Vicki Anderson

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.

I was reading John Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership to prepare for a coaching session with a client last week and I got reinvigorated by his Law of Addition.  He said we add value to others when we 1) truly value others, 2) make ourselves more valuable to others, 3) know and relate to what others value, and 4) do things that God values.

Maxwell is a proponent of servant leadership. People follow you when they believe in you. Why should someone believe in you? One reason is that you believe in them. You have to give it to get it. People need to feel they are valued by you and if you don’t do this first step, you won’t get a chance to do the other three.

I think we have an opportunity today to help people help themselves by showing them we value their ability.  As another client told me last week, we usually have everything we need to do what is right, but we need someone to believe in us and ask us the right questions so we have confidence in ourselves. Helping someone be the best they can be should be our highest priority as leaders as well as individuals. Whether it be our children, our spouses, our friends, our coworkers, or our bosses. By adding value to others, we make ourselves more valuable as well. Leaders with exceptional followers are always in demand.

I was just reading Engagement is Not Enough by Keith Ayers and he was making a point that when organizations put their values above everything else, that profits tend to follow. However, when organizations put profit above everything else, values do not necessarily follow.

I have long held the belief that the more a person’s personal values are aligned with the organization for which they work, the higher their job satisfaction and the more engaged they are in the work. When a person’s values are compromised for the gain of money, we get what we now have in our economy. There were a ton of people who found ways around the system to make more money and massaged the system to make more money and stood on the backs of others to make more money. Ultimately when the sand started to shift at the bottom, the top also fell, taking the rest of us with it.

Last weekend my husband and I went to a local barn that an individual had built so that local amateur musicians could come every Saturday night and play music for people to listen, dance, and share fellowship in a clean atmosphere. It was an intergenerational group with grandfathers and granddaughters dancing, teenagers, oldsters, and everyone having a good time. This has been going on for 20 years or more, but it was the last night because some personal items had been stolen and the owner was shutting it down.

I hope that as we rebuild our organizations to the finest America can offer that we rebuild them according to the values that made our country great–hard work, honesty, integrity, and a concern for our fellow man. After all, we are all in this together.

Last weekend my husband and I joined some high school classmates in Madison, WI and stayed at the Hotel Ruby Marie, a bed and breakfast owned by one of my classmates. He also owns a German restaurant/bar, the Essen Haus, and the Come Back In, a casual restaurant, all buildings adjoined a few blocks off capitol square. While we were having dinner outside the Come Back In on Friday evening my husband commented on how much effort it must take to keep everything running on an even keel and not get stressed out. Well, little did we know how we would get to see Bob go into action–calmly and confidently. About a half hour after that the hotel manager came over to say that the hot water heater had gone out and she wanted to confirm the service to be called. Bob confirmed her decision and we continued on with dinner. About an hour later a repair truck came.  Ultimately, Bob went over to the hotel and found out that the hot water unit was not only broken, but their back-up unit had been out for some time and they hadn’t noticed. Neither unit could be fixed and after working until midnight they decided a new unit was necessary.

Here’s the good part. Bob was calm and collected during the whole process. When we went up to our room about 10:30 p.m. he was sitting alongside the clerk while she looked up manuals on the internet. They had alerted all the guests that there was no hot water and may not be any until the next day. There was a note at the desk in the morning for guests about projected time for the water to be back on and update notes were posted throughout the day. All the guests were patient and it gave us something to laugh about. I tried not to scream too loud when I took my quick cold shower Saturday morning.

Throughout the weekend we observed Bob as he efficiently and calmly worked wherever needed in the kitchen, with the guests, and in the hotel. He gave us a detailed historical tour of all the old buildings and how he had built his business. He calmly interacted with his staff and never demanded anything of anyone or even asked for special favors. He said many times that he was “just a farm boy,” but I know that it takes perserverance, leadership, and hard work to build a business that has not only offered a terrific service to his customers, but it positively changed the neighborhood over the last 25 years. He may not admit it, but his “farm boy” values are what brought him success in Madison, Wisconsin.