What It Means To Be A Leader

What were your victories over the last 90 days I asked? 

I followed up my question saying, "since it's the end of the year, sprinkle in your yearly victories as well."

As the CEO and leader of our sales team, I got emotional when I heard the team talk.

As each person was talking about their victories, I couldn't help but look at my wins.

Half of the victories I wrote down, someone had on their list of victories as well. 

Their victories were my victories. 

It's A Leaders Responsibility To Make Their Team Victorious

As a leader, our goals aren't separate from that of our teams. For us to win, our teams must win. 

The test of great leadership is when all of your victories are led by someone else. 

You had your part, just like a coach in a championship game, but the players are the ones who scored.

It's a great feeling to get to this point, but it's not easy. 

There's a lot of things that can happen to pull teams off course. 

Here are a few ways to combat that.

Culture Is King

I had some people on my team who loved to gossip and complain. They loved to say one thing to a person's face, and then another to someone else.

They played the victim card to everyone.

I failed as a leader to allow these people to stay on my team for longer than they should have.

They were given too much flexibility. 

Once these team members left the team, our results soared.

We exceeded the prior year's results and created a much stronger culture. 

Long term team members commented how great our culture is and new team members remarked, they've never worked in a place like this, and they're incredibly thankful. 

I just had to decide to protect our culture, and when I did, productivity went up, and the team didn't dread the office, having to listen to toxic people bicker and complain. 

If people hate to be at work, nothing will move forward. 

There has to be a vision, mission, and values worth fighting for. 

Accountability Must Flow Through Your Veins

When we're not accountable for the results were hired to achieve, we've failed. 

Everyone must understand this.

We're not on the field to watch the other team score on us. We have a mission to accomplish.

Everyone must be accountable for their results. 

If they deflect, make excuses, don't take them seriously, or don't want to put in a little extra effort, a serious coaching conversation is necessary, or they're on the wrong team. 

Keeping teams accountable is more than a job description. 

It's a process of having high-level focus and ground-level execution. 

Over the years, I've tried different ways to keep our strategic mission in front of everything we do.

The strategic plan doesn't get executed on if there aren't quarterly objectives & key results (OKRs) to pursue, lead measure KPIs to show progress, and frequent accountability checks.

We have a company Playbook we use that explains our vision, mission, values, and top objectives.

Each person has quarterly Objectives and Key Results to help move our Playbook forward. 

With that, each person has a scorecard. It details out the KPIs they need to achieve in their role and the clear expectations.

Finally, we tie these OKRs and KPIs into weekly and daily priorities, which we discuss in weekly team meetings and daily team huddles. 

Accountability flows everywhere.

You can see and feel the team members who aren't mentally on the same team. 

When people on your team are victorious, leaders are victorious. Leaders help make their team members win.