When I was 19 years old I was promoted to an assistant manager and had the pleasure of attending my very first manager training hosted by the organization in which I worked for at the time. Learning a lot I realized today; nearly 10 years later that there is one thing from my first management training that was rarely ever repeated again in other organizations and yet never forgotten.
“Your employees don’t have to love you but they got like you. Your team will either make you or break you.”
Some leaders might disagree and say they don’t even need to like but need to at least respect you. However, I personally disagree as I performed for those I respected but I worked harder and performed stronger for those I truly respected and liked.
Nothing holds more truth then the fact that your team can make or break you. With that said, as a new upcoming leader of a sales team I took the comment a little bit farther and perhaps a little more personal then perhaps some of the others in the training course.
If my team can make and break me, essentially I could make or break my team. Sure this could mean that I could make it difficult for them to succeed but it is meant to say that I am responsible for the success of each of my team members. When someone on my team fails, I failed! I failed to show them the path to success. I failed to manage past the associates own barrier preventing their success. I failed to motivate them towards a greater goal. I failed to lead them!
Again, some leaders might say that you can lead a horse to water but can’t make them drink. However, if you don’t allow that horse to drink for a week, I am willing to bet when you lead them to water they’ll drink it at some point. Besides, if you hired the associate you failed because you should have never done the associate injustice by putting them in a position they could not perform well. After all isn’t this the point of an interview process.
In either case, I guess I wanted to share the fact that no matter what the situation is, no matter what the real reason is, no matter how much it could be justified; when I loose a member of my team I take it personally. I failed to truly be a leader to that person. I have found also that because I do take personally that I provide more effort in increasing the skills and abilities of my team members in both their professional and personal lives. I work harder to lead them to success.
Today, my teams understand that unless we all succeed we did not truly succeed. When one fails we all failed. I believe strongly that because this thought process is in place they work harder to train each other, help each other, and back each other up.
So remember that when they fail, ultimately you fail. It doesn’t matter what it is in life, when it fails, you failed. Taking this approach may help you become a better leader and fight harder to prevent failure.
–
Michael J. Orta
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