I should have read more about this before I took on the role to lead him.
The last thing I thought would happen was for my employee to get stuck in a mine I assigned him. Good news, or maybe bad news, is I am a person with the “make a decision and move-forward mentality.” To that end, I set up next steps with more employees to help get my initial employee out. They would all come out and none one of them could die right? That would be too much like a sci-fi film. Besides, we live in an advanced-technology day and age. Nothing like death would happen. Right? Unfortunately, it did.
Once, I sent more employees in to get the first one out, I heard a loud bomb go off. Then it was silent. Nobody on the outside moved. In my head, I heard, “I killed them. How could that have happened?” I was out of my “make a decision and move-forward mentality.” My guys were gone. Dead. And it was all my fault.
The good news? (Yes, there’s good news.) This was all an interactive training course. (Okay, y’all can breathe.) This course was designed to teach leaders how to lead. There were so many things I realized I missed in this gamification training, like not making assumptions, choosing the right employee based on their skill set, choosing the right employee based on their mindset, choosing the right support group and making sure everyone and everything was prepared with the right training. That bomb made me realize I took so many things about my leadership for granted. No wonder my real live team performance had been going around in circles all this time.
This was one of those moments I wished someone would have told me then what I know now. On that note, it is my pleasure and responsibility to share with you what I know now. In other words, let me make the mistake and share with you so you won’t make the same mistake in reality or in your own training. Below, I will share an interactive training (the one described above) and a book EVERY leader must engage in before taking on a leadership role. If you’ve already been delegated as a leader, it’s not too late. You should engage in this training and book assignment too.
The training described above is called Situational Leadership by Ken Blanchard. It is an interactive video series designed to help you see where each individual’s team involvement lies and how to help individuals develop. It guides you in ways to use the skill they have to help reach a goal. It was extremely fun and as you can tell, very enlightening.
In the book, The Servant: A Simple Story about the True Essence of Leadership by James C. Hunter, the corporate character actually went to a monastery to learn about leadership! This threw me for a loop, but when I finished the story, I understood why this was the ideal environment to learn about a new approach to effective leadership. This causes a person to view their role as a leaders in a brand new spiritual and mental way. I won’t give the story away, however, I will say, once I finished this book, I no longer wanted to be a leader. I wanted to be a servant-leader.
A good resource for more fantastic trainings and books are listed on my website. If you’ve read or engaged in any of these pieces, share your thoughts and experiences with everyone below. We’d love to hear your story too.
Hope Lenoir
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