- Leaders emerge, they are not usually chosen in the hope that they might make it someday.
- A member of your Leadership Group must be eager to do the job not just because they have been asked or are bored.
- To pick your Leadership Group consider a review by all members of the team of who they believe their leaders are
- Your Leadership Group must embody your values, work ethic, strategy and expectations
- Communicate very clearly the expectations, activities, skills and responsibilities of your Leadership Group
- Then focus on positive execution rather than theoretical conversation
- Your Leadership Group are not your ‘gophers’ or lackeys to do the jobs/have the conversations you don’t want to have. If you are making everyone else work hard, but you are slacking off, you will undermine your own credibility
What Business Managers Can Learn From Footy Teams
The new footy season is only 2 weeks away and while many of you are excited and can’t wait for kick off I can almost hear a collective groan from the non sports fans!
The Sydney Morning Herald, AGE, Daily Telegraph and all other national and local newspapers are full of articles about the new season and if you read these articles there is a lot to learn from the way the team managers/coaches are developing the responsibility of some of their players
Reason for mentioning it is that nearly every club has a Players Leadership Group (in addition to the business management team)
A group of 3 – 7 members of the team who can be relied on to lead by example and who are responsible to show other players the right way of doing things
This informal role doesn’t usually bring any extra payments or glory however they are seen as the coaches right hand men/women who can assist in the organisation, motivation, development and sometimes, discipline of other players
It also acts as an interim step in moving someone from Team Member to Manager/Team Captain
I Googled “Leadership Groups in Footy Teams” and to randomly pick one AFL team (St Kilda) stated:
The responsibilities of a Captain are many and varied, both internally and externally,” said Senior Coach Scott Watters.
Over the past four months the St Kilda Football Club has undertaken a detailed review of its leadership programs.
The new structure provides the best platform for the experienced leaders to drive the Club’s performance and also caters for the development of emerging leaders.
“The process of determining the Leadership Group has been a very thorough, collaborative Club process given the significance of the roles,” explained Watters.
“Our 2012 Leadership Group strongly represents our internal values and ensures we are well placed to drive the development of our Club and build on the culture of excellence we are committed to.” said Watters.
So when you look at the structure of your business who is potentially your Leadership Group? (Again not to be confused with your Leadership/Senior Management team)
When I started in sales my sales manager had a team of 8 sales people to mentor and coach 2 days a month, every month.
Now many managers have over 12 direct reports and/or don’t make time to go out on the road with their people.
KONA has recently been working with a sales team and has helped to DOUBLE their revenue in 6 months.
Part of that success is in developing their Managers as Coaches, and the formation of a Leadership Group is the next step.
7 tips to picking your Leadership Group
