The Cost of Guarded Leadership: How Lack of Vulnerability Impacts Teams

The Cost of Guarded Leadership: How Lack of Vulnerability Impacts Teams

Florin Lungu Meet Mike. Mike is a team leader at his organization. It is not always easy, but he loves it. He enjoys his work; he is committed to his role; and he is passionate about the organization’s mission. But his team is struggling, and he doesn’t know why. Mike’s idea of a leader is strong, distant – he remains stoic in the face of hardship. He believes a leader should not let his people see him deal with difficulty. He does not want them to doubt him.  However, that is not how John sees it. John is a member of Mike’s team. The stone-faced demeanor that Mike sees as strong, John sees as guarded. John sees Mike keeping his distance and John is discouraged by the detachment. But the leader sets the tone. The leader defines reality for their team. So John does like he sees and stays guarded himself. He doesn’t see that Mike is dealing with issues, so he believes his leader “has it all together.” When he is confronted with problems or makes mistakes, he thinks he’s missing...

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4 Keys to Effective Feedback

4 Keys to Effective Feedback

Florin Lungu Today I’d like to ask you a question… What is the best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten? Feedback is really perspective – and the right perspective can shift our approach to something in a life-changing way. What words shared marked a major turning point for you? Well, actually, I would be willing to bet that the words themselves were only doing some of the work. More than likely, you had a solid relationship with the person guiding you. You probably trusted them because of the role they played in your life. But also, they probably corrected you according to one or more of the 4 keys of effective feedback. In an earlier post, I shared the first two. They were… Offer timely feedback frequently. Keep it in the context of learning and establish common and consistent communication. Make feedback specific and objective. Mention behaviors that you want them to adjust, but separate those behaviors from the person. Follow this link to read the article in detail When and how...

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Transform Your Feedback Game: The 4 Essential Steps for Driving Team Performance

Transform Your Feedback Game: The 4 Essential Steps for Driving Team Performance

Are you ready to take your leadership skills to the next level? Discover the 4 essential steps for delivering effective feedback to drive team performance! Learn how to offer feedback at the right time, make it specific and impersonal, and more. Don’t miss out on these tips!

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Are you a director or a connector?

Are you a director or a connector?

Florin Lungu I used to believe that leadership was all directing and demanding. I grew up in a household that had been molded by hardline communism. My mother was strict and uncompromising – her word was law. She ran a tight ship at the clothing production facility where she worked as a manager and she ran a tight ship at home, too, assigning my brother and me chores that were expected to be done on time without question. We called her “the boss.” Her father, my grandfather, also ran a tight ship. My brother and I would stay with him and our grandmother during our summers off school, and he would put us right to work. We would get up early and tend the garden and the farm as he instructed us to. I went on to work in factories with similar hardline processes and chains of command – production was black-and-white. There was little room for collaboration or innovation on an assembly line. These were the experiences that colored my idea of leadership. It wasn’t until I decided to become...

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A good question… every leader should consider

A good question… every leader should consider

Florin Lungu I find that a good question can challenge, inspire, and prompt all at the same time. And today’s powerful query is, What are you doing to equip your people? As a leader, this question moves me… it refocuses my efforts, reminds me of what’s important, and redirects me to something bigger than myself. But that’s not the only reason why. You see, for the first few years of my career, I was pursuing a technical trade. I spent my days in workshops tending to vehicle systems. This is how I expected to spend the rest of my working years – I had planned to become a technical expert. That changed when our department head, Eric, promoted me. I was shocked! Leadership was a completely new direction for me – one that didn’t make sense to me at all. But Eric saw something in me that I didn’t see. He told me that he noticed I was good with the team – not just in my role but in helping them collaborate and communicate and excel – and that I could go beyond just the technical parts that...

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Do you see what is, or what it could be?

Do you see what is, or what it could be?

On October 9th, 1903, the New York Times read as follows… “The ridiculous fiasco which attended the attempt at aerial navigation in the Langley flying machine was not unexpected.” This segment was in response to a failed aeronautics experiment by Samuel Langley. He had attempted the first sustained, manned flight. The U.S. army saw the potential in his endeavors but the media was merciless. The New York Times predicted, “If it requires, say, a thousand years to fit for easy flight a bird which started with rudimentary wings…it might be assumed that the flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from one million to ten million years.” But, funny enough, the history buffs reading this may recognize the year 1903. That was the same year that brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright oversaw the first manned flight – an innovation that proved the concept and birthed the aero industry. In fact, not only did...

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How people-pleasing and fear of rejection hurt my leadership and 5 tips to avoid making the same costly mistakes

How people-pleasing and fear of rejection hurt my leadership and 5 tips to avoid making the same costly mistakes

As a young leader, all I wanted was my team’s “buy-in.” I was so eager to be in my first leadership role! All I wanted was for each member of my team to get on board with my vision.  I put all of my energy into getting their approval. Whatever was in my power to do for them, I would do. I went as far above and beyond for them as I could – I bent over backward so that they would let me lead them. If someone on my team was unhappy, I saw it as a personal failure. I would get anxious and wonder, What am I not doing for them that I could be?  Now let me be clear – asking what is in your power to do for someone else is not a bad mindset to have. But I was truly desperate… and not just for them to be better, but for them to like me – for them to buy into my vision. Or rather, I was desperate for them not to reject me. Back then, I did not know that there are different kinds of leaders, and that I was a people-oriented leader. I didn’t know that many people-oriented leaders can fall into...

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Leaders must be willing to pay the price of leadership

Leaders must be willing to pay the price of leadership

At a party one night, a man sat at the piano entertaining the guests. He played splendidly – he had a talent for the keys like no one had ever heard before. He filled the room with joyous sounds. One partygoer was so enchanted by his playing that he approached the piano to listen for several minutes. He marveled at the graceful movements of the man’s fingers and the beautiful music they made. As the pianist finished one song, the man listening said to him – a bit jealously – “I would give anything to play like you do.” The pianist just laughed. “You could have.” “What do you mean?” asked the partygoer, puzzled. The pianist began playing again as he said, “Well, I gave a lot of time to practice.” _________________________________________ What is the one reason we don’t have everything we want? Price. It is the only consideration we have when making any decision. To get the benefit, what do I have to give up? What must I trade for the better thing? And leadership is no different. When...

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How to improve everything in your life (yes, really)

How to improve everything in your life (yes, really)

Improving our lives is something we could safely say everyone wants to do. Do you know anyone who would turn down a better life if you offered it to them? (If you do… please make sure they’re okay!) In order to improve our entire lives, first we must answer one question: what is the one thing that everything in your life has in common? Among all your primary relationships, your family, your hobbies, your errands and appointments, your spirituality… …your team members, your professional results, your title, your projects, your meetings, your organization… …what’s the one thing that connects them all? …Did you see the pattern? It’s you! The only common factor among all the things in your life and your leadership role is you. That means, if you want to improve your life, a good place to start would be improving yourself. You see, there are things that add value, and there are things that multiply value. Giving a man a fish is adding value. Teaching a man to fish is multiplying value....

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How Leaders Get Exponential Returns

How Leaders Get Exponential Returns

American author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “You can get everything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” Goal achievement is oddly paradoxical in this way. In order to achieve our goals, we must become wholeheartedly and unselfishly invested in others’ development! I learned this not long after I began my leadership career. I had little influence among my team, but once I began leveraging my new title to solve their problems, I became indispensable. It was only then I realized that if I wanted to advance in leadership, I would have to become dispensable again! I spent the following years focusing on the empowerment of my team. I saw how they could do things beyond their scope; I saw their potential and equipped them to fulfill it. And over time, I thought less and less of what I was getting out of it and more and more of how incredible my team was. We were able to increase our results exponentially. As a result, I could...

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5 Questions Every Leader Should Ask Themselves

5 Questions Every Leader Should Ask Themselves

In his book Leadershift, leadership expert Dr. John Maxwell wrote, “You cannot be the same, think the same, and act the same if you hope to be successful in a world that does not remain the same.” Leadershift was released on February 5, 2019, and offered to outline “the 11 essential changes every leader must embrace.”  Few could have known just how appropriate this book was for our day and age until one year later. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the spread of COVID-19 a pandemic – and drastic change began coming at us faster than it had in many of our lifetimes.  Over the following months we had to adjust almost everything about our lives. Many of us held onto the idea that this was temporary, that things would go back to normal. Many of us are still holding onto that idea.  But then came the war, and the recession. These global events have had irreversible consequences. At what point do we stop asking, “When will things go back to normal?” and start...

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The true test of leadership

The true test of leadership

What makes a leader a leader? I am sure that if you are reading this, you’ve asked this question many times… People passionate about growth and development ask themselves, and others, such questions. Maybe you believe leadership is defined by the individual. And certainly, there are leadership styles. We all have unique strengths, talents, and personal priorities, and that will make its way into how we lead. But there is one true test of leadership… Imagine this: you’re in the meeting room. Your boss has just finished delivering an important update to the team. He asks, “Does anyone have thoughts on this?” Everything is silent; no one speaks, but everyone turns their head slightly to watch one person on the team. They are paying close attention to the look on her face. She gives her opinion, and everyone begins nodding, if only to themselves. It is clear that the manager is not leading this team. I have seen this situation with my own two eyes! I was once leading a workshop and it...

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The modern world challenge (and 3 strategies to deal with it)

The modern world challenge (and 3 strategies to deal with it)

How many times have you heard yourself saying these words: “If only there were more hours in the day…” “If I just had one more day…” “I could do it, if I only had more time.” If only there was more time, we would all be farther along in our businesses or careers, have all our personal projects finished or well under way, and still be able to be around those we love… because there would be time. Right? Well, how many times have you also found yourself in this situation: You walk into work Monday morning, determined that today is the day that you will get ahead on your tasks. You sit down at your desk and begin, only to be interrupted moments later by something that was supposed to be done days ago. Then, later you are interrupted again by one of your team members with an issue they want your direction on. Then again with several questions from another team member. Before you know it, it’s time to go home. You are tired; you are a little unsure of where all your time went; but you are...

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4 problem-solving tips

4 problem-solving tips

In my first leadership role, I was promoted from among a team of automobile software engineers. I was thrilled! Not just thrilled to have a leadership title, but thrilled for the opportunities it came with – thrilled for the chance to exercise some of my strengths, and to serve my team in ways I could not before. There was only one problem… I was promoted from among my team. So they went from being my coworkers to being my downline overnight. They had to report to me, but they were my friends. The way they saw it, the only difference in my role was that now, I worked in an office instead of in the workshop. When I asked them for project updates, they would just laugh and wave me away. “Don’t play boss with us, Florin!” I could never imagine saying this to my boss! But more importantly, I could never imagine saying this to someone who had influence with me. I had enjoyed working on the team, but camaraderie and influence do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. This can be a difficult...

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His vision created an entire industry

His vision created an entire industry

A man sits and watches his two young daughters play at their local funfair. He enjoys their smiles and the sound of their laughter, but inside, he wishes he could play with them instead of watching from a bench. In that moment, his vision is born. He becomes dedicated to creating a place where families can play together, where parents and children both smile and laugh. In his day, there were local small-scale carnivals, but he had something grander in mind. The thing he was envisioning would be the very first of its kind. For years he pours all his efforts into this incredible project. He rallies his team around this goal for which they have no framework yet – he leads them into unfamiliar territory, and they follow him, because he sees the vision so clearly. He is so committed to the growth of this vision that even in his later years, as he lays asleep in the hospital, he points and moves his arms around in the air, like he is leading meetings in his mind… like he is even directing...

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