One of the great advantages of giving service is gaining a wealth of experience. I served on the Board of a 400 member organization for 3 years. The last year, I served as the Board President. What I learned as a leader of that organization was priceless. It would take years of seminars and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of coaching to equal the leadership experience and knowledge acquired.

Manage Up, Mentor Down

As Board President, I, along with the rest of the Board, was the boss of the CEO of the organization. We were accountable to the members of the organization and had sole purview to hire and fire the CEO. In this position, one can be tempted to rule with an iron fist. However, that method doesn’t benefit anyone.

I found it beneficial to adopt the mantra, “manage up, mentor down.” When you are someone’s manager, team leader or boss, your job is to enable that person to be successful. When your employees are successful, they make you shine. As a manager, it is your responsibility to provide the tools, resources, and direction needed by your employees.

It is also your responsibility to manage your customer expectations. You customer may be actual customers, shareholders, members of an organization, or your boss. After conferring with your employees to determine what they need to be successful, it is your job to relay this information to your customers.

Let’s say you are a project manager for an IT project. You’ve met with your clients and received a project charter. Rather than lord over your team members to ensure that every “i” is dotted and every “t” crossed, you can let them know that precision is extremely important to this client and ask them what they need to achieve the highest level of precision. At the same time, you can set the expectation with the client that the level of precision expected will require more time, money, or staff. You might also work with the client to relax their standards to a level with which both parties are comfortable.

Most managers work the other way around. They cow tow to clients and promise the moon. Then they turn around like a drill sergeant with their team. In my experience, I’ve found that you burn relationships, deliver unsuccessful projects, and generate unwarranted stress when you do this.

Take the time to cultivate relationships with your employees and your stakeholders. Be a bridge between both parties, rather than a referee.

Share Ownership

When you’re the leader of a 400 member organization, everyone seems to look to you to fix everything. It was tempting to be the savior, but much more enriching to engage the members of the organization.

When employees, customers, and other stakeholders engage in solutions, ownership shifts from the few to all. When everyone owns the organization, everyone feels responsible. Ownership is not just about paying for a service. Oftentimes, members and shareholders say that they own an organization because they monetarily donated, or paid for a share. Ownership is about doing the work to make the organization succeed. In order to foster ownership of your organization, encourage and empower your stakeholders to:

• Participate in events sponsored by the organization;
• Engage in the planning process of the organization;
• Take the initiative to solve their problems;
• Provide a solid financial base.

Everyone wants an opportunity to share their expertise. A good leader encourages and empowers everyone to use all of their skills.

Pay Attention To What Is Shown AND What Is Said

After moving to a new location, some of our long-standing members started to complain about accessibility to the building. On the surface, this was a valid problem. You needed a key, then a pass code to get into the building. Before, anyone could breeze in and out. There was a sense of familiarity and ownership.

Naturally, we sought to remedy the problem by giving access to those members and providing a doorbell so that it would be easy for members to come in and out of the building. And naturally, this did not really solve the problem.

You see, the members were complaining about the loss of that sense of familiarity and ownership which showed up as not getting into the building. Once access was provided, the complaints moved to another manifestation of that loss.

Only 7% of verbal communication comes from our words. The rest of it comes from voice inflection and body language. When listening to your staff and stakeholders, it is important to listen behind the words so that you can understand what they truly intend to communicate. You don’t need to guess what they are trying to say. You can ask questions, as you notice their body language and vocal tone, to clarify what they are saying. At the end of the conversation, it’s helpful to provide a summary statement and wait for the reaction. If someone says, yes, you got it right, but they look resigned, continue to ask until there is a sense of simpatico.

Live in Limbo

As a leader, it’s not your responsibility to fix everything. In fact, the less you are personally responsible for fixing, the better off your organization. It would mean that your organization is rich with resources and its own leadership pool.

Limbo is a tough spot to live in. If you are a natural leader, you want to get the job done and conquer. It may be difficult to witness your organization struggle. As a leader you will need to correctly identify problems, correctly assess the skills and passions of your people, and effectively match the problem with the people. They will have fun and relish the opportunity to fix the problems for you and to the benefit of the entire organization.

While you are waiting to match the problem with the people, you will need to sit with the situation without fixing it.

Be An Example

Whatever you expect from your team, you must be willing to exemplify. You want a team that’s punctual, you have to show up before everyone. You say a lot by your actions. Your actions build the construct for your team. You can list the rules of engagement on a poster on a wall. You can put them in policy manuals and have reams of orientation material. In the end, your team will mirror their behavior after yours.

Teach, Don’t Talk

You know the saying, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” It’s the same with leadership.

When you tell your team what to do without giving them reason or context, they can follow the instructions and complete the task. However, when they need to do the same thing again, you will need to tell them again. On the other hand, if your provide for them the context for the directions, the next time the situation arises they can execute without your presence.

Another reason to teach your team and provide context, is that they may come up with solutions that you could not have conceived on your own. It may take a little more work on your part and a more time initially, but it will pay high dividends for you and expedite execution in the future. Best of all, you’ve empowered your team to execute without your direct influence.

Praise Publicly, Punish Privately

When you chastise your staff publicly, you are alienating yourself from them and making your job as a leader infinitely difficult. It’s bad enough if you chastise the group as a whole. If you single one person out, you are embarrassing that person and you cause irreparable harm to that relationship and your team.

Take team meetings, and other public events as opportunities to praise you team for their performance and highlight individuals who excelled. Take personal evaluations or one and one meetings to discuss weaknesses or short comings.

You shine as a leader when you empower and enable every individual on your team to shine.

In Spirit,
Nneka

Exuberant, ecstatic, and excited, are just a few of the words I would use to describe Phil Gerbyshak, author of 10 Ways to Make It Great! and the voice behind the Make It Great! blog.

Phil hails from a little north of Milwaukee with a built-in furnace. Phil writes for Joyful Jubilant Learning, and the very unique Help Desk Notes. He finds the time to respond to every comment via email, and if you respond, he keeps the conversation going.

Last week I had the opportunity to interview Phil and his radiance just burst through the phone lines.

Nneka: So how did you come up with the concept of “Make It Great!”?
Phil: I came up with Make it Great! by thinking about some of the excellent books and slogans I’d read and heard about. Jim Collins had just come out with Good to Great, and I also had watched Forrest Gump and in the movie, he coined the “Have a Nice Day” slogan. Have is passive, make is active, good and nice are okay, but great is better, so I combined it all and came up with Make It Great! because I don’t settle for having a NICE day, or settle for good enough. I’m always aiming for more, for excellence, for GREATness.

Nneka: What do you do in your everyday life that makes it great?
Phil: I get up every morning, grateful for another day. Whether the weather is hot or cold, I’m glad to be alive and able to make a difference in the world.

Nneka: What about if I want to make it great, what one thing could I do?
Phil: Only one thing? Have a servant’s heart. Always look to serve others’ needs first, and don’t worry about getting it back, because it eventually will come back.

Nneka: The first action step in your book is writing an obituary. You just jumped right into the deep end. Truthfully, it was kinda scary. What does your obituary say?
Phil: If I were to die today, and I were to write my obituary, it would read “Phil Gerbyshak, 33, of Glendale WI was survived by his wife Kim, his mother, his 2 brothers and sisters-in-law, 2 nieces, and many other family and friends who Phil loved dearly. Phil’s biggest impact was in his ability to connect people to each other. Many remarked that Phil’s natural tendency to serve others first helped him impact many people lives. Phil loved the Lord with all his heart, and though often he failed, he did what he could with the time, talent and treasures he was given.”

Nneka: Connection and service are two words you use a lot. They’re your theme really - your message. How do you do that in a virtual medium like blogging?
Phil: Wow, this is a tough question. I started building community by writing a lot of articles, and built up some content. I then would go out and read others’ blogs that are in a similar space to mine, and leave comments on their blogs. Most bloggers are curious who it is that left a comment, so the courteous ones would come to my blog, leave a comment, and then we’d e-mail each other, talking about blogging, talking about writing, talking about anything. We got deep quick, and we continued sharing link love and such on each others’ blogs. I have reached out to many via telephone, and am always available to help. If anyone has a question, or leaves a comment, I always respond. I try to return the favor 10 fold if I can.

Nneka: What do you enjoy most about blogging?
Phil: I love the community and relationship aspect of blogging. Since I started blogging in March of 2005, I’ve been able to call many bloggers, yourself included, my friends. Not readers, like you would call people who read a newspaper or magazine column, but friends. People that if they were coming to town, you would change your plans so you could spend time with them. And the old saying of birds of a feather flocking together is true. If you want great people to come into your life, start a blog and share of yourself in an authentic way. Soon, you’ll have more friends and more community than you ever dreamed possible.

Nneka: As you might know Balanced Life Center is about applying spiritual principles to your life. You infuse the spiritual principles of service and connection into the fabric of your life. You’re even a help desk manager, so you’re in service all day long. Do you have any spiritual practices you would like to share with the friends of Balanced Life Center?
Phil: I am grateful for all I have, and I regularly take time to say thanks. Living in Wisconsin, this can be tough sometimes as we get plenty of cold and snowy days. Still, I focus on that which I have instead of that which I don’t.

I have a servant’s heart. I focus on what I can do to help others as much as I can, and know that eventually it will come around to me, and if it doesn’t in this lifetime, that’s okay.

I read to feed my soul. I read about 400 blogs, about 30 books a year, and several magazines. This helps me keep my mind engaged in all that is good in the world, and keeps me learning.

Nneka: Phil, you are a refreshing shot of optimism, and vibrance. I just love your enthusiasm. I could talk to you all night, but I’ve got to wrap up. What’s on the horizon for the Phil-tastic! Mr. Gerbyshak?
Phil: I’m working on my next book, Relationship Geek. It’s about making connections in the business world. In the meantime, I’m spreading the message of service and community online at Joyful Jubilant Learning, Help Desk Notes, 100 Bloggers, and Wired Home. In the real world, I have several speaking engagements coming up in New England, Vegas, Madison, and around Milwaukee.

That was Phil Gerbyshak. Melting the snow in Wisconsin and shining his light so bright that I can see it all the way over here in North Carolina.

I had a blast Phil

In Spirit,
Nneka