If your team or some of its members are struggling, could they be a reflection of you as a leader not being ‘on the ball’? There are a number of dimensions of this mirror, but in this blog let’s focus on just one aspect: leading through being generous with encouragement.

Most everyone at some point in their careers has worked for a leader that seemed to focus on being negative and critical. With this type of leader, even the best reports are met with grey furrowed brows and critical remarks, and encouragement is meted out sparingly, perhaps to insure that you do not get too overconfident. After the energy is fully drained out of the room you head back to your office knowing that a countdown clock to the next encounter has already begun. Blind to their negativity or believing that it is motivating, their feedback is about as pleasant as cleaning the gutters on your house or going to the dentist to get a root canal!

As I reflect on this, I can only look at my own leadership shortcomings in negativity. Leading your subordinates with negativity is not only a terrible way to wield your power as a leader, it is scientifically counterproductive. As we study this amazing thing we each have called a brain, more and more discoveries are being made in neuroscience that certain stimuli can have a profound effect on us. In this case, a negative style of leadership from an authority figure is toxic to performance. It is outside of the scope of my blog to lay out all the science, but Henry Cloud summarises it well…

When you encourage someone, it literally changes their brain chemistry to be able to perform… sends fuel to the brain.’

~ Henry Cloud

I’m a slow learner and a bit thick, but I began to sort of get this when I was a ship director. I implemented a practice where I would try to do a ‘walkabout’ around the vessel on a regular basis to hang out with the crew. When you do a walkabout you can learn lots of things… like you see things that could be improved and balls that might have been dropped. However, more important, you can get a sense of the mood and equilibrium of the crew. As I began to figure this out a bit, rather than first picking on things that could be improved, one of the most important and potent things I learned I could do is focus on calling out the good things I saw and being generous with encouragement. You could literally see body postures change, eyes light up and the pace of things pick up from doing this.

Later in my one-to-one direct report meetings where I would bring up issues that I saw on my walkabout, I would take time to remember something to give encouragement on first. Invariably if I was not on the ball and did not make this investment at the start, the meeting was almost always less productive. Don’t get me wrong. I am passionate about quality management. I love going through metrics, goals and performance targets as I believe in robust levels of accountability, but the pathway to getting there quickly is to be authentically generous with encouragement.

Through this, I began to learn one of the most powerful leadership lessons… do not let one single opportunity to celebrate and be encouraging slip by!

To illustrate the impact further, here’s how this leadership practice can play out in the fast pace of life on the deck plates…

Living and working on a ship you literally can pass hundreds of people every day and it is really hard at times to greet everyone. Years after we moved off of the ship, I saw a former crew member who told me a story of a time when it was quite clear I was in a hurry heading to some part of the ship, but I stopped to encourage her anyway. I honestly don’t remember the occasion and I doubt what I said was really that profound, but she remembered our encounter because it made such an impact on her. I was so pleased to see in the mirror through her story that I was on the ball that day. It is so easy to stop to give encouragement, yet it is sometimes so hard for me to do when I am lost in my own little leadership world of busyness with big goals and ‘important stuff’ to do!

‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’

~ Maya Angelou

So if your team or some of its members are struggling, maybe the first thing to consider is that they might be a mirror to you. Am I leading by being generous with encouragement? Have I slipped into negativity and being critical? Encouragement is not only good neuroscience that boosts performance, it is life-giving!

‘If I can put one touch of a rosy sunset into the life of a man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.’

~ G.K. Chesterton

I think I am going to go spend some time looking in the mirror after publishing this blog! Mirror, mirror, on the wall… is this leader on the ball?