Is your toolbox ready? Did you think your career path was a path to success that would lead to your goals without challenges or unforeseen hurdles? When you graduated from college, did you believe you would be able to stay on course to achieve success in the next few years? If you answered, “Yes,” and now realize that life is not about luck, but planning and preparing for the unknown, then I hope the following words will benefit you in your future endeavors.
My background in management was shaped early in my life’s experiences. In the U.S. Army, I was a squad leader and served in Vietnam. My squad consisted of 12 soldiers who came from various geographic and sociopathic cultures. In college, I took courses in psychology and worked in three different mental health hospitals/clinics. This experience helped me to understand how the environment we were subjected to as individuals from a young age affects our decision-making and interaction with peers. As I started working in management training positions, the strengths I gained from making quick life-or-death decisions and following orders in Vietnam and the many insights I learned from numerous physicians in the mental health field enabled me to have a more complete understanding of the management style that works best for me in leading/mentoring teams.
A Loaded Toolbox
The path you may have chosen when you graduated from the university has taken many detours. Depending upon your age, the path may be coming to a hill, a side trail, or a broad highway. So what is in your toolbox? Yes, education is key for the first tool to fill the box. How about experience outside of your field of expertise? Have you taken a public speaking course or joined a local Toastmasters club? This enables you to build confidence when conducting presentations or talking to a group of peers about a specific subject pertaining to your current profession. Have you become involved with civic or professional organizations or lectured at local colleges or universities? This networking on a community level enables you to have the opportunity to branch out of your routine and possibly uncover new talent for your team or potential career choices in the long term.
When you are hiring for open positions due to expansion or attrition, for example, do you have a set of standard questions that you ask each candidate as a guideline? I am sure you have heard the most successful professionals surround themselves with the best talent. If you use this questionnaire as a guide to judge for yourself in an equal fashion which candidate is the most highly suited for the opening and then add this to experiences you have learned in the past such as their ability to communicate effectively, their appearance, energy, positive characteristics, and decision-making potential, you will eliminate the unworthy candidates. At this point, narrow the potential candidates down to two to four and bring them back to meet other managers. This process should be followed by a meeting with the managers who interviewed the candidates for an open discussion of the most suitable, potential employee to achieve the company’s goals of and work as a positive team player toward the current objectives.
Productive Leadership
What makes a productive leader? As I learned early in my life as a squad leader, you must gain as much insight as you can about an individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Use mentoring to positively reinforcement those strengths and focus on the best method to encourage team members to overcome their weaknesses and/or turn them into positive attributes.
Another aspect of leadership you should always have in your toolbox is the ability to manage each team member equally without any partiality. I learned this trait early on in my career when I favored one particular co-worker over another due to his outgoing personality and ability to achieve and surpass revenue goals. It was a lesson I will not forget when managing teams. The other members under your supervision will recognize this favoritism, and it could lead to loss of production and negative personnel situations that will affect your ability to lead effectively. The other lesson is to always lead with respect and integrity and make decisions you know will enhance the overall morale of the entire office, therefore creating an atmosphere that permeates each division.
The directors I have had the pleasure to work for and learn from are fair, listen to their team with respect, and make straightforward decisions. A good leader will give direction delivered in a confident tone, with team members feeling that the director is working with and guiding them. Often I will follow up a directive to a team member with a question or two about the assignment to enable me to gain insight as to his or her comprehension of the purpose and goal we would like to achieve as an end result.
Richard B. Secord is a sales consultant and trainer and a U.S. Army veteran.
