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?‍♂️ Are you an excuse maker? Is your leadership hampered by the excuses you make?

Do you have an excuse maker in your team?Are you told supposedly ‘legitimate reasons’ for things not getting done, but they just sound like excuses? ? Do you challenge them? Or do you hear them and look like you accept them – only to be annoyed that you ‘swallowed’ the excuse later? ?

Excuses are the bane of my existence. Not just the ones that I hear others say to cover for work / expectations that hadn’t been completed, but because of the excuses that I hear in my own head – the ones that I tell myself for work not being completed how / when I wanted it done.

Excuses are one of several ways in which teams / leaders underperform against the AIR / BLEEDS model – the others being Blame, Leniency, Exoneration, Defence and Shame.

Excuses can have a 3 fold negative effect on your team and business:

1️⃣. You lower your standards – particularly if you ‘accept’ your own excuses.
2️⃣. You lower the standards of your team. Accepting non-legitimate reasons for incomplete / lower standard / late work
3️⃣ You allow further excuses to breed. Having accepted an excuse once, you set yourself up to have to accept the same excuse again – or from others (setting a precedent).

Several leaders I have known have been told they were inconsistent (myself included) – not through intention – but by having to correct for excuses that were used too often / taken too far. While I / we may have seen that a ‘boundary’ had been crossed – the rest of the team just saw behaviour being accepted, followed by very similar behaviour not being accepted – inconsistency.

?. How do you get past excuses / deal with excuses in your workplace?

1️⃣. The first step to is acknowledge them for what they are – in your behaviour and in others – and you might be first place to start.
2️⃣. Make clear – to yourself and your team – the standards that you will accept and the standards you won’t.
3️⃣ Understand that ‘the standard you walk past is the standard you accept’. Excuses are often used because they are often accepted – many leaders are unwilling to challenge excuses – they hear them and rather than saying something, walk away and get annoyed about it later.

Is this a problem for you / your business? What impact are excuses having upon your business?
#leaders #business #work #team #developingleaders #IMLD

Related Articles:

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Responsibility. Are You A More Responsible Or Accountable Leader?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Blame. Does Blame tarnish Your Leadership Ability?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Leniency. Are You Too Lenient As A Leader?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Excuses. Is Your Leadership Hampered By Your Excuses?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Exoneration. The Standard You Walk Past Is The Standard You Accept?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Defence. Can You Admit When You Are Wrong?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Shame. Shame Is A Common Leadership Behaviour – Is It One of Yours?

Does blame tarnish your leadership ability? Do you work (or have you worked) for a ‘blamer’?
Few behaviours look as bad for a leader or manager as blame. It can be detrimental to the team, and to our own credibility – yet for many, it can be a default behaviour under pressure and stress.

Blame is one of the 6 inefficient or ineffective behaviours of the AIR/ BLEEDS model that leaders can display when they are not at their best. The BLEEDS behaviours are:
? Blame
? Leniency
? Excuses
? Exoneration
? Defence
? Shame

Why discuss this? Because awareness of your default behaviours under pressure and stress result in you being less likely to spend time there! Sharing your defaults with your team also mean they are less likely to hold these behaviours against you, or have permission to ‘check in’ with you to assist in getting you back to a more positive, efficient and effective state of mind.
Discussing default behaviours with your team can be a very powerful to establish and build trust – but it takes some knowledge and a degree of vulnerability – you are sharing some of your less desirable behaviours. But it is done to create a positive outcome.

The more effective states for leaders are when we are in a space of:
? Accountability
? Intention
? Responsibility

To be effective, accountable and responsible leaders, it is worth look at our behaviours – both good and bad – particularly when under pressure and stress. Our behaviours impact us, our team and our business – they are an incredibly important aspect of leading others.

What is your default behaviour under pressure and stress?
Do you blame?
Do you make excuses?
Are you too lenient on others?
If you want to learn about your leadership behaviours and what you can do to impact them, reach out via DM.
#leadership#leaders#team#business#executivecoaching#IMLD#developingleaders

Related Articles:

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Responsibility. Are You A More Responsible Or Accountable Leader?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Blame. Does Blame tarnish Your Leadership Ability?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Leniency. Are You Too Lenient As A Leader?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Excuses. Is Your Leadership Hampered By Your Excuses?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Exoneration. The Standard You Walk Past Is The Standard You Accept?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Defence. Can You Admit When You Are Wrong?

AIR/BLEEDS Series – Shame. Shame Is A Common Leadership Behaviour – Is It One of Yours?

Building trust is an essential part of leading a team, and being part of a team. But have you ever thought:
? What does it take to build trust with me?
? What does it take to break my trust?, and
Probably most important with teams
? What does it take – what would you have to do – to rebuild my trust?

I love this quote from Brene Brown. Trust isn’t built in the big, sweeping gestures or in the speeches delivered enmasse – it is developed in the small moments between people that happen every day of the week. In thew same vein, building trust can be built in the tiny moments – it can be lost in those tiny moments as well.

Have you thought about what it takes to build and break trust with you? Frankly, if you don’t know what it takes to build, break or rebuild trust with you – how would the members of your team know?

Building trust is about more than being honest (the default answer most managers give when asked the question) – there are a number of ‘time moments’ each day as Brene Brown mentions, that have an impact.

Take a moment and share with your team:
? What behaviour(s) build trust with me?
? What behaviour(s) break my trust, and
? What does it take to rebuild my trust?

You can go further and ask your team members the same thing. When two of my favourite authors on leadership – Brené Brown and Patrick Lencioni – have trust as implicit in their models and organisations, it is worth looking at.
#leadership #team #trust #trustbuilding #IMLD #developingleaders

Related Articles:

What Does It Take To Build Trust In Your Team?

Leadership Is All About Team Trust & Performance

Under-Performing Team? It Is Always A Matter Of Trust

A Team Is A Group Of People Who Trust Each Other

Is Your Leadership Behaviour Focussed On Urgent Or Important? Are you hooked on the thrill of the urgent? Do you spend most of your day ‘fire fighting’ rather than doing what you know you should?

If so, welcome to the very human condition of focussing on urgent rather than important.

Also welcome the Eisenhower decision matrix, and the 120 seconds that can change the way you work.
120 seconds – that is all it will take to change your day. 2 minutes to check – have you fallen into the ‘urgent and important trap’? Are you in control of your day or are your urgent tasks controlling you?

Recent changes to work arrangements have taught us anything, is that how we structure our time is actually more flexible than many of us thought (and that many things touted as both urgent and important were neither, and often ‘ended up’ here because of poor planning and last minute rushing).

One of the hardest transitions for supervisors and team leaders (and many small business owners as well) is transitioning time used from the Urgent / Important Box to the Not Urgent / Important Box. For those used to the thrill of urgent, this can be difficult to do – particularly those that have valued their constant availability to their team. Non Urgent / Important tasks include those important tasks due in a week or two, the coaching of team members, the planning of strategy. That stuff that gets pushed aside for urgent – then either gets rushed or not done at all.

Discussions on task management, time management and how you complete urgent versus important tasks are features within our Executive Leadership Coaching as well as our Diploma of Leadership & Management and Emerging Leadership Programs.

120 seconds – 2 minutes – take it now to see where you can take control of your time today to do something important.
#leadership #coaching #developingleaders #timemanagement #leader#manager

Related Articles:

Are You A More Responsible Or Accountable Leader?

How Do You Spot An Incompetent Leader?

Great Leaders and Managers Are Critical Thinkers