Bridge Building Leadership Model

A strong bridge relies on many different factors, one of the most important strengths of any bridge is the foundation. The Bridge Building Leadership model is no different. The trust a Leader builds with each person in the organization is the foundation of a bridge where leaders and their teams travel back and forth overcoming any challenges they may face.

As a Leader, simplifying things and getting work done through your teams is critical. The “Bridge Building Leadership Model” focuses on 6 key areas to Simply Advance your Leadership qualities while fostering self directed teams built on a foundation of trust!

Building Relationships

The key to success for any Leader is developing a strong, positive relationship with his/her team.

Respect for yourself and others

Respect, give and take, treat others how you like to be treated.  Be honest and true to yourself.

Inspiration   

Inspire and motivate the people you lead, give them a purpose for what they do.

Drive and Determination

Set goals/targets, support and push respectfully for your team to achieve, hold each other accountable.

Gratitude and Attitude  

Think like a victor and not a victim.  Lead by example, be sincere and authentic always.

Emotional Intelligence

Self-Awareness, know your own state of emotions as well as others.

Want to assess the strength of your bridge?

Contact me to learn how we can help.

Alignment

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Nothing guarantees failure more than a lack of alignment in a Leadership Team. Here are some simple ways to check for good alignment.

• Collaboration: Look for signs of working together. Jointly owned, consistent results that are matched with the organization and team values.

• Transparency: An aligned team will have nothing to hide. Everything that matters is brought to the table. It will be about what went wrong rather than who went wrong.

• Accountability: Each member of the team will hold personal accountability in the highest regard. Conversely, they will also hold one another accountable to ensure the right decisions are made for the people and the good of the organization.

• Integrity: Each leader on the team will practice what they preach. It's as simple as that! Follow up and follow-through consistently.

Gaining alignment takes time, patience and a lot of follow up. Good alignment builds one of the most important things in any organization...trust.

Is your Leadership Team aligned?

If you need help with your team check out some of the leadership development and coaching services I offer. Contact me to learn more.

If You're Green You'll Grow, If You're Ripe You'll Rot...

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We all have experiences that affect us in many different ways. Some very good, and others very challenging, but both have their place and both have an impact that we can learn from. I wanted to share an interaction I experienced earlier this summer that left me with a very deep and positive impression that there are still so many good people in the world. And hopefully, it will influence you to do something nice for someone else!

It was a Saturday morning, my son and I were at Tim Hortons in line for coffee and some breakfast. My son Nathan is autistic and he loves his coffee and breakfast sandwiches from Timmies! He has limited speech and usually repeats what others say and when he knows coffee and breakfast is on the way he is super excited! Ahead of us were two ladies waiting in line, one turned around and said to Nathan, "what's your name" and Nathan repeated, "what's your name", with a big smile and a laugh. I mentioned to the lady about Nathan being autistic and how he loves his coffee and that started the conversation flowing. The line ahead was big, and the wait was long, so this was a perfect time for us to chat and get to know one another.

When the time came for the two ladies to place their orders, the one lady turned around and said, “You and Nathan go ahead of us and I would like to buy. No limit, you let Nathan get whatever he desires”. I was dumbfounded, I had just met this person in line, and we had chatted for a short time period. Of course, I said no we couldn't accept this, and we truly appreciated the offer.

Then she said words I will never forget, "I can tell that you are a loving father and a great person and Nathan is a very special boy who has brought so much joy into your life. I really want to do this, so please let me". I was speechless, and emotional, and graciously accepted the offer.

This experience made me think about people who care and still see the importance of being grateful and doing nice things for others. But it also made me realize that you get back in return what you give out.

First impressions, building relationships, taking the time to have a meaningful conversation with strangers all play such an important part in this chaotic, crazy world we live in. I hope this inspires you to do something nice for someone else. I also hope it makes you think about the energy you give out every day and if that energy is leaving behind a positive impact on others. It's your choice on the impression you choose to leave.

If you’re green you'll grow, if you're ripe you'll rot. Never ever stop learning, growing or giving. Oh yeah, the breakfast order came to a whopping $26.00! Nathan fully understood the lady when she said, “No limit, you let Nathan get whatever he desires".

Who's your Runner?

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Ask yourself this question. If you were to line up every leader that reported to you, would everyone of them measure up the same? Basically repeating the same routine day after day, following the same path and conforming to what they have been instructed to do. If you answered yes, then it's time to find and develop "your runner"!

The runner will be the leader who stands out from all the others. This leader is passionate and motivated to challenge the status quo, they think differently. This leader knows the value of healthy conflict. They know without tension you have no friction and without friction you have no movement. The runner is the one who is out-front of all the other leaders. This leader has drive and commitment always striving to make things better! Once you find your runner your job is to promote and grow the great things this leader has to offer.

People are all different and that's what makes our world so interesting. Your runners will also be different as they will vary in personalities and offer different skill sets. This is what any good leader wants. The one thing that all runners have in common, is their attitude! They have a passion and willingness to partner with their teams and make your organization a better place.

Some key things to look for in a runner. They present themselves as optimistic while understanding the importance of being realistic, they promote vision and clarity. They embrace healthy conflict, they know good decisions come from respectful debate. Their energy is always positive, people want to be around this person because it feels good. They respectfully push people to fail faster, knowing that failure is an opportunity to learn and improve and recognize that fault finding is easy and promotes negativity.

Don't wait, start looking for your runner today. And when you find this person don't get in their way, support and unleash them! And watch the others try to catch them!

How Strong is your Bridge?

Does your Bridge look like this?

Leadership and teams need to be aligned in a partnership that enables them to build bridges to cross whatever difficult paths they may travel.

Image by Margit Wallner from Pixabay

Today’s world is moving faster than it ever has, and that’s not changing anytime soon! What’s within your control is how you deal with the speed of change and how you manage the outcome. The help of a highly engaged and motivated team can make all the difference. The key to building that team is creating a trusting environment.

Alignment, vision, expectations, goals and accountability are all things that any good leader strives for when leading people, however most teams fail in achieving many of these or have difficulty sustaining a cohesive environment. Why is that? When you think about leadership and the amount of responsibility put on someone who is accountable for a group of people it can become overwhelming and at times, extremely stressful. But it doesn’t have to be this way, in fact, leadership can be the exact opposite and it all boils down to the one thing - the level of trust between the leader and the people they are leading. Many of us spend our days in a leadership position mainly trying to serve the needs of our boss, forgetting that we should be serving the needs of our teams.

Trust is a value that cannot be instructed, it must be earned. Trust is developed when two people build a relationship. When a relationship starts to flourish in a very positive way, trust is being established. This is the same within the workplace, where it’s important to recognize that the responsibility to create this trust lies with the leader. It's the leader who sets the tone and is responsible to foster and grow a trusting environment. I view leadership and teams as an aligned partnership that enables them to build bridges to cross whatever difficult paths they may travel. When the trust is strong, those bridges cannot be broken no matter the size of the challenge they are dealt.

Too often these bridges can be destroyed by a push to increase the bottom line at any cost. This type of thinking fosters individualistic needs and the teams and leaders go into survival mode. When you enter into this atmosphere of self-preservation, it inherently weakens the organization…your bridge has crumbled and the foundation that carries leadership and teams in a common direction has been destroyed. However, it’s not to say a bridge can't be rebuilt or repaired if you recognize the problem early enough. This responsibility solely lies with highest level of leadership in the organization. These leaders must have enough courage to recognize and admit that the bridge has been destroyed and create the vision for what lies ahead after trust is rebuilt.

The job of the leader is to create a safe environment in which people are motivated and inspired to look after one another. This can only be done when the leader of the organization sets the vision, then follows and supports the team day in and day out. What does your bridge look like? Is the foundation of trust rock solid, allowing your teams and leadership to travel freely and take on insurmountable challenges? Or is your foundation of trust destroyed and it is now time to construct a new and stronger bridge that will carry your teams and leaders for many years to come. Don’t wait too long, in today’s world you will quickly get left behind.