Vicki Anderson

If you want involvement at work, at home, at school, at church, etc. it begins with you, especially if you are in charge. Pay attention to the little things. It’s the little things that add up to something major.

For instance, if you want people to keep their work areas clean, what does your work area look like? If you have piles and piles on your desk and on the floor with food wrappers from lunch still sitting by your computer, it’s not much of an example. What about when you walk down the aisles? Do you ever stop to pick up something on the floor? Are you on the lookout for things out of place so you can right it? Or, are you on the lookout so you can tell someone else to do it? It’s the difference between being the cop or being part of the team. I have a small manufacturing client that has rotating tasks for everyone in the office to make sure the grounds just outside the front door are picked up, emptying trash, and a myriad of other things. Everyone including the owner is assigned something for a period of time so they know how much easier it would be if things were kept clean at the source. The pride in the way their business looks to visitors and themselves is very evident.

If you want to be approachable and someone who people can bring ideas to, then spend some time with people doing the little things. Make sure you are not too good to have lunch in the employee lunch room or stop to pick up a piece of trash that has missed the wastebasket. Take time to ask about that little league game or dance recital or hunting trip that your employee is involved in. You’d be amazed at the results you’ll get when you ask for helpers and they see you show up as well.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day. Mothers are often our first leadership role models. They teach us how to be with others by the way they treat us. We see what authority looks like.

My home was pretty strict and my Dad was the boss, but my mother knew how to get things done. She was a hard worker and worked well with others. In my teen years she was the supervisor of a hospital kitchen. She was respected and loved by all her employees. She supported them and worked with them. My Dad used to ask her if she was going to take her suitcase up to the hospital when she would get a call that someone was sick and she had no one else to work, so she would go in and help.

My mother was all about service. She was kind, friendly, and helpful to everyone. In her last job as the manager of a bakery in a local grocery chain, the customers loved her. She would come around the counter and help people pick out what they wanted. She remembered their names. She rarely had personnel problems like in some of the other departments. The president used to say he wished he could clone my mother as her bakery was the most profitable.

My mother was honest and dependable. You could count on her to do what she said she would do. She raised five children and worked full time most of her life. She knew what it would take to make things work and she would get it done.

My mother was humble. She never really understood the gifts she had. She didn’t think she was special or talented. It wasn’t until my adulthood that I realized what a role model she had been for me as a leader. I learned that you can get things done by being nice as well as ordering people around. You get things done by knowing your job and doing it. You get things done by standing with others. You get things done by being someone others can count on. Thanks, Mom, for being such a good teacher.

The holidays are a great time to role model what you say you believe. If your organization says it is about serving others or valuing people, take a look at what you are doing to actually live those principles. What are you doing to serve your employees, your customers, and your community? If you say you value people, how are you treating them this holiday? Are you being Mr. Scrooge or Bob Cratchett?

Being a leader who believes in the power and value of people doesn’t get measured in the size of the bonus you give at Christmas. It is measured in the way people are treated every day, but at this time of year people tend to take stock in how you behave. Hopefully you have been living most every day of this year in a way that it is unnecessary for the three ghosts to visit you on Christmas Eve. Here are a few tips for being a generous leader:

1. Share power where it is needed. If you give someone a task to do, make sure they have the authority to get it done.
2. Give credit where credit is due. Encourage people to contribrute ideas by giving them credit when they do. You will ultimately look good for having such bright employees.
3. Empower people to put ideas to work. When people see what needs to be done and you give them permission to do it, they tend to look for more.
4. Build self-esteem of others by identifying what they do right so they can do more of it. Put them in positions where they can succeed. You will be rewarded many times over with employees who are motivated to do more.

Be generous with praise and a miser with criticism, but make sure both are specific and timely about what the person is doing right or wrong. Be generous in management by walking around. Your biggest job is helping people be successful. If they are successful, you will be successful. Here’s hoping your new year will bring you success as a leader.

In John Maxwell’s book, Developing The Leader In You, he says, “Remember, we teach what we know, we reproduce what we are.” I found this a very interesting twist on the “Do as I say, not as I do.”

As leaders, how often do we hold ourselves to a different standard than our employees? Do you think they hold us to the same standard? As a consultant I often hear the complaint, “Why can’t they…” No matter what the subject or the audience, people always wonder why others don’t perform in a certain way.

I wonder if the answer isn’t as simple as the above quote. If we acted in a way that shows how we want others to perform and we reinforced it, how much more likely are we to get what we want?

I was at a Wal-mart Neighborhood grocery store yesterday and the elderly lady checking my groceries was dressed so strikingly different that I had to comment on how she raised the level of class in the store that evening. She had on a nice sweater, pearls, a pearl bracelet and pearl earrings. Her makeup was impeccable and she politely commented as she scanned the items. Another young lady at the register next to us was dressed in a baggy t-shirt and baggy pants. I wonder whether each of them thought the other was dressed inappropriately. It would be interesting to note if over time any change is made in either of their style of dress to be more like the other. I also wonder what the store management has to say about it. I didn’t see how the store manager was dressed.