Leaders Eat Last

For most of us, we have warmer feelings for the projects we worked on where everything seemed to go wrong. We remember how the group stayed at work until 3 a.m., ate cold pizza and barely made the deadline. Those are the experiences we remember as some of our best days at work. It was not because of the hardship, per se, but because the hardship was shared.

If the leaders of organizations give their people something to believe in, if they offer their people a challenge that outsizes their resources but not their intellect, the people will give everything they’ve got to solve the problem.

Though it may take small steps to make a big leap, it is the vision of the big leap and not the action of the small steps that inspires us. And only after we have committed ourselves to that vision can we look back at our lives and say to ourselves that the work we did mattered.

Everything about being a leader is like being a parent. It is about committing to the well-being of those in our care and having a willingness to make sacrifices to see their interests advanced so that they may carry our banner long after we are gone.

Let us all be the leaders we wish we had.

For those who stamp their feet and say that Millennials have to take all the responsibility and have to shut up and do their work, I would like to submit that such a strategy won’t help the company grow for very long. True, Millennials share some of the burden to do the heavy lifting to overcome some of the challenges they may face. But companies can and must adjust their strategies and philosophies to keep up with the times, too.

Keep Conference Rooms Free of Cell Phones

Encourage Notetaking on Paper Instead of Computers

Teach How to Give and Receive Feedback

Each person must first read their weaknesses. Then anyone who wants to can add to or comment on that list. At this time, the person sharing their list may not speak. They are prohibited from defending themselves or offering excuses. Their job is to listen.

Each person must first read their weaknesses. Then anyone who wants to can add to or comment on that list. At this time, the person sharing their list may not speak. They are prohibited from defending themselves or offering excuses. Their job is to listen. Immediately after, the person reads their strengths. And again, anyone else can add to or comment on the list. Again, the person being reviewed may only listen. At most, we allow clarifying questions. Someone takes responsibility to run the meeting to ensure that anything outside these parameters is quickly shut down. It is an amazing experience. The most junior person on my team had the opportunity to tell me how I let her down and how I make her feel when I say or do certain things. It was completely eye-opening for me and it was empowering for her to feel heard. We don’t use this process as part of our formal evaluations but rather as a growth tool. We are all also members of smaller coaching pods that meet for an hour once a week or once every other week throughout the year to help each other build on what we learned in the review session.

Each person must first read their weaknesses. Then anyone who wants to can add to or comment on that list. At this time, the person sharing their list may not speak. They are prohibited from defending themselves or offering excuses. Their job is to listen. Immediately after, the person reads their strengths. And again, anyone else can add to or comment on the list. Again, the person being reviewed may only listen. At most, we allow clarifying questions. Someone takes responsibility to run the meeting to ensure that anything outside these parameters is quickly shut down.

Instead of complaining that Millennials aren’t showing up or aren’t engaged, use them as a barometer of how you are doing as a leader or to gauge the kind of culture the company is building.

Mentor and support them (acknowledging that sometimes they may not have the courage to ask for it). A true mentor is never too busy to mentor.

Lead by example. Leaders in companies can be better role models than the athletes and movie stars

Give them the opportunity to fall.

if they screw up we say, “good fall, now try it again.”

Offer more opportunities to develop “human” skills.

Think about how you would want another leader

Think about how you would want another leader to treat your children.