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If I were to ask you to imagine a heroic commander of a 100,000-man army, what would your mind’s eye see?

Would you picture a 42-year-old, awkwardly tall, pear-shaped, over-weight guy?

Could you imagine someone who was a failed teacher, a failed insurance salesman and a failed real-estate developer?

Well, that was Lieutenant General Arthur Currie.

During WW1, Currie was the Deputy Commander of the Canadian Corp during the Battle of Vimy Ridge and became the Commander of the Canadian Army in Europe. Postwar, with his high school education in hand became the Principle of McGill University.

This isn’t a retelling of a great moment in Canadian history. It is a story of a relative under-achiever who rose to face an unbelievable challenge and the lessons for the rest of us mere mortals.

There is only so much space in history for an Eisenhower, Churchill or Caesar and history is replete with unnamed regular folks like us who work hard and play our parts in achieving greatness.

Here are five characteristics demonstrated by General Currie, and all people, who become great leaders in their own time & right?

Uncompromising Integrity. Do not cut corners or cheat. Though others may be smarter, more forceful, and more creative, never compromised in your work and life.

Read about moral courage

Work Hard. Often when others play or waste time, continue to work. Feel like they are stealing from the company unless you give your best efforts.

Be Personally Responsible. Never blame employers and employees or complain because someone else in the organization was recognized or received a promotion.

Be Decisive. Know that slow decision-making is poor leadership and that analysis paralysis can kill an effort. Instead of living in fear of making the wrong decisions, move forward just as soon as you have sufficient information, not complete information.

Read about making decisions

Read. Good leaders read books, articles, and anything they could to make them a better person and a better leader. Ordinary men and women became extraordinary through constant and continued learning, regardless of the sacrifice.

Like General Currie, most of us are not the smartest, the best educated, or most articulate.

But Like Currie, we can hold high principles & work hard, and through these character traits, we common men and women can become extraordinary leaders.

This meme has been making the social media rounds lately, which sign caught your eye?

Both demand compliance, yet the one is an order and the on the right is a story that causes a physical reaction.

Why is that?

I believe that bad decisions are made when we do not understand why we are being asked to do something …

“if you always tell people why they’ll understand it better, they’ll consider it more important, and they’ll be more likely to comply.

And when the time is right, and you don’t have time to explain fully, they’ll trust you.”

I am all about the explaining the ‘why’ through stories.

Explore more about talking to your people

Humans love stories. Story-telling is the most powerful human communication method. Our greatest leaders, teachers, and communicators know this.

A great story tells us why the hero takes his dangerous journey. Likewise, effective learning also contains the why element. The why ties facts together into a coherent, memorable story.

Why brings meaning to an employee’s actions, otherwise why do it? So, when you talk to your team build a coherent story that contains the why element to:

• Increases employee understanding
• Increases employee perception of importance
• Increases employee compliance

It is the story that is important for all employees.

Feel the visceral power of the story in the DANGER sign on the right.

“We become what we repeatedly do.”
― Sean Covey

This is a checklist of seven simple shifts that can lead to exponential gains.

To gain benefit: print it; post it; and, do at least one action each day.

1. Take the time to say good morning to someone & thank them for coming in

2. Ask someone for their opinion on something & listened to what they have to say

3. Ask someone what is happening in their lives outside of work

4. Tell what is happening in the larger organization to keep people connected to the big picture and the higher purpose of their work

5. Write a personal thank you note to a team member or colleague

6. Make rounds, to stay in touch and talk about your expectations, so your team knows what matters

7. Take time to pursue or read something to enhance your leadership

Attracting people who’ll believe and trust you doesn’t happen overnight. You have to stick with it and continually learn to be a better leader.

Sincere & simple leadership actions draw people’s attention and are the most effective tactic for generating trust and engaging team members.

Click to download ‘7 Simple Shifts – Your Checklist To Being A Better Leader’

I have a coaching client who was promoted from a specialist engineer to the dizzy heights of team-lead without the company investing in the skills she needed to transition from specialist to leader.

Because her boss and company did not recognize that they were promoting her into a new profession and invest in her accordingly, their accomplishment was to turn a fine and capable engineer into a poor supervisor!

The difference:

• Specialists use their skills and experience to create a product
• Team leaders need management skills, a knack for problem-solving and the ability to plan and manage the work – NOT to do it!

So, what is a team leader’s skill set?

1 Balancing between leadership and management

These are two separate skills:

Leadership is communicating a common vision of a future state; gaining agreement; then, motivating others in a forward direction.

Management is results driven and getting the work done.

Your job as a good team leader will constantly switch from a leader to a manager as situations require.

2 Be a Team Builder and a Leader

The leader sets the “tone” of the team to lead them through the various team development phases to the point where they begin to perform.

Read about teams

3 Be a Problem Solver

Identify the possible “causes” that lead to the problem, then analyze possible options and alternatives, and determine the best course of action to take.

4 Be a Negotiator and Influencer

Negotiation is working with others to come to a joint agreement. To avoid power struggles, develop influencing skills. Influencing is the ability to get people to do things they may not do otherwise.

5 Be an Excellent Communicator

Being a communicator is a two-way street as. A good way to get a grip on managing the information comes and goes is to ask yourself the following questions: who needs this information? Who gathers and delivers it? When or how often do they need it? And, in what form?

Read about communicating

6 Be Organized

Think of what you need to organize; project documentation, contracts, emails, memo’s, reviews, meetings, etc. It’s almost impossible to stay organized without developing good time management skills.

7 Become a Planner

The skill of planning can’t be underestimated. There are known and logical steps in creating plans. You may well own your team’s plan, but others depend upon your success.

8 Manage Budgets

At the heart of this is the skill is managing the budget, particularly costs. You will need a knowledge of financial systems and accounting principles.

If you are new to team leadership, don’t be overwhelmed by all this. There are well-understood methodologies, tools, guidelines, and procedures to help you on your way to developing the life-skill of leadership.

The first thing you need to do is book time with your boss and ask what their performance objectives are; what does he need you to do to help them be successful; and, then what professional development do you require to be successful.

Read about partnering with your boss

I was speaking to a group of Project Managers recently. Before speaking to any group, I interview a cross-section of attendees to see what they want to get out of my session. To a person, the pre-event interviewees wanted to learn more about leading teams of peers.

As Project Managers, it is a fundamental part of their role to lead teams people of different pay-grades, levels of responsibility, authority and roles to achieve success with whichever project they have been asked to achieve.

That said, we know the ‘iron-fist’ or the ranting & raving like a lunatic leadership styles does not work even when there is a clear line of command. They certainly won’t work when there is a dotted-line or matrixed relationship like a project team.

The only difference between you and your colleagues on that team is that you’re in charge and someone is holding you accountable for the project’s success. To accomplish your goals, you’ll be expected to motivate, facilitate, encourage, communicate effectively, build trust, and resolve conflict with the disparate members of the team.

How?

1. Set a positive foundation click here to read more on relationships 

• Establish a relaxed environment, where everyone is encouraged to share opinions and ideas.
• Ask for input from everyone, and encourage quieter members to speak up.
• Use active listening skills, like paraphrasing and asking questions for clarification.
• Insist on respect for one another and, for tasks taking a lot of time and effort, consider developing a team charter to define your team’s goals and how the team will work.
• Use participative decision-making tools, and try to ensure active involvement and commitment from the team.

2. Empower Team Members

• Leaders who give power to others can be very influential and motivating.
  • Give praise wherever it’s due.

3. Be Flexible click here to read more about courage

• A heavy-handed approach can cause resentment and non-compliance in a team of peers.
• Adapt to the changing environment.
• A flexible leadership style can deal with changing circumstances without compromising your leadership role.
• You need to help your team adjust to changes in direction, circumstance, and priority.
• When you’re open to change, your team will see that, and they’ll be more likely to accept change.

4. Set Goals click here to read more about setting goals

• Having a clear direction is essential.
• If there’s no central direction to follow team members will have their perspectives that could lead your team down very different paths.
• It is much easier to keep people working together effectively if objectives are clear.

5. Support and Protect Your Team

Each team member may have their regular job to do in addition to the team’s specific tasks. This means that commitment to your team may be a secondary priority. As the one who is ultimately accountable, concentrate on getting the support and resources your team needs to do the job well.

Focus on these three key areas:

– Obtain resources – Your team may quickly lose momentum if it encounters resource shortages. If you get your team what it needs – when the team needs it – your status, influence, and ability to motivate can increase significantly.

– Manage stakeholders – Many people outside your team may strongly influence the team’s success. First, you may encounter outside resistance from various sources.

One way to gain the respect of your team is to protect it from negative outside influences so that that team members can produce great work.

– Obtain management feedback – Ensure that management knows what’s going on and that your team knows what management thinks. This can be a delicate balancing act because you don’t want to run back and forth with too much information. Figure out what each side needs to know to remain satisfied, and then provide it.

Three crimes led to one of the darkest moments in the history of the Canadian army.

Let me rephrase … one crime and two subsequent sins.

Click To Read Part 1

Click To Read Part 2

The Crime

The crime happened when two members of an Army unit deployed to Somalia captured, tortured and beat to death a Somali civilian. This was a violent crime, and in due course, the justice system dealt with the perpetrators.

The First Sin

A sin occurred when the unit and the system tried to cover up what happened. There are reasons for this, but all of them are inexcusable. When a few brave souls tried to expose the deception, they were victimized for being disloyal. As with all cover-ups eventually it began to unravel, the lies were exposed, and an inquiry was launched to ‘get to the bottom’ of it.

The Second Sin

A cardinal sin happened when leaders were not held accountable for failing in their leadership duties. The public inquest revealed that many in the camp knew the beating was happening and did nothing to stop it. When a cover-up was launched, leaders at every level were complicated by omission & commission.

The Repercussions

Some careers were slowed down, but to my knowledge, only one leader was punished. The Company Commander who was on leave and wasn’t in the camp at the time.

The Major accepted responsibility for his soldiers because he issued an order to stop civilians from sneaking into the camp and because he was their boss. In the end, he went to jail, was drummed out of the Army and lost his pension.

What has this to do with harassment in your workplace?

There is no excuse for anyone to harass, abuse or cause violence on a co-worker or employee.

If it were to happen, you must conduct a fair, transparent and rigorous investigation into it. If found to be true, the full weight of your authority should fall like a hammer on the perpetrator, up to and including being fired and the police being called.

If you cover up and try to protect the organization or excuse people you are equally guilty by omission as surely as the perpetrator is by commission.

Because you have lost your ‘moral authority’ to lead.

Read More about moral courage

In my opinion, every person who held a leadership position involved in the Somalia affair and that did not stop the crime or expose the sins should have been sent to jail.

And if I were the judge, the jail terms should have been longer & longer for each higher rank.

These people FAILED as leaders.

Police supervisors who cover up, ignore or excuse bad conduct; church leadership who knew but didn’t act to stop heinous crimes; your supervisors who turn a blind eye to harassment should pay a high price for their sins.

Why?

Because you are a leader!

You get paid as a leader, and you have the office of a leader!

You are responsible for the lives of the people who work for you

You cannot be able to stop every bad thing that might happen within your organization.

BUT, you can create a culture where every manager and supervisor knows that it is his or her job to stop harassment …

Dead in its tracks