Your Leadership Moments

By Doug Fleener, The Daily Performance Expert 

Throughout your day, every day, you encounter what I call leadership moments. These are moments when a person can decide to act or react as a leader, or not.

Let me give you a few examples. I'm using "manager," but of course this also applies to an owner, executive, etc.

A manager notices an employee doing a great job with a customer, but at the same time the employee makes a minor mistake that happens to be the manager's pet peeve. The manager will decide in that split second if she will praise the employee for what he did with the customer, or if she'll focus on what the employee did wrong. That's the leadership moment.

A manger is having a frustrating day and is unhappy with a couple of his employees. The manager thinks to himself, "Nobody around here cares except me." In that moment the manager can either say those words out loud, or look to his team to see what he can do to get everyone back on track.

A manager is trying to catch up on some long overdue paperwork. An employee coming in for the start of her shift asks if the manager has a few minutes to talk. The manager might ask if the conversation can wait, or she can put everything aside because good leadership means open communication with employees. It's a leadership moment.

I believe that most of us want to be extremely good leaders. We want to do what's best for our employees. We want to help them grow, develop, and be successful. What gets in the way is our own need to get things done, or being tired or stressed out.

Whatever is happening, remember that at any given moment you have opportunity to be a good leader. You're taking advantage of the leadership moment by asking, "Am I going to do what's in the best interest of my people, or am I going to miss the opportunity to lead?"

So let me ask, how well do you do with your leadership moments?

Doug

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