You are Responsible for,
1. Your Actions
2. The Actions of those you lead
3. Your Equipment
4. Your Lack of Actions
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Leadership is currently a sought after skill and ability and talent that escapes 90% of the world. Wither it be politics, the economy, corporations, families, non-profits.
While in the Marine Corps, small unit leadership and large unit leadership is used upon you, taught and used by you, to be the most effective in a team.
One of my favorite tools was taught to me while in and I still use it is this.
There is also a Vacuum of Leadership that punishes everyone at once and benefits no one except for your enemy. More on that soon.
You are Responsible for,
1. Your Actions
2. The Actions of those you lead
3. Your Equipment
4. Your Lack of Actions
1. Your Actions
When a situation arises, wither that be the building you are in catching fire, a person having a heart attack, you being fired upon by small arms fire (getting shot at) or welcoming a new sales prospect, taking responsibility and ownership of how you took action is imperative.
If you can not take ownership of your actions or learn from them being the correct or incorrect action you will never improve yourself or your team. Far too often do persons in leadership do not take the correct action and suffer only to repeat it or to shift the blame upon others. Which leads us to our next point.
2. The Actions of Those You Lead
As a Leader, you are responsible for the way your people respond to situations.
This ultimately justifies one thing to be held to the highest of respects.
TRAINING!
Leaders are responsible for conducting, testing and approving all training and training for those they lead.
If your team is not conducting themselves properly, the problem is not the team, the problem is the Leader! The leadership must set the standards for the team. It must also hold the team to those standards and know when to raise those standards in order to achieve more and higher goals.
Sure, you may have to fire, hire and expand to having new members but the faster the flow of new hires and new fires shows that there is a lack of training and tools being made available. This is a trend that is shown to happen many times with sales companies. It is not justifiable. Sure, sales has a high turnover but if you can not train someone to be effective at sales than you are lacking the ability to systematize your business and that is a sign of a business that will never grow fast enough to meet with the demands of customer audience that you want to have.
Which is why it is used by the United States Marine Corps to keep the most powerful country in the world’s citizen safer.
The Marine Corps has been keeping the United States Safe since 1775.
How long has your company been around?
Perhaps this perspective maybe of use for you?
3. Your Equipment
The expense of doing business today is based on the day-to-day operation that you run.
A Marine without their rifle functioning properly and in their control is useless in battle, so it is the responsibility of their leadership to provide them with the training, and the equipment to make them victorious.
I once took a sales position at a company named, Marcus Evans. They had no working phones in their facility for their employees to conduct phone calls and they expected a high closing of sales.
Just like the Marine without his rifle, a sales person without a phone is a dead team member on the battle field.
This shows improper leadership and breaks down the morale of the team. It also brings a feeling of impeding failure to the team and they quit or lose hope.
This is why having the proper equipment on hand and ensuring that proper care is taken to maintain the functionality and use of the equipment.
If it breaks fix it. If it can’t be fixed, replace it. Also DO IT FAST! The faster that you replace and issue equipment that is new and functioning will show your team, that you want to have them succeed and do well!
4. Your Lack of Actions
What you did not do is just as important as what you did do!
We can not always choose the right answer but choosing to do nothing is the WORST ANSWER…..ALWAYS!
Making a mistake can get you killed in battle and it can get you a sale to be lost or missed.
As the Dali Lama has said, “There is no such thing as losing if you do not lose the lesson that is to be learned.”
Yes, being a Marine is a very philosophical mind set. We embrace it and it is essential to being a well trained leader. So you too should be philosophically grounded as well while conducting leadership.
The Vacuum of Leadership
There is a vacuum of leadership. many times there is someone who thinks, “I can do it better!’ or they take the initiative to lead and the fact is this, 98% of people today, could not lead a shark to water!
This is because Leadership is not being taught to our young people. It happens in the Military as well and is not immune to it. If you have not had a bad boss or supervisor yet, you are every lucky.
The difference between a Boss and a Leader are very similar but very different.
“Boss” is a slave term used to speak of someone who has submission over others. A Leader is a title that says, “I am have a goal and I want to help you all, on my team to achieve your goals as well! Together we Win and we Survive!”
If you are not training your people to be your next leaders to delegate tasks out to, then you are a Boss and not a Leader.
The Vacuum of Leadership sucks in more people to become Bosses than Leaders. This is why the School of Leadership and it’s gifts are so paramount. If you create a vacuum of leadership in your business, it may suck up a shitty boss that will ruin your business and your team and you have to start over. It will slow your progress down, your money flow, your health and so much more. Do not let it!
Contact Adam Goodson by clicking here to be taken to Impactful Changes Hypnosis. He has been studying hypnosis since 2008 and leading clients to change since 2010.
www.ImpactfulChangesHypnosis.com
