A Scary Thought

I don’t want to be the reason for your next psychotherapist visit, and I know you have enough to worry about already with technology, tariffs, politics, and some of the stupid attitudes that people have today, but here’s a scary thought.

Do you have any idea what people say about you when you’re not around? You might not care. Really, why should you even care? However, suppose you find yourself in a leadership role as an executive, entrepreneur, or business owner. What your employees/or team says about you says a lot about your effectiveness as a leader.

Do you aspire to inspire, or are you just tolerated? It comes down to a simple concept: Do your people have your back? Will they fight for your vision, purpose, and goals, or do they just show up for a paycheck?

When things get tough, you might want to know the answer to this last question: Will your team fight to win and grow, pulling together to beat the odds, overcome setbacks, and take advantage of opportunities? Like it or not, that question is answered daily based on the perception you have created as the leader. Are you a dictatorial, cold, uncaring, aloof, bullying jerk? Or are you someone people seek as a source of hope, potential, possibility, and encouragement? Are you respected, solid, consistent, and always striving to do the right thing?

These examples are purely perceptions of emotional reactions observed or heard by your team, colleagues, friends, and family. Once you do them, good or bad, you will be watched for consistency in this action, and then a perception is formed. And remember, someone is always watching. Perceptions are continually formed.

So, one more time. If you are in a leadership position of any kind, Executive, business owner, entrepreneur, PTA president, or parent, your perception is continually being formed. People watch how you walk, talk, smile, respond, listen, tone of voice, body language, and more. Perception is constantly formed.

You might not be able to control what people say about you when you’re not around, but you sure as heck can influence it. As a Master Business Coach, I usually spend considerable time with a client strategizing their perception and what they want it (or need it to be) to be, and then work with them to achieve it. We make the adjustments they need to make to live the perception they wish to and need to have.

Sometimes drastic changes are necessary. Most of the time, small changes are required.

Drop your ego and look hard at how people need to perceive you so you can have the most significant, positive effect on them personally and professionally. This is a total transformation for some. But for you hard-nosed, ego-centric knuckleheads out there, let me share with you the easiest way to start. Sometimes, learning to pick out a random team member, and then say, “Thank you for your hard work,” and then walk off works brilliantly.

You’ll be amazed at the power of Thank You.

One more thing, paying people more, or giving them fabulous prizes and rewards, is fine. Still, these gratituties never replace the fact that people fundamentally want to come to work every day because they want to work every day and be a part of a winning team working with a strong and trusted leader. A 64-page Gallup study on the effectiveness of leadership and leadership training showed some impressive statistics: 41% Lower Absenteeism (People wanted to go to work). 59% Lower Turnover (They wanted to stay at their job); 70% Fewer Safety Incidents (They wanted to stay healthy so they could work).

All I’m asking is to have the nerve to consider how people currently perceive you and then evaluate if that’s how you want them to perceive you. If it is, build on that. If not, get to work and drop the ego and work on changing your perception. Your job gets easier when you lead people to want to do a good job!

They’re working with you, not for you; everyone thrives when that happens.