Leadership Styles

Hello everyone. It has been quite a bit of time since I last posted something here. Michele and I bought a new home in a wonderful neighborhood. We are so blessed to have met some new friends. I am also blessed to be working on a project to develop leaders and help them grow and develop teams that are inspired and successful. I hope that you will give me some feedback on a few questions that will help when building this new opportunity.

1. 1. What are some key challenges in a typical ‘day in the life’ of a first line leader?

2. What is the role or expectations of first line leaders in supporting strategic growth

3. What is the impact on first line leaders when their company is in growth mode?

4. What are some key challenges in leading and inspiring teams?

Recently I have had many discussions about culture. It has been in the workplace as well as in my personal life. Culture can be defined in words and actions. I tend to believe actions are important when defining a culture. When I was pursing my Master’s Degree at Charleston Southern University I wrote a paper about being a leader. This was an assignment to identify the values needed as a global leader.  We are diverse in so many ways in the world. My current program has over 290 employees who have their own culture and dreams. I see it as my job to provide a culture of respect, learning, teaching, and winning. Seeing others be successful brings a special source of enjoyment for me. The use of several leadership styles based on the situation can really create a culture where employees want to be part of the  team while growing as individuals. I really would like to grow this into a conversation on what living a culture means to others. What makes for a great culture of winning in your organization?

My wife Michele, recently sent me an article written by Oleg Vishnepolsky. He talked about loyalty between employees and their companies. I live in Summerville, South Carolina and we are experiencing a lot of growth in our area. Boeing has come in and made a big splash in the area, along with Daimler building Mercedes Benz vans. Volvo is coming on fast as they open a new plant in Ridgeville. Keeping quality employees is going to be tough. Mr. Vishnepolsky’s article really made me think about our own culture in my program. Am I creating the right culture where our employees want to stay and work with us even though thousands on new jobs are being created around us? A couple of ideas hit me that I think have helped to brand loyalty in our team.

1. Challenge employees to excel- Our program at BAE is ever changing. Our production schedule is tough as we meet our customer expectations. Motivating employees to meet production goals along with safety and quality is our top priority. We have implemented several programs that reward excellence while we push to increase efficiency. Our workforce has responded well to these challenges as our program continues to mature.

2. Ethical Conduct- Employees want to see their leadership doing the right thing. It is an old statement but you must “walk the walk”. Every company has an ethics program but the true grit of a company is whether ethical conduct is expected daily and shown through decision making.

3. Accountability- My career in the Army taught me that there is standard for everything we do. We taught a task, the conditions in which that that task would be accomplished, and stated the standard to which we must accomplish this task. It is hard to hold someone accountable for something if they don’t know what they are supposed to do. Going beyond a standard is how we create an atmosphere where employees want to stay with us. Employees want to be part of a winning team.

4. Team- I talk all the time about being a team. It has been said there is no “I” in team. That is true but there is a “M” and an “E”. There is a “me”. To be a full team everyone must do their part. Being a Cubs fan I think of Tinkers, Evers, and Chance. Each of them had to do their part to make up this great double play combination. “Me” means that I must do my part to make the team successful. Challenge employees to do their part for the team and they will respond.

5. Lastly, be there for your employees. Be a part of their world. The level of leadership doesn’t matter. Know their weaknesses, know their strengths, and just know them as a person. This means know them in a professional and personal way so that you can mentor them to excellence.

There is much more that keeps an employee loyal to a company than I have mentioned here. I would like to start a discussion on your thoughts of loyalty? Let’s go!

When speaking at the SEC Media Day Coach Saban talked about accountability and how lessons are learned.  Saban stated ” It takes a tremendous amount of accountability to be able to execute and sustain the execution for 60 minutes in the game,” He went further to say. “And we played against a really, really good team, which I think when you get in the playoffs, that should be what you expect. And we weren’t able to finish the game like we needed to. And I think there’s a lot of lessons to learn, and hopefully we won’t waste a failure.”

Being an Alabama fan and watching how Mr. Saban motivates his teams every year gives me a lot of information to share with my team. Working in the defense industry is tough. There are many companies that are ready to take your work. Our team works hard but we cannot rest on our successes. we must hold each other accountable to do the right thing every time. This includes production, safety, and a culture of respect. I am proud of what we have accomplished over the past year but we must continue to learn from our successes and our failures. Business is a team sport and I continue to learn how to be a better coach and mentor. Being responsible for a high performing team that must perform consistently is a humbling but rewarding role.

  In 1993, I was honored to become a part of the Sergeant Morales Club while stationed in Germany. There is a similar club stateside called “The Sergeant Audie Murphy Club.” Both are clubs which highlight exceptional NCO (Non Commissioned Officer ) leadership. The Sergeant Morales story is one of a true leader who was always there for his soldiers. His leadership traits exemplify those needed by leaders in any organization. As I was reading his story this morning it made me pause and reflect about what Chronister Leadership means. It means caring about your team.  One part of the story includes the statement “Sergeant Morales counseled his soldiers monthly in personal and job-performance areas. The counseling records reflected complimentary as well as derogatory information. The information from the leader’s notebook, soldier’s job book and counseling was used to guide his soldiers in promotion, proficiency and career development, including their professional and academic education.”  Chronister Leadership is about leading with a passion where the leader wants to see others grow as an individual, which benefits the team. It is about having the tough talks to improve performance while highlighting and glorifying individual and team successes. Chronister Leadership is my idea of sharing leadership ideas with others who want to grow and become the kind of leader like Sergeant Morales.

I often think of what it takes to be a good leader. Providing a culture of leadership that allows employees to grow and excel in their roles is important in building a winning team. Leadership styles vary in how to do this. I believe in a culture that finds employees doing something right. When you finding them doing something right praise them in public. Let them know you appreciate what they are doing. Many employees work hard to be successful with just a small token of appreciation. In my program at work we have started a new approach to increase safety awareness. My leaders and I find employees doing something right for safety and give them a small token of gold $1 coin. To many this may seem small but the response has been terrific.  Positive reinforcement outweighs negative reinforcement when a leader is trying to provide a culture of winning. My role as a deputy program manager allows me to work with a diverse group. It is gratifying to see this diverse group come together to meet our program and company goals by influencing them with a culture of positive reinforcement.

Having been in several different leadership roles I have found that I cannot be one type of leader. Each situation asks me to use different skills to help resolve the issue. An important issue I learned this week is to listen to what other leaders are saying. Too many leaders want everything to go their way but I believe it is important to develop leaders to be able to make decisions in my absence. This isn’t easy in stressful situations. It take several types of leadership styles to be a good leader

Karl

This is my first blog in our Chronister Leadership site. Using the 30 day blog challenge to get a good site. We are still under construction and learning. Looking for feedback

Karl