BELAY Solutions is absolutely one of my favorite organizations. Co-founded by Bryan Miles and his wife Shannon, BELAY was recently ranked #1 among small companies in the 2017 Top Company Cultures List Presented by Entrepreneur and CultureIQ.
Bryan and Shannon have become two of America’s most influential leaders. If you have not gotten Bryan’s new book Virtual Culture: The Way We Work Doesn’t Work Anymore, a Manifesto, click HERE. I highly recommend it.
Below is an article written by Bryan for LinkedIn. The content is so important I wanted to make it available to all leaders.
After reading, if you are considering a virtual assistant, click HERE and start a conversation today.
Now onto Bryan’s comments:
As a leader, you make dozens of decisions every day. And most of them are probably pretty good, or you wouldn’t still be a leader.
As leaders, we’ve each been given something to take care of, and we’re held responsible for its well-being. To become the best leader for your team, there are several critical components you should consider implementing, whether your team is remote or in-house.
Lead by Example
As a leader, accountability is essential in a good leader. If I tell my employees that we need to live by a certain value, you better believe I’m living by that very same value. This also means playing fair. Expecting immediate responses from your team and sitting on their request for days on end undermines both your working relationship and your credibility as a leader.
Also, set and hold to boundaries. Thanks to technology, it’s increasingly difficult to completely shut out our work. Experiencing round-the-clock access isn’t reasonable. Lead by example. If you’ve asked your employees to close down shop after a certain point, make sure you aren’t sending emails out to them after that set time either.
Communicate
In fact, over-communicate. The burden is on you as a leader to share enough details about projects and tasks with your team. Your team isn’t inside your head. Be willing to fill in the gaps. Remember to open up and share things that you have been struggling with, because those are the very things your team can take off your shoulders.
Communicating often means having difficult conversations. At BELAY, we believe in running towards difficult conversations, not away from them. If we avoid those hard conversations, it leads to grudges. Negative feelings stew. I always start hard conversations simply. I say things like, “I didn’t like it when you did X,” or “Please don’t do X again,” or “I like it when you do X this way.”
Create a Collaborative Atmosphere
Take advantage of technology to collaborate with your team, especially if you have employees distributed remotely – to keep your team communicating. Use Slack, Workplace, Google Hangouts, webcam, and other forms of instant messaging.
As you work on projects, give the why behind the what. Share the rationale behind the project and what you want to accomplish with it. Doing so helps your team feel more engaged and vested in the success of that project – which will lead to better results.
Also, don’t expect too much, too soon. Give your team time to fully understand what you’re expecting of them, and remember that their version of “time” is not directly analogous to your version of “time.”
Trust Your Team
Let your team know that you trust them, even when you can’t see them. Adults need to be reminded that they are trusted! Don’t sit there and worry about what your employees are doing day to day. Don’t wonder if they are really doing their job. Trust that they are. Look for the results.
Know How to Delegate
Jerry Maguire said it best: “Help me, help you!” When your team – project leader, team members, or right hand man asks this, be sure to have an answer ready. If a leader does not delegate and empower his employees, he cannot scale.
I learned to delegate so that I could continue to lead and do the things I am good at so the business grows. Because of the quick growth of our company, my wife and I had to learn to delegate fast. We have found that there are two rules leaders should consider when delegating:
First: delegate the things you hate doing. Shannon hated accounting, so we got ourselves an accountant! Second: delegate the things that anyone could do so you can spend more of your time doing the jobs that only you can do.
Make the Relationship a Priority
If you’re not deliberate about it, the old adage “out of sight, out of mind” can quickly become our reality. Start skipping video calls or updates, and it won’t be long before you are disconnected and not achieving the results you wanted. Also, be sure you don’t make your team wait. If you truly view them as your partner in accomplishing your business objectives (and they are!), then their messages need to be a very high priority for you.
One of the most important ways a leader can add value to a relationship is by saying thank you. Often. Don’t let gratitude be rare for your team – virtual or in-house. If you truly appreciate them, say so. And make sure they know you mean it.
Make Yourself Visible
Use video conferencing and calls whenever you can, to help reinforce the idea that you’re a real, live leader that they are serving. Do not overlook the importance of physical, face-to-face meetings from time to time.
Most people hunger for personal connection, and work is no exception. When you starve employees—either virtual employees or in-office employees who work in the cubicle next to their boss—of face-to-face, personal interaction, you end up isolating them.
Let Life Happen
Leaders forget that their employees are real people and have problems and things going on in their personal lives. I know leaders who tell their employees to leave their issues at the door. That is irresponsible.
As a leader, you have to let life happen. Leaders forget that these people work to advance the cause of their brand—they dedicate their days to contributing to the success of the business, and that is important to remember.
Help Employees Become Better Stewards
Teach your team to solve problems. When one of my employees has a problem, they should come to me with that problem only if they’ve already thought through three potential ways to solve it. I tell them, “Don’t come to me with problems; come to me with solutions.” That is how I steward the business. Eventually, I won’t be here anymore, but the business can still be here because the leaders and the employees running it know how to.
A great company doesn’t just happen. It takes a solid leader (or leaders), leading with intentionality, passion, and care to see the intangible and tangible results you dream of. These ideas above are from my leadership playbook … put some of the ways you are being the best leader to your team in the comments below. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
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