In a session on creating a “Secret Sauce for Successful Leaders” my client team identified these ingredients: vision, communication, confidence, positive role modeling, reliability, trustworthiness and transparency with generous dashes of encouragement, motivation, appreciation, fun, coaching, caring and steadiness.
Potential Distractions
In our next exercise, “How to Avoid Burning Your Fingers”, the group identified the following potential distractions to implementing that Secret Sauce recipe:
- External market factors
- Loss of business
- Morale / Negativity
- Resistance
- Communication
- Safety or other incidents
- Talent
- Resource management
- Personal distractions
Celebrate Successes
Could you choose the perfect dessert for each member of your team without asking them what they want? Our last item on the menu for this session, “Why We Shouldn’t Skip Dessert,” explored the importance of celebrating successes in ways that motivate each individual. Here are some of the techniques that were mentioned:
- Listening
- Trust
- Positive reinforcement
- Support
- Involvement in decision-making
- Meaningful work
- Autonomy
- Training & development
- Career advancement
- Money
I invite you to create your own secret sauce for leadership recipe, develop a plan to put the lid on potentially painful distractions, and serve each of your team members a dessert that will motivate them to succeed in any kind of market environment.