There are three words dealing with leadership that when used together, can lead to an enormous change in your effectiveness as a Leader. These three words are “Control, Connection and Challenge”.
These are words that are often thrown around when you hear people talking about leadership, but not many people address them in the way that I’d like to. I’d like to address these head on and explain the importance of them to you.
The first ‘C’ represents Control…
Control is one of the first things that you must share with anyone who you are leading. But what is control?
Control means the ability for any and every person to make his or her own decisions.
As a leader, you need to make sure that everyone knows that it is their decision on whether they are going to grow with you as a person/team or if they are to leave your team.
Say for example, you are leading a team in Corporate America doing finance work for a company. Some of your employees may or may not want to do this for their whole life.
As a leader, you need to make sure that they get their work done but also let these people know that if they are truly unhappy with their job, that they need to start taking the time to develop another skill set to pursue after leaving this job. They are in control of their time, but you need to make sure that while they are working with you, they must finish the tasks essential to the success of the team. In their free time they need to be developing their own skill-sets so that they can pursue a different career.
The next ‘C’ represents Connection…
Connections are vital if you are to have a successful business. Leaders need to establish a connection with every one of their employees as well as every one of their potential clients. The connections that you share with your teammates are so important that you can’t help but take the time to develop these relationships.
By holding meetings and learning about the goals of your team, you further develop your connection with each individual. This allows for you to put each person in control of his or her own decisions as well as find out what will challenge each person. As well as holding meetings, I recommend you share some time outside of work together, maybe head to a happy hour one Friday or head to the golf course and play a round. This further develops your relationships.
Which leads into the final ‘C’…
(Other types of connections that you must develop as a leader are the offline relationships that you develop through networking events. These are essential as they help you identify the needs of your clients and these events often lead to referrals to your business. )
The last ‘C’ represents Challenge…
Challenge is essential to teams. Think about something that has challenged you. Sports were always a major challenge in my life and provided me with enough reason to strive to be the best. Now, I am challenging myself with a 90-day challenge using the P90X workout program as well as a business challenge in which I take an hour out of every day and devote it to reading or creating valuable content.
Without challenges, people get bored and end up wanting to quit. You need to constantly challenge your team members or else you will manifest no creativity or progression within your team. Challenges can range from individual challenges to huge challenges like becoming a world leader in your niche.
As a leader, you need to find ways to challenge each person you are working with as well as an overall challenge for your team and your own personal challenges. This will lead to some amazing breakthroughs in your business and I highly urge you learn to challenge your team as well as yourself.
Take the time to learn and master these C’s and you will be on your way to greatness!
What questions and experiences do you have dealing with leadership?
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