Do. Or do not.  There is no try. (Yoda)

 

Day 2 – ‘B’

Effort is nice, but results matter.  Leadership is about:

• Empowering others;
• Removing roadblocks, and
• Resolving issues & driving results.

Strong leadership, and eliminating obstacles also encourages people to continue being good at what they do.

In Forbes 2014 “Excuses, Excuses: Leadership That Avoids The Blame Game”, Dr. Margaret Bradley noted that excuses “decrease morale, sap energy, lead to misunderstandings, confuse communication, and damage credibility.”

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. (George Washington Carver)

According to Bradley, excuses also impact the opportunity for operational excellence.

Can you, or your teams afford to operate at less than your best? Are you willing to work harder longer hours to accomplish tasks or finish projects? Do you have extra capital to increase staff? In most organizations, I don’t think so.

So what then?

Find out what things are slowing progress, and make your team productive by cutting out the red tape holding them back. And remember, leadership isn’t about position, it’s about action (more to come on this topic in a future post).  So all team members can, and should, feel empowered to resolve issues and eliminate excuses.

Want more on leadership? Check out my partner Dale Richardson’s thoughts in his Live the Goals podcast here!

 

“The ABC’s of Leadership” is a web series highlighting principles of leadership.

Each day, we’ll highlight a new focus area and concept.  Done in partnership with Dale Richardson, a Podcast Host and John Maxwell Team certified speaker, trainer and coach, we’ll also offer a podcast exploring each idea further.

Tune in daily!