Over the past 28 years, I have been a student of leadership. I observe those that do it well, do somethings well and those that just don’t. From my simple observations, I have developed of list of those items that should be done in order to effectively lead by example.

• The path that we walk, should be our path. Basically, we all have a core sense of values and follow them. A leader must follow his/her core values. Walking on a different path is not natural and everyone can see what that. Walk your path.
• Balance is key, health and productivity can work together. Today it is much easier to be connected and work from anywhere. What is the cost? If you employee’s see you working late every night, on vacation and during the weekends. 2 things are for sure – you don’t have balance and you are putting the expectation on your employee’s that they must do the same.
• Treat others as you want to be treated. I know we all have learned this growing up! Those leaders I have truly enjoyed following did this everyday. We are people first, resources second. If there is one single item that I feel is critical this is the one. Nothing makes me run to the hills when a leader treats others badly in words or actions.
• Don’t wait on solutions, create them. Never sit around waiting for something to happen, go out and make something happen. For me, I have never seen a passive leader that has been the slight bit successful.
• Negativity just kills. What more needs to be said than that!
• Listening is the first real step in effective communications. Asking sharp and good questions, while listening to the answer – makes the leader stronger. Ever have those leaders that cut you off mid sentence? How about the meetings where the leader is the only one talking. Not good. I prefer the sponge approach; listen, watch and develop my wisdom. Then part said wisdom, if necessary.
• Think in third alternative. There is always two sides, let’s go out and find the third side. Somewhere in spending time in there – a better solution could be formed and developed. To use an example, you have two employee’s that have an idea on how to do something better. Each are good. Picking just one could slight one or the other employee. Is there a third alternative? Maybe that is the best one.
• Laughter is the best medicine. I don’t care what people say on this one. If you can not laugh at work – than you are going to have a very dull day. Laughing is human. I know when I laugh, I feel good. A true leader makes people laugh, either by laughing at themselves, making light of a tense situation or just having fun.

There probably are more. I find these to be the one’s that I make sure that I focus myself on insuring I continue to live up to. What about you?

What are those practices that help to drive the feeling of being beaten down? You know, that place where there is nowhere to go, not being happy getting up to go to work or just going through the motions.

• Lack of Trust – For me, trust usually is given to an organization and/or the leaders. Why? Because they did not get there without some of the necessary attributes of trust. Problem is trust erodes quickly if not maintained. I have seen some organization that have timecards or software that keeps track of everything. Appearance does not equal work getting done. My energy level is definitely drained.
• Lack of simple praise and thank-you’ s – There are plenty of team members that go above and beyond the normal day to day jobs. They are there and usually are pretty easy to see. As soon as the organization treats them just like everyone else – well, there goes the energy. Praise for doing a great job will help to sustain the current high performers and maybe light a spark for the others.
• Don’t communicate – This one is simple and probably the one thing that happens more than any of the other ones. People throughout the organization, want to know what is going on. They really do. Some would say, don’t bother me with some of these details, but that is only temporary.  For me, I want to understand what I am doing and how it fits in with the organizations goals. Sometimes the bigger picture must be painted for total success.
• Fear change – Many folks like the way things are being done today. Why? Everything is familiar. Moving one’s cheese is not met with open arms. For folks that have been around a long time, they like to say, “we have tried that before.” My favorite answer back, “Great, then this time it should work!” New leaders to older organizations definitely are hit with resistance to change. Whatever the resistance is to change, time to move past it. There is one thing for sure – change will happen with or without you. Better to be part of the change, than being changed.

Simple practices that all too often are common place. Any other practices that help with the feeling of mediocrity or beaten down?

The observations show is lack of smiles from folks casting shadows in the cubicle hallways, quick tempers, increased out of office messages and the biggest one – heads down, shoulders down and moving like a snail. I believe it is that time of the year where you are about midway thru and the pressure cooker is turned up. Another observation, reorganizations have finally settled down (we usually get the yearly reorg zone) and folks are feeling the heat from changing expectations or extreme goal pressures. Another person told me that they are having a hard time coming to work, due to the job that they have. It is not for them, the support is minimal and no one cares.

Whatever the reasons are – things have to change. I have personally stepped up to make sure that I have more “fun” time. Smile and say hi to follow employee’s that are walling the halls. Crack a quick joke now and then. Make fun of myself and some of the really stupid things that I have a tendency to do. Work can be fun. All it takes is one to get the party started and others will follow.

If you see a fellow co-worker struggling and/or feeling beaten down – take the time to improve the situation. Listen, smile, offer to help if you can. Don’t just look down on the carpet and miss an opportunity to make someones day. For me, it is easier right now… I get to take off of work for 9 to 10 weeks.. The fact reminders – work can be fun for everyone.

What would make people not want to stand up and take responsibility for their actions?

• Afraid of the perception that they don’t know what they are doing. I don’t know about you, but this one really makes them look incompetent.
• Afraid of the consequences. Fear does wonderful things, usually not in a good way.
• Never had to take responsibility ever, so why start now. This one, is starting to really come out loud and clear to me. As the workforce is changing – this lack of responsibility is a fundamental building block on solid work ethic.

How do we change this behavior? For me, there is one key to turning it around. It all starts with one person, yourself. Demonstrate exactly what behavior you are looking for. Take personal responsibility to your actions. When you make a mistake, stand up and be counted. Demonstrated by say, “I made a mistake, I will do XXXX better next time.” This will let the folks in the team know that you are human and willing to admit that you messed up and how you plan on fixing that mistake in the future. Next up, I would make insure that the work environment is set up for folks to admit to mistakes without fear or perception issues popping up. When people feel that they are open to say what they need to say, they usually will do so. Lastly, when someone opens up and admits it, go ahead and thank them for their honesty. Seems like a strange thing to do, thanking someone for admitting a mistake, but when the team sees this behavior, they will understand that the environment is a safe place. This does not mean that the slate is wiped clean of the actions. Work has to get done and quickly, but what happens is everyone can get on with producing results, rather than wasting time “getting to the bottom of what happened.” I have never seen a person get fired for standing up when they have made a mistake and take ownership to insure that it does not happen again. Have you?

Company Z is a small company made up of about 200 folks. Enough to have some senior, mid level and front line folks. Got to have some bosses… Debbie is a new employee to Company Z, she is a project manager with a pretty impressive resume. She comes with experience and a passion for her work. Debbie starts out fast and really does good work. Her immediate supervisor, Brenda, finds that she does really well and starts to give her more of the meaty assignments. Over time, Debbie has proven that she is definitely a strong performer. What happen next? She gets promoted! This promotion moves her to a different team and now she reports to Bob, VP of product development.

Bob has been with Company Z since it started. He was in that first wave of friends that sat around the bar stools during college discussing an idea. He is best friends with the CEO. That friendship is his biggest claim to fame! Bob still tells the stories of that evening when Company Z was drawn on napkins over many beers. He definitely views himself as a visionary. Dreams up plenty of ideas and delivers on none. Many of Bob’s employees are very happy to see a new manager on his staff, as the last one was just a nightmare to work for. Debbie starts out well, she is working with her team and overall things are better.

As time goes by, Bob and his visionary style has an effect on Debbie. Bob likes to drum up the idea’s and dump them onto Debbie. There are no expectations, no reasonable understand of goals and just plain minimal thought put in. Bob’s way of dealing with not seeing enough progress is to belittle Debbie. He is short with Debbie and spends more time yelling and belittling at her. Debbie feeling the pressure starts to pass on same to her team. She is expecting them to pick up the pieces she is dropping. The team has seen this behavior before. This goes on for a couple of years, until Bob decides that he wants to leave.

A new VP is hired and Debbie decides to ask that she go back to project management where she has done a good job for the company. This management gig was just not her passion. Everyone thought that would be a great move. Debbie was extremely successful as a project manager. Problem was Debbie has not returned to the past. Her time with Bob, had changed Debbie – forever. Debbie thought she would be happier, but that just is not the case and decides to leave the company.

I think we all have seen some scenario similar to this one. Fact is, a bad boss can damage your spirit, career and passion. Everyday we all look into the mirror – do you like what you see? No, I don’t mean the visual aspects – just the work part… Are you true to yourself? Are you happy with your job? Are you doing your best? Are you Bob? Are you the early Debbie that is turning into the promoted Debbie?