I’m told that one quote preachers try to live by is, “If it’s foggy in the pulpit, it’s cloudy in the pew.” In other words, as the leader and communicator, if you’re unclear about any part of your message, it’s a sure bet everyone else is as well.

You don’t have to be a preacher to risk setting unclear expectations. If you’re responsible for performance outcomes of any kind, unclear expectations could be your biggest kryptonite. In fact, if the expectations you set are unclear, you force members of your team to work as much as three times as hard.

Consensus on the Intention Must Be Reached

With unclear expectations, before any work can be done, the folks performing the work must determine what they think the expectations are. Depending on the size or scope of the project, this could require significant time and energy. When an entire team is involved, the level of effort, time and cost adds up quickly.

The Original Work Must Be Completed

Regardless of expectations, the team must complete the initial set of tasks.

Constant Troubleshooting Must Be Performed

This is where the cost really multiplies. Whenever new information comes in, the team must halt their progress and redirect. In many unfortunate cases, additional re-work is required.

And this doesn’t factor in the cost of morale lost in the process!

So how can you make sure you’re expectations are clear as crystal?

First, always assume that the expectations you give will be misinterpreted. Then go the extra mile to reiterate your message. At the very least, for everyone performing the work, provide clarity of outcome and clarity of role.

One of the reasons the best bosses have the highest engaged teams is because everyone knows where they stand in relation to the goal. No one has to wonder and feedback can be more focused on what’s next, not what’s wrong. So go the extra inch – or mile – to create clarity from the start. Everyone comes out on top.

Recently I had an idea for one of my corporate leadership programs that has over 6,000 leaders enrolled. In an attempt to make the program communications more personal, I included an insightful reflection one of the participants “Mark” had shared at the bottom of the email message. I didn’t have to wait long for a response, but I was surprised who it came from. Within minutes an email reply appeared from our company president. He had cc’d me in a reply directly to Mark and included Mark’s entire executive chain of command. Our president began by thanking him for his engagement in the program and leadership in his function and ended with a “proud to have you on the team!”

I don’t know anyone busier than our company president, but he still found time to give a personal kudos. I don’t know Mark personally, but I bet he went home walking on air with a story to share with his family over dinner. “That was really fun to be a part of,” I thought. “I want to do this again.”

One of my favorite quotes of all-time comes from the 18th century English writer Samuel Johnson, who observed, “The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.”

Each of us are “single human beings.” We qualify. Your applause is of great consequence, and so is mine.

Celebrating the success of others is definitely a “nice” thing to do, but if we think a little deeper, it has some real benefits for us as well.

Engage Them and Retain Them

According to a recent Gallup report, only one in three American workers reported receiving recognition or praise from their boss within the last week. Not only that, under-recognized employees are twice as likely to actively seek outside employment. It’s no wonder Dale Carnegie was so emphatic about “giving honest, sincere appreciation.” It’s much harder for employees to leave a boss who heaps appreciation their way.

Become More Aware of Others’ Contributions

You’ve heard the old adage that “what you see is what you get.” Need proof? Do you remember your last vehicle purchase? All of a sudden it probably seemed half the other drivers on the road had the same idea as you. You spotted the car everywhere. Of course the number of cars didn’t change, your awareness did. Become a good-finder and you may be surprised how much there is to notice.

Win Hearts… and Minds

How do you determine whether you trust someone? Is it because of logic or because of emotion? So often, we try to convince our followers and colleagues of the rationale for following our ideas when an emotional appeal would do a better job. When you win someone’s heart, they will often give you their mind as well. The opposite is not always the case.

Showing honest and sincere appreciation is a guaranteed way to appeal to the heart. Do this, and it will be much easier to sell your ideas as well.

Change the Culture

Have you ever been part of a “gotcha” culture? Unfortunately some people find fault like there is a reward for it. What if the “gotcha” was for doing something right, instead of wrong?

In Whale Done! Ken Blanchard observes that Sea World trainers have learned the best way to turn an animal into a top performer is through constant and positive, rather than negative, reinforcement. It’s the same with people. Not only that, when enough leaders jump on board, the entire culture can shift.

It’s a Ton of Fun!

When our president’s email reply came through, I’ll admit I didn’t even read it right away. As soon as I realized what it was, I had to find a colleague to share it with. Even though I was an observer, it was the highlight of my day. We all have the ability to make someone else’s day – and by extension, our own. Words and gestures matter. Even if you have a reputation for being gruff, the invitation is open. You’ll be the one who benefits most.

Speaking of celebrating the success of others, I gave it a shot recently when a colleague Ann was promoted to a new facility CEO. Check out her leadership profile here – you’ll be inspired.

Many leaders choose to focus their development energy on areas they think (or have been told) are their weak areas. But is that really the best strategy?

If you’re going to invest the effort into becoming a stronger leader, it pays to make sure your focus is in the right place.

Identify Your Strengths

Until you have identified what your strengths are, you’ll benefit from them somewhat. But you’ll never be able to consciously put them to productive use. In fact, your own assessment of your strengths will likely vary, based on recent projects, career recognition and feedback.

The single best source I’ve found for identifying my own strengths (and millions of others) is the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment, which identifies your top five strengths (out of 34). As an example, my top five strengths are: futuristic, maximizer, strategic, focus and relator. Not only do these strengths help me accomplish my work in the most effective manner, but they in essence allow me to “see the future” since I can predict which roles and projects I’m likely to excel at ahead of time and enjoy in the process – and also which ones to avoid if possible.

StrengthsFinder isn’t the only strengths-based methodology, but it’s a very easy starting point. Identifying your strengths is always the first step.

Every Strength Has a Dark Side

When I present on strengths to corporate groups, my favorite section is called “balconies and basements.” In it, we talk about the positive aspects of our strengths but also the negative ones. On one hand, our strengths can allow us to perform at peak levels, sometimes without much effort. The downside is that our strengths can work against us if we’re not careful. We can inadvertently pressure others to adapt to our strengths (instead of us complementing with theirs) or miss opportunities due to tunnel vision. Lack of awareness and heavy stress tend to send us to our “basement” the quickest and keep us there longer.

Since our strengths come much more naturally to us (and are usually much more intense), the ineffective use of a strength often does much more damage than a weakness.

Neutralize Your Weaknesses

Obviously we all have weaknesses (or areas of “non-strength”). I always recommend several approaches for these areas:

• Leverage the strengths of others. Instead of attempting to excel in every area (hint: you can’t), include others with complementary strengths in your work. The best leaders usually aren’t well-rounded, but the best teams are.
• Minimize your weaknesses, if possible. There are often many ways to perform a task. Whenever you have the autonomy, choose the method that plays to your strengths, thereby making your weakness irrelevant in that situation.
• Use your strengths to compensate for areas of weakness. For example, if you are not a strong communicator but are a very competitive person, turn your communication challenges into a competition in order to generate the energy you need to perform.

At the end of the day, you’ll never succeed as a leader by working outside your areas of strength. Make sure to always give them the highest priority in your development efforts. The more you sharpen your strengths, you more effective you’ll be.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

Giving great feedback isn’t easy. It’s tricky, it’s not much fun and to top it off, none of us were born knowing how to give great feedback. We have to learn how over time – often the hard way.

If you’ve struggled with giving feedback before, here are some tricks to get you pointed in the right direction quickly.

Identify Your Feedback Bias

When it comes to giving feedback, leaders tend to fall into two categories: they’re usually too quick (e.g. unprepared/knee jerk response) to give feedback or too slow (e.g. allowing too much time to pass, or never get around to it). In both cases, your lack of feedback effectiveness can make the situation worse instead of better. The first step is to identify which end of the spectrum you start from. Are you too proactive or too reactive? When you know your default setting, it’s easier to shift from there.

Avoid Common Feedback Pitfalls

Part of a leader’s job is to give appropriate feedback in appropriate ways to the right people at the right time. But there can be several pitfalls along the way. Here are some of the most common:

• Giving feedback in the heat of the moment when emotions are high – give yourself a cooling off period if you need one!
• Being unprepared when giving important feedback – decide what you want to accomplish before you begin.
• Declining to give necessary feedback due to fear, intimidation or procrastination.
• Not giving enough positive feedback – if you have the reputation for being a Negative Nancy, you’ll always be start feedback conversations at a deficit.

Ace Positive Feedback

Let’s be honest, it’s not impending positive feedback that keeps people up at night. But that said, the quality of your positive feedback will determine the responsiveness to your constructive feedback. Great positive feedback should be:

• Quick – to immediately reinforce the positive action.
• Often – to sustain motivation. (If you ever wonder whether you are giving enough positive feedback, you aren’t!)
• Specific – to make the action easy to replicate in the future.

Make Negative Feedback Constructive

Negative feedback is by far the most tricky type of feedback. Keep in mind that negative feedback shouldn’t be personal – it shouldn’t be about the person but about the behavior or action. To make negative feedback constructive:

• Create a “safe zone” – Let the other person know you’re here to share some input with them, not attack them. Make it easy for them to listen and overcome their initial defensiveness.
• Make it specific – Make it simple for the other person to understand how they can improve next time (and give them positive feedback when they do!).
• Tie it to something the other person wants – Show that by following the feedback, the other person is more likely to achieve something that is important to them.

Keep Growing!

One of my favorite books on feedback is Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone an Sheila Heen. Crucial Accountability by the Vital Smarts authors is another. Both have too many helpful tips to share here. There are many other books, articles and resources as well. Bottom line: giving feedback won’t become easy overnight but more help is available.

As leaders, it’s our responsibility not only to give feedback, but to give great feedback. If you stumble, don’t give up. Keep trying. The better your feedback, the greater your influence.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

Let’s make it more personal with this sobering question: are the people you lead better or worse off because of you? What is the experience of each person on the other end of your leadership?

Since there are so many leadership responsibilities, let’s focus on just a few that have enormous implications for the people in our wake.

Your Decisions

We’ve probably all complained at one time or another that “management” makes arbitrary decisions and doesn’t understand the impact on the day-to-day work. But then one day we’re put in charge and have to figure it out. By definition, decision-making involves uncertainty and risk. Leaders are responsible for applying not only their insights and fact-based evidence – they must seek to understand the implications at the frontline – and especially at the point of customer interaction.

Your Feedback

Feedback is tricky business – especially when it’s negative. Many times we jump straight in and give abrasive feedback off the cuff or we feel intimidated and don’t give feedback that is truly necessary. Both approaches make a situation worse. It helps to remember there is a real, live person on the other end of our feedback. A curt, one-sided exchange may feel efficient in the moment but create more work and resistance in the long-run than taking the time to have a thoughtful interaction.

Your Commitment to Growth

What got you to where are now won’t get you to the next opportunity. Leaders either grow or they slow. The tricky part is that the more responsibilities a leader takes on, the less time they usually have available to sharpen the saw without being disciplined and intentional. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to chart your growth.

Your Transparency

Leaders tell the truth. Of course it’s not always appropriate to disclose 100% of the information to 100% of the stakeholders in 100% of the situations. But leaders go out of their way to tell their followers what they need to know without making them wait any longer than is necessary. It’s very hard to maintain credibility when followers think you’re hiding something. It’s nearly impossible to maintain credibility after your actions don’t match your words.

Your Vulnerability

In The Five Dysfunctions of Team, bestselling author Patrick Lencioni says that a leader demonstrating vulnerability is one of the best ways to build trust on a team. That means admitting where he messed up or needs help. It’s always difficult to say I’m sorry and no one wants to appear incompetent. But keep in mind, none of these revelations come as a surprise to the people on the other end of your leadership. Appropriate vulnerability builds credibility rather than erodes it.

Your Character

Ultimately, skill can make you leader but it’s character that will sustain you. Unfortunately, skills come much more easily than character. Think about it, would you rather have an employee who lacked skill or who lacked character? Your character is the sum total of the embodiment of your values. It’s not enough to have positive aspirations, character comes through both in the daily grind and the crucible.

Remember, everyone watches the leader. Being a leader is like interviewing for your dream job – every single day. Some days are better than others, but at the end of the day, each person on the other end of our leadership deserves our very best.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

That’s a question I frequently field from the executives and HR partners I support. I hope you’ve asked that question for yourself as well, because it means developing your team is high on your radar. I’ve shared the key skills of coaching as well as my favorite coaching conversational model GROW. That said, a new question arises, which is when should you coach and when shouldn’t you?

If you get this question wrong, you’re likely to either confuse your team or neglect to use your coaching skills to their maximum effectiveness. But if you get it right, you’ll grow as a coach and so will your employees.

Here are three situations when you should not coach and five situations when you should.

You should NOT coach when…

Explicit directions are necessary – Coaching is the art of helping the employee take ownership of a situation and rise to the occasion. It’s not appropriate when you need to step into “take charge” mode – such as an emergency situation.

Your employee is too new to benefit – When employees are new, their biggest need is often to learn the expectations and specific situations they are walking into. It’s much more efficient to share this information upfront and begin coaching a little further down the road.

You have important information to pass along – Employees aren’t mind-readers. If you are privy to information that will effect the outcome of an action they take, always share it upfront.

You SHOULD coach when…

Brainstorming – If your employee needs an idea, take a minute to brainstorm together. Resist solving the problem on your own.

Planning – If your employee will be leading a project or initiative, coach through the planning process. Start with their ideas first before giving yours.

Giving After-Action Feedback – As your employees perform in new ways, you’ll need to provide feedback on how they’re doing. Start with their own assessment of their performance – what went well and what they’d like to do better next time. Then augment with your own.

Decision-making – Help your employees think through how to make a tough decision rather than simply telling what to do – or even what you would do as your default response.

Development Planning – Unfortunately this area often falls off the radar for many leaders altogether. When they do commit to helping their employees develop, they often simply tell them what they need to work on. Instead, take the time to understand their career and development goals and ask for their development goals first.

Coaching your employees takes extra time… at the beginning. But keep it up and you’ll save the time back as your employees execute without your active involvement.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader. Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

How do people learn to be leaders?

That’s the question leadership consultant and thought leader Robert J. Thomas answered at a leadership academy event I recently helped organize. Speaking from his book Crucibles of Leadership, Thomas demonstrated that simply taking a course on leadership would do little to transform leadership abilities. In fact, knowledge plays only a small role in a leader’s effectiveness, despite the high price often invested in higher education.

Here is a sample of the elements that transform ordinary people into great leaders.

Experience

The “crucible” of going through challenging experiences (both in life and vocation) has a transforming effect on a person’s leadership ability. I’ve found this to be the case in my own assessment of hundreds of c-suite leaders as well. It’s interesting to note (according to Thomas) that early in life (or career), leaders may find themselves “pushed” into a crucible experience, while later on they tend to “leap.” As they mature, effective leaders learn to recognize, seek and steward the crucial experiences that come their way.

Practice

The half-life of new knowledge is incredibly short. To grow, leaders must form the discipline to transform an “ah-ha” moment into a commitment to practice until they experience a breakthrough. Not only that, leaders are self-aware enough to know the circumstances they need in order to practice sufficiently. To demonstrate this point, the participants in our academy individually identified a skill they practiced to proficiency and compared it to another they gave up. In almost all occasions, talent and knowledge were not the difference. It was the ownership, commitment and supporting circumstances – almost all of which could be recreated in the future.

Purpose

The “why” behind any endeavor usually determines the success of the outcome. But it’s important to note that a specific purpose often changes over time – even for the same goal. What motivates us at age 20 is often different than at age 30. What drives us to achieve initial success may not sustain us to reach the next level. In order to harness the motivation that success (and practice) requires, we need to constantly refresh our sense of purpose.

Coaching

Leadership isn’t “taught” as much as it is “caught.” Teachers, trainers, mentors and supervisors all play a role in developing leaders. But the best leadership “teachers” are the ones who can coach a developing leader to understand the key “moves” that must be made in a given situation. The quality of leadership “teachers” a person has access to varies by the individual. That shouldn’t be an excuse. Thomas posed that “A great student can make a good teacher into a great teacher – and an inarticulate leader into a great teaching leader.”

Community

“No one learns alone,” Thomas wrote in his book. For leaders, that means finding, participating and contributing in communities of leaders who are on a learning journey together. Sometimes these communities are created externally (our leadership academy, for instance). In other instances, leaders must create their own.

Becoming a leader doesn’t happen by accident. Effective leaders are diligent and committed. Still, no one is immune from the serendipity of crucible learning experiences. My favorite quote from Thomas’ book sums it up best: “Sometimes events can conspire to make you a leader.” (Tweet)

So what’s your learning strategy when it comes to leadership?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

Over the years, I’ve adopted a simple definition of coaching: “To coach is to develop another person by listening and asking questions to clarify ideas and commit to action.”

If you look closely, you’ll notice five key characteristics. I’ve listed each of them out below:

Developing Others

To coach is to play a development role. It’s focused on growing the competency and capacity of the employee. Consider the difference between a directing approach (“Here is what I need you to do”) and a coaching approach (“Let’s think about how you might address this challenge”). Both are appropriate at times, but the coaching approach is explicitly developmental.

Active Listening

Active listening requires some of the most discipline of any skill there is – but the dividends are enormous. It’s impossible to coach effectively without it. Quite simply, active listening seeks simply to understand the situation and delay the need to formulate a response or craft a solution.

Asking Questions

Asking powerful, open-ended questions goes hand-in-hand with active listening. It’s the perfect antidote to giving unsolicited advice or providing explicit direction. (Those responses are necessary in many management scenarios, but tend to ruin a coaching-rich opportunity). The more input an employee provides, the more he’ll own the solution.

Clarifying Ideas

Clarifying ideas is an extension of both active listening and asking questions. Without this clarity, employees may be unclear about the ultimate desired result – and managers may be unclear about key nuances of the situation. Adept coaches resist the urge to solve the problem until they have understood the situation and taken the opportunity to explore a variety of options together.

Commiting to Action

The last thing coaching leaders do is elicit a commitment to action. Otherwise, the conversation may be positive, but it won’t be productive. Coaching leaders are sure to ask the employee to commit to following through on the agreed upon action.

My favorite conversational “formula” for holding a coaching discussion is the GROW model, which stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Will (or Way Forward). It incorporates each element into a simple framework that can be completed in just a couple minutes.

Coaching employees is hard work – it takes a lot of practice and discipline to develop and use the skills. But the rewards are enormous: a more capable staff, more buy-in, and more capacity for you as the leader, to name a few. Give it a try and keep at it. In the end, everyone wins on this one.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

The words you use as a leader matter too. Here are some simple but powerful phrases that set great leaders apart from the rest.

“We” (not “me”)

Leaders should think and communicate with inclusive language, as Coach K is fond of saying. It’s not “my” team, it’s “our” team. Shared victories only comes through shared ownership. Along the way, leaders also find a way to share the credit.

“Thank you”

Having a positive relationship with one’s boss is one of the highest drivers of employee engagement and retention. The reverse is also true. One of the easiest (and cheapest) ways leaders engage their teams is acknowledging the contribution of each person. A “thank you” can go an incredibly long way – maybe that’s why Dale Carnegie‘s #2 principle for success was, “Show honest, sincere appreciation.”

“I’m sorry”

Apologizing can be very difficult sometimes and requires self-awareness, objectivity and discipline. “I’m sorry” are important words for a leader because they are steeped in humility and the understanding that none of us are immune to human error (whether consciously or unconsciously), regardless of our position.

“Tell me more”

Great listeners are unfortunately few and far between but perhaps nothing says, “I hear you and I’m interested” more than this little phrase – especially when you mean it. Leaders understand they need the input of others in order to succeed – but ideas don’t come automatically. They must be invited and engaged.

“How can I support you?”

This is perhaps my favorite leadership phrase of all. Leaders often struggle with the time and attention both to delegate and develop key team members. This phrase solves both challenges – it keeps all the responsibility with the team member but expresses a willingness to help when and where able.

Your words will mark you as a leader because words always matter. Which phrases do you need to add to your leadership interactions? And what others might you include in a list like this?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

Dictatorship is alive and well in the world of global politics, but it’s a not-so-subtle organizational management style as well. So if you want to lead like a dictator, here are some unfortunate suggestions for you, including some from Machiavelli. And if you prefer a more serving style of leadership, note the contrasts.

Capitalize on Crises

Crises can be ripe ground for gaining or expanding control, both in politics and business. All you need to do is find a villain or a condition to blame and pronounce yourself the savior. In fact, when a situation is especially negative (think fallout from a corporate scandal), you don’t necessarily have to have a great plan – you can just capitalize off negative public sentiment.

For servant leaders: Caution against emotional reactions to crises and emphasize the need for qualified leaders with thoughtful solutions.

Keep Others Off Balance

In principled organizations, people always know where they stand because they get clear direction and feedback. Dictators thrive on internal instability. Since knowledge is power, they selectively withhold information so no one has the full picture beside themselves. And instead of creating clear expectations and accountability measures, they play the blame game when things don’t turn out as anticipated.

For servant leaders: Over-communicate what is most important, including goals and plans regarding direction. Be clear about expectations. Give frequent and constructive feedback.

Eliminate Internal Threats

By definition, every leader is a potential threat to a dictator’s power. Therefore, they have no option but to squash leaders who stand out – even (and sometimes especially) the competent ones. In their place, dictators install leaders they can control (e.g. tainted leaders they have dirt on). Additionally, dictators are careful to prevent high levels of trust among their subordinates for fear of future opposition.

For servant leaders: Actively support and celebrate the success of others. Recruit a strong team, including people who are smarter or better than you. Work hard to promote trust and collaboration within the team and organization.

Reward Personal Loyalty

Machiavelli theorized that, “It’s best to be loved as well as feared. But if you can only have one, it is safer to be feared.” Dictators can rarely survive long-term without public support, so there are often distinctions between their public and private dealings. PR is a constant priority. Furthermore, rewards tend to be based on public displays of loyalty and commitment to the cause above other factors, such as competence and courage.

For servant leaders: Reward commitment to the values that guide the organization. Despise favoritism. Build a team with diverse viewpoints.

Prevent Criticism

One reason dictators hate criticism is because much of it is just. And since accountability is in short supply, there is no way to right a misstep – only silence the accusers. Ultimately, criticizing a dictator is dangerous business because it’s received as a threat that must be dealt with – often harshly.

For servant leaders: Know the difference between just and unjust criticism. Seek feedback, take it to heart and then act on it.

By now you may have noticed a trend: dictators thirst for power and can never be fully satisfied. It’s a leadership style that is rooted in fear – and ultimately that fear is passed on to followers. It’s an incredibly damning legacy.

So here’s the question: in which areas do you act more like a dictator than a servant leader?

Incidentally, if you find the philosophies of dictatorship and leadership interesting, pick up a copy of The Prince and give it a read. Or check out one of my favorite leadership books titled The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, which references several of Machiavelli’s insightful concepts as well.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.