Most Important Leadership Qualities You Need To Succeed!

Leadership has so many aspects to it.  There is so much that a leader needs to know to be effective in their position.  Their frame of mind, their ability to gain influence, their ability to build trust, communication, and the list goes on to what leaders need to do well.

Today let’s talk about the most important leadership qualities that a leader must excel at if they are going to be effective in their position.

Leaders first and foremost must know that being a leader does not mean that they get to sit up on a throne like a king and order others around to do all their bidding.  Leaders actually have to flip their frame of mind to be one of a servant leader.  That is right, they are serving their organization and their teams by being a servant leader.  That does not mean that they are doing their team’s bidding, but that their decisions are to support their teams do their tasks better. 

How can they institute a process to help the team work more efficient.  Not too many processes though because that will just grind the organization to a crawl.  How can they help guide the teams to move efficient through their tasks to get their jobs done well and on time.

The next thing that a leader needs to be able to do is build influence with those they work with.  That is right they need to be able to build influence.  This is where knowing the sales process and how people buy will enable them to succeed. That is why typically someone that has been in sales is an effective leader. 

Leaders don’t have to be the greatest sales person, but the fact that they understand the process will help them lead well.  Knowing how and why people buy and buy in is crucial to building influence.  That is why I wrote the book for people to be able to have a simple process they can repeat over and over to grow higher levels of influence.  Without being able to build influence the leader will not be able to get the right people on the bus to move the organization forward effectively.

The third crucial quality that a leader needs to have is the ability to communicate effectively.  That is right we can be the smartest person on a specific topic, but if we can’t communicate so that others can understand the topic and be able to action that topic we will fail. 

Communication is key for instilling the vision, building trust, and moving others forward.  This does not mean that we use big words to make ourselves seem more intelligent either.  The best communicators can take complex topics and break them down into a simple language that even a child could understand.  If we can’t do that then we really are not that intelligent and are not going to be effective leaders.

Being able to understand and action these three qualities is imperative if we are going to be effective leaders for our teams. 

If you have questions about either of these three crucial leadership qualities feel free to reach out.  I would be more than happy to help you gain more traction as a leader!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

What Leadership Is Missing These Days

It seems like everyone wants to influence others.  They believe that with influence all their worries will go away whether it be in sales, or getting their plans to move forward.  Having others follow them will make all their worries come to an end.

We have influencers on social media, like Instagram, tik tok, clubhouse, etc.  You name it there are people trying to grow their follower base.  When these influencers meet, they literally discuss how many followers they have.  

The question I have is do followers equate to actual influence.  Would those followers send these influencers tons of money just because?  Would these followers go on mission with these influencers for their cause?  What is the level of influence of these followers really equate to?

Far too often individuals in leadership positions get so engulfed in the power aspect that they are about to obtain that they only think about what others will do for them.  What can others do for me instead of what I can do for those that I am about to lead.  Leadership is not about getting others to do stuff we want, but for us to help move others forward that betters their lives and the organization’s impact.    

What I have found in my career is that no one cares how much we know until they know how much we care about them.  That’s right the focus is not to be shown on us, but on others that we are serving in sales and leadership.  The more we invest in helping them succeed, the more we gain influence.  Not for the sake of building influence, it is a byproduct of the process of serving.

There are three questions that everyone asks on every interaction:

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you help me?

These three questions are how we have survived for thousands of years.  That’s right, it is the process the brain uses to see if we are in danger, or if we are going to be okay.  Whether the fight or flight response should ramp up, or if we are able to relax and enjoy the company.  Ever met someone that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.  Your body was kicking into the fight or flight response. 

These three questions are crucial if we are going to build influence with others.  We need to serve others by answering these three questions.  If we want to lead them in our organization, we must make sure we are answering these questions on every interaction.  If we don’t, we will soon be onboarding someone else and starting the process over again.  This I believe is why there is so much cost in business. If leadership doesn’t take the time to focus on the individuals that report to them, but just the bottom line, then they will ultimately fail.  This is one major factor in why loyalty with an organization has dropped dramatically since the 1990’s.

When organizations forget about the human aspect of the employees and focus solely on the bottom line, cultures fail.   There is an article back in 2005 by the Harvard Business School that calls out why we need to have a human focus on helping those that report to us.  If we don’t then we will need to start the process of recruiting which could in turn cost as much as 2 times the salary for that position to recruit, onboard, and get the new person up to speed with the old person was.  

The numbers are even higher with today’s work environment with the Great Resignation that has just occurred over the past year.  What can we do?  We need to make sure we go back to the basics and focus on those three questions to generate influence and serving our customers and employees if we are going to survive into future decades.

Leadership is not to be served, but to serve.

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with higher profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Don’t Fear The V

How hard is it for you to share your true feelings of fear?  Ever informed someone that you were uncomfortable?  Have you ever been told you are too vulnerable? 

My guess is that if you a man in your 40’s and older, that has not been something you have ever heard.  It just was not modeled for the most part by our fathers.  We were taught how to change the car oil, get a job, and fix things.  Vulnerability was not something that most of us were taught.

I was raised in a single parent family for most of my younger years and being vulnerable was not a skill I was taught.  I was taught to “man up”, “suck it up”, etc.  We didn’t show emotion.  Well we did show anger and sarcasm.  That was about it.  Vulnerability was something I work on daily as I enter my fourth decade of life.  This was one of the hardest skills for me as a man, but one of the most beneficial assets as a person of influence. 

You may be thinking, I don’t have time to be vulnerable.  I just need to push through with my team or my customers and get the job done to move on to the next task.  I understand business and getting work done.  What I am talking about is building a trust with our teams or customers gives us the benefit of the doubt in bad situations.  This kind of trust is more than the superficial arm-length kind of relationship.  It brings people in to get to know us on a deeper level.  A level that when the chips are down, they will step in to help without question.

Now let’s talk about what vulnerability is. Vulnerability is opening ourselves to be potentially judged, let down, hurt emotionally, and disappointed.  Vulnerability is sharing details and emotions to show the real us.  It is also an uneasy feeling when we disclose something about ourselves to someone in an effort to build deeper trust levels. 

Vulnerability is deeper than honesty.  When being honest, we can speak the truth, but still not build trust (just ask my wife).  People can be rubbed the wrong way with honesty.  We can not gain the connection with others when we are just honest.  We need to develop our level of vulnerability with other individuals to gain deeper relationships.  Vulnerability is a scary place for most people because there is that risk of being hurt, but the payoff is definitely greater.

I have worked with ex-navy seals, business owners, entrepreneurs, engineers, contractors, etc. The most successful people are vulnerable to those they need high levels of trust with.  Leaders have to be vulnerable with those they lead.  Leaders strive to grow the relationship with those around them so that when the time comes to dig deep, the leaders will have the buy in from those around them, and accomplish great things.

The reason why I have had such great success in sales is because I am vulnerable with my customers and team members.  I trust them and pushed through my comfort zone to allow others in to see who I am.  By doing so I have gained great relationships and trust with those around me.  Together we have accomplished great things like a men’s ministry, winning multi-million multi-year contracts, and solid relationships that have stood the test of time.

This week I want to challenge us to open up instead of trying to conceal things.  It’s okay to show the real us to others.  We can share some of the things we struggle with and ask for help.  Being vulnerable with where we are at will allow us to grow stronger and have others come along side of us to accomplish much more.  My commitment this week is to listen and be more vulnerable to those around me and not jump in to fix it and move on.  What is the next step you can do today to be more vulnerable with those around you? 

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

The Way To Keep Focus On Your Goals

Good morning everyone,

Back on November 9th when I talked about setting goals, I stated that I would spend December creating my goals for 2020.  An interesting thing happened during that time that I think may benefit you as well. 

I read a book called “Get a Grip” which is a business book for their entrepreneurial operating system.  In the book the leadership rights down the core values, the core focus statement “mission statement” and a great deal of other details.  It’s a great book if you have not gone through a process to create a mission statement for your organization / family yet.

While reading the book and understanding the concepts I thought about how this could work for our Family, my business, and my personal goals.  My wife and I took time between Christmas and New Years to discuss what we would want out family to look like and our core focus.  We decided that using this format to provide purpose and direction for our family would be worth the effort.  We drafted the following below Focus and Values:

Core Focus

To know our worth in God and be a bright light to those around us of hope, help, and encouragement

Core Values

·        Grow Relationship with God and Each Other

·        Financially Smart and Generous Giving

·        Fit and Healthy Choices

·        Helpful and Encouraging Each Other and Celebrate Each Other’s Wins

·        Fail Forward Fast for Constant Growth

·       Great Communication

From there each of us in our family can point our goals towards these Core Values and Focus we have as a family.  When we want to give up on a goal, we will have these values and focus to keep us moving forward to achieving those goals.

See goals independent of each other are usually not as strong and can’t sustain for long periods of time.  The Core Focus and the Core Values are your WHY we are doing what we are setting out to accomplish.  Having a strong WHY will give us that added boost to keep going when the obstacles of the year come flying at us.  Now we have a compass to use when I want to give up on a goal, or when distractions happen.

The other things that are nice from this process is that we have set the sheet up (pictured as the background for this blog post) to be reviewed every quarter.  Each Quarter we can sit down and review the goals to see where we are at achieving the annual goals and the goals we set out to accomplish that quarter.  We can also look at the issues that might come up this quarter, or from the last quarter that may try to limit us from success.

Last year I had 31 independent goals that I set out to achieve.  I achieved about half of them.  This year I have less goals and goals that are derived from the Core Focus and Core Values.  These goals will fit in the following areas:

Fitness, Family, Business, and Growth in myself. 

What are your Core Values and Focus for 2020?   What will you use to keep you motivated when the obstacles of life come hurling at you?

If you would like a free copy of the goals sheet we used post a comment, or email me and I will send a copy out to you.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Do You Have My Back?

Has anyone ever asked you the following question…Do you have my back?

Chances are if you have direct reports, they are asking this question about you.  They were trying to figure this out the moment they start working for you.

Your direct reports want to know that when the chips are down that you will have their back as long as they are doing what is right and ethical.  Far too often in big business employees feel they have to CYA because they do not trust their manager.  CYA stands for Cover Your Assets.  The A is sometimes shortened. 

I have experienced in the issue of having to CYA myself in communications due to a lack of support from managers.  It agitated me greatly because I believed I was left to fight for myself.  It is a lonely position to be in as a report.  Here’s the thing, relationships do not thrive in this kind of environment.

Employees want to know that their managers have their back when the chips are down and that they can reach out to their managers when they need help.  Far too many managers are so busy themselves they forget to establish ground rules for trust and communication at the beginning of the relationship.  There needs to be a set of ground rules of engagement set up from the beginning.  Leaving it up to assumption is a recipe for a bad relationship.   There are a few managers out there unfortunately that don’t really care about relationships with their reports and should look to either move on from their position or retire. 

When trust and communication are not flowing it becomes like a body of water with no movement.  It becomes toxic and everything in it dies.   When trust and communication are absent fear sets in.  When Fear takes hold, trust and relationships do not flourish, they die.

If reports don’t trust their manager, then where does the employee bounce ideas off of to move forward in the correct direction?  Where do they expect to get mentored?  Where do these reports learn the correct way of operating for the organization?

Far too often employees have enough of this lack of trust and communication and elect to leave the department, or worse the organization.  The intrinsic knowledge that the employee has is also following them right out the door.  This then puts the team and management back to start the process over to onboard another employee.  If the cycle keeps occurring the manager will be found out and their management will have to discuss options.  

The cost of onboarding is excessive, so why not work to make sure your reports know that you have their back, how to communicate with you, and build trust.

The answer is setting up guard rails with your direct reports from the beginning to make sure they understand how the trust and communication can work together.  Setting these guard rails up will keep everything moving better and work life to improve.  Employees need to know that they can trust their managers.  Having that trust and communication will allow the employees to excel and thrive with you.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

www.kevinsidebottom.com