helps establish an atmosphere in which the people I lead are more willing to share what they think and what they know. And if all members of your team are actively learning all they can about a problem and freely sharing their wisdom with you and with each other, then that’s the best chance you’ve got of coming up with a solution that makes your business a whole lot better.
As the CEO of Yum! Brands, I worked hard to cultivate a companywide commitment to always be learning, to being “know-how junkies.” The examples below are tangible benefits that came out of that commitment. They should give you some ideas about how you, as leader, can seek out opportunities for both you and your team to expand your knowledge about your business.
Breakfast at Taco Bell
The breakfast concept the company first developed seemed to fit perfectly with the Taco Bell brand. “Breakfast that wakes you up” integrated Mexican inspired flavors into breakfast products, like fiesta salsa, zesty sausage, and bacon grilled stuffed burrito. But after a highly disappointing test run (thirty days of advertising and people were only trickling into the restaurant), the team had to figure out what was going wrong. They found the new breakfast products and advertising were scaring people. Customers didn’t want a lot of “zesty” in the morning. They wanted to ease into their days with minimal excitement, and Taco Bell was offering the exact opposite of that. But rather than giving up on the opportunity, the Taco Bell team went to work building their know-how.
Former Taco Bell CEO, Brian Niccol, created a learning culture in the brand. He pointed out that while some people say “don’t be afraid to fail”, he thinks the right term is “don’t be afraid to iterate.” Niccol says, “Iterating is a way to learn, then taking those learnings and figuring out what we’re going to do next.” The team took the learnings and partnered with well-known and approachable brands like Seattle’s Best Coffee, Johnsonville Sausage, Quaker and Cinnabon. And instead of focusing on spicy ingredients, they appealed to customers by offering them value with the “Why Pay More for Breakfast!” campaign. By becoming know-how junkies, Taco Bell has significantly grown their business by successfully launching a new daypart that no one thought was possible. You can hear more of the Taco Bell story in the oGoInsider podcast with CEO, Brian Niccol.
Sharing on iChing
Yum! Brands is such a big company and there is so much know-how within it that one of our biggest challenges was figuring out how to share that knowledge efficiently and effectively. To figure out how we could make sharing easier, we assembled a cross-functional team that visited IBM, P&G, and Microsoft to find out about their systems for sharing knowledge. The result was iChing, our own internal network for connecting to each other and sharing ideas and knowledge no matter where we are around the globe. And the most amazing part is that the system was so successful, that other companies began looking at Yum! Brands as a best-in-class example of sharing know-how. We’ve shared our story with companies like Kimberly-Clark, Marriott, Best Buy and Disney, among many others.
I have found that for any problem you need to solve, learning all you can about it is the best place to start. As a leader, you need to recognize that you don’t have all the answers. You need to create a learning culture and encourage everyone on your team to become know-how junkies.
You can download this guide to learn four specific tactics to help you and your team become better know-how junkies. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” Are you someone who willingly engages in hard, solid thinking by becoming a know-how junkie?
Maybe your team needs some encouragement when it comes to building their know-how. Share this oGoInspire blog and guide with them and schedule some time to discuss how together, you can commit to becoming know-how junkies. Inviting them to join you shows you care and that you’re learning too. Go Lead!
[cs_content][cs_element_section _id=”1″ ][cs_element_row _id=”2″ ][cs_element_column _id=”3″ ][x_image type=”none” src=”https://davidnovakleadership.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/ryan-circle.png” alt=”” link=”false” href=”#” title=”” target=”” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover” info_content=”” style=”border:8px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.10);border-radius:50%;”][x_share title=”Share this Post” share_title=”” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” google_plus=”false” linkedin=”true” pinterest=”false” reddit=”false” email=”false” email_subject=”Hey, thought you might enjoy this! Check it out when you have a chance:”][cs_text][/cs_text][/cs_element_column][cs_element_column _id=”7″ ][cs_element_audio _id=”8″ ][x_gap size=”30px”][cs_element_content_area_modal _id=”10″ ][cs_text]Ryan Matthew Serhant is an American real estate broker, bestselling author, producer, and star of Bravo’s two-time Emmy Nominated reality television series, Million Dollar Listing New York, and its spin-off, Sell It Like Serhant.
Ryan is the leading member of The Serhant Team—an NYC-based, bi-coastal real estate group that has consistently ranked as the #1 sales team in New York and among the top five teams nationwide. The Serhant Team consists of more than 60 experienced agents and marketing support staff and has sold over $1.6B worth of real estate in the last two years alone. The Serhant Team New Development group is also a prominent force in new construction sales, with more than $16B and 50 projects across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island City, Miami, and Los Angeles to its name.
[/cs_text][x_gap size=”40px”][cs_text style=”margin-top:-20px;”][bctt tweet=”“You got to cut the rope, you got to cut the net and you got to go all in. It’s very difficult to be the ‘most successful’ part-time anything.””][/cs_text][/cs_element_column][/cs_element_row][/cs_element_section][cs_element_section _id=”14″ ][cs_element_row _id=”15″ ][cs_element_column _id=”16″ ][cs_text style=”margin-top:-20px;”][bctt tweet=”“Treat the rest of your team, the rest of your company, better than you treat yourself. Give them as much recognition as you possibly can.””]
[/cs_text][/cs_element_column][cs_element_column _id=”18″ ][cs_text]In 2018, Ryan started his own entertainment and media company, Serhant Media Group (SMG), as an in-house marketing arm to both his real estate and television endeavors. In addition to being a reality television star and running his own team, Ryan has developed several smartphone apps and is a frequent guest on the real estate segments of 20/20, CNN, CNBC, The Today Show, The Insider, Bloomberg TV, and is often quoted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Wall Street Journal China. He is also an official contributor to Forbes, regularly writing columns on real estate, sales, and branding.
Ryan is an active supporter of nonprofit organizations including DKMS, Operation Smile, Save the Children, Make-A-Wish, The Human Rights Campaign, Ronald McDonald House, Habitat for Humanity, Pink Agenda and UNICEF, among others. Ryan Serhant was born in Houston, Texas, grew up outside Boston, and graduated from Hamilton College in 2006 with degrees in English Literature and Theatre. He currently lives in New York City with his wife, Emilia, and their daughter, Zena.
Becky recalls a significant failure in her career. She was working with someone she respected to launch a new product. Becky thought they should do it in a specific way, but her colleague didn’t agree. Becky relented, and later a competitor launched the product her way with great success. Becky knew she was right but second-guessed herself. Despite the failure, she is grateful that it happened when she was young. She learned that the next time she needed to fight harder.
Have you ever experienced a failure? What did you learn?
If your colleague disagreed with you, how would you respond?
Becky has the following thoughts on recognition:
Feedback is a gift, something we have lost in Corporate America. Becky says, “If I am not giving you feedback, then I am not investing in you. If I’m not getting feedback, people aren’t invested in me.”
What is the best piece of constructive feedback you’ve ever received?
[/cs_text][/cs_element_column][/cs_element_row][/cs_element_section][/cs_content][cs_content_seo]Share this PostFree Leadership Insights
View Transcript
Ryan Matthew Serhant is an American real estate broker, bestselling author, producer, and star of Bravo’s two-time Emmy Nominated reality television series, Million Dollar Listing New York, and its spin-off, Sell It Like Serhant.
Ryan is the leading member of The Serhant Team—an NYC-based, bi-coastal real estate group that has consistently ranked as the #1 sales team in New York and among the top five teams nationwide. The Serhant Team consists of more than 60 experienced agents and marketing support staff and has sold over $1.6B worth of real estate in the last two years alone. The Serhant Team New Development group is also a prominent force in new construction sales, with more than $16B and 50 projects across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island City, Miami, and Los Angeles to its name.
“You got to cut the rope, you got to cut the net and you got to go all in. It's very difficult to be the ‘most successful’ part-time anything.” Click To Tweet
“Treat the rest of your team, the rest of your company, better than you treat yourself. Give them as much recognition as you possibly can.” Click To Tweet
In 2018, Ryan started his own entertainment and media company, Serhant Media Group (SMG), as an in-house marketing arm to both his real estate and television endeavors. In addition to being a reality television star and running his own team, Ryan has developed several smartphone apps and is a frequent guest on the real estate segments of 20/20, CNN, CNBC, The Today Show, The Insider, Bloomberg TV, and is often quoted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Wall Street Journal China. He is also an official contributor to Forbes, regularly writing columns on real estate, sales, and branding.
Ryan is an active supporter of nonprofit organizations including DKMS, Operation Smile, Save the Children, Make-A-Wish, The Human Rights Campaign, Ronald McDonald House, Habitat for Humanity, Pink Agenda and UNICEF, among others. Ryan Serhant was born in Houston, Texas, grew up outside Boston, and graduated from Hamilton College in 2006 with degrees in English Literature and Theatre. He currently lives in New York City with his wife, Emilia, and their daughter, Zena.
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From Podcast Action Journal
Becky recalls a significant failure in her career. She was working with someone she respected to launch a new product. Becky thought they should do it in a specific way, but her colleague didn’t agree. Becky relented, and later a competitor launched the product her way with great success. Becky knew she was right but second-guessed herself. Despite the failure, she is grateful that it happened when she was young. She learned that the next time she needed to fight harder.
Have you ever experienced a failure? What did you learn?
If your colleague disagreed with you, how would you respond?
Becky has the following thoughts on recognition:
Feedback is a gift, something we have lost in Corporate America. Becky says, “If I am not giving you feedback, then I am not investing in you. If I’m not getting feedback, people aren’t invested in me.”
What is the best piece of constructive feedback you’ve ever received?[/cs_content_seo]
What’s your leadership mindset? Do you believe that you have to know more than everyone else on the team? Effective leaders know they don’t have all the answers. They approach each day with the mindset that there is always more to learn, and everyone I meet knows something I don’t.
I’m convinced that one of the keys to my success is I always make an effort to prioritize knowledge and ideas over ego and ownership. Why is this so important? Well, obviously the more I know about a problem, the more likely I am to make a good decision. But even more important than that, being able to admit up front that I don’t have all the answers helps establish an atmosphere in which the people I lead are more willing to share what they think and what they know. And if all members of your team are actively learning all they can about a problem and freely sharing their wisdom with you and with each other, then that’s the best chance you’ve got of coming up with a solution that makes your business a whole lot better.
As the CEO of Yum! Brands, I worked hard to cultivate a companywide commitment to always be learning, to being “know-how junkies.” The examples below are tangible benefits that came out of that commitment. They should give you some ideas about how you, as leader, can seek out opportunities for both you and your team to expand your knowledge about your business.
Breakfast at Taco Bell
The breakfast concept the company first developed seemed to fit perfectly with the Taco Bell brand. “Breakfast that wakes you up” integrated Mexican inspired flavors into breakfast products, like fiesta salsa, zesty sausage, and bacon grilled stuffed burrito. But after a highly disappointing test run (thirty days of advertising and people were only trickling into the restaurant), the team had to figure out what was going wrong. They found the new breakfast products and advertising were scaring people. Customers didn’t want a lot of “zesty” in the morning. They wanted to ease into their days with minimal excitement, and Taco Bell was offering the exact opposite of that. But rather than giving up on the opportunity, the Taco Bell team went to work building their know-how.
Former Taco Bell CEO, Brian Niccol, created a learning culture in the brand. He pointed out that while some people say “don’t be afraid to fail”, he thinks the right term is “don’t be afraid to iterate.” Niccol says, “Iterating is a way to learn, then taking those learnings and figuring out what we’re going to do next.” The team took the learnings and partnered with well-known and approachable brands like Seattle’s Best Coffee, Johnsonville Sausage, Quaker and Cinnabon. And instead of focusing on spicy ingredients, they appealed to customers by offering them value with the “Why Pay More for Breakfast!” campaign. By becoming know-how junkies, Taco Bell has significantly grown their business by successfully launching a new daypart that no one thought was possible. You can hear more of the Taco Bell story in the oGoInsider podcast with CEO, Brian Niccol.
Sharing on iChing
Yum! Brands is such a big company and there is so much know-how within it that one of our biggest challenges was figuring out how to share that knowledge efficiently and effectively. To figure out how we could make sharing easier, we assembled a cross-functional team that visited IBM, P&G, and Microsoft to find out about their systems for sharing knowledge. The result was iChing, our own internal network for connecting to each other and sharing ideas and knowledge no matter where we are around the globe. And the most amazing part is that the system was so successful, that other companies began looking at Yum! Brands as a best-in-class example of sharing know-how. We’ve shared our story with companies like Kimberly-Clark, Marriott, Best Buy and Disney, among many others.
I have found that for any problem you need to solve, learning all you can about it is the best place to start. As a leader, you need to recognize that you don’t have all the answers. You need to create a learning culture and encourage everyone on your team to become know-how junkies.
You can download this guide to learn four specific tactics to help you and your team become better know-how junkies. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” Are you someone who willingly engages in hard, solid thinking by becoming a know-how junkie?
Maybe your team needs some encouragement when it comes to building their know-how. Share this oGoInspire blog and guide with them and schedule some time to discuss how together, you can commit to becoming know-how junkies. Inviting them to join you shows you care and that you’re learning too. Go Lead!
Get to know the people you work with
Did you know I used the same Pyramid Slide for five years? This single slide provided a roadmap for KFC brand revitalization, which was much needed at the time, and it helped us stay the course over the next five years. Our True North, or the top of the Pyramid, was Brand Positioning. All other levels of the Pyramid were viewed through the lens of Brand Positioning. We asked questions like the ones below around each level of the Pyramid to stay on course: Given who we are as a brand, 
[/cs_content_seo]