Leadership: Look at yourself first when things go wrong

Today, no matter how good you are as a leader, no individual can produce results in an organizational environment but teams. To get the best out of people, look at what you do with people who produce results, and how to improve what does not work.

You can take responsibility, or you can blame others and lose all control. The right thing to do and the hard thing to do are usually the same. When things go wrong, accept the responsibility for your driving and keep your hands on the wheel.

When results are below expectations, resist the inner urge to blame others. Instead, recognize your part of the results they produced. This could include things you did not do or did not do well enough to achieve the desired results. Imagine alternate approaches that might work better next time.

For example, a colleague does not seem to listen to your comments. On reflection, you realize that you told them only what you wanted, not how they should go about doing it.What do you have to let go of? Who do you need to forgive? Who do you have to stop blaming?

The only way to assure you'll do better next time is by making no excuses today. Often the only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself about why you can't achieve it.

The differences between people are much bigger than the apparent differences which you notice easily. Creating an organizational culture with a common vision, strategy, practices, values and ethics should take precedence over individual culture.

Big barrier

This is the biggest challenge business leaders face today with widening cultural gaps due to emerging sub-cultures that are complex in nature. Real world versus your own - three positions you need to understand.

People often talk about the 'real world' and forget that each one of us lives in our own world. Learn to see situations from other people's view point. You should typically have three positions to base your decision;

1) Your own, 2) other's and 3) neutral or impartial observer position. The third position is essentially, an outsider's view. This will help form a well-balanced perspective to base upon the best decision possible.

When you are faced with a difficulty, explore all three positions. Two people with different mental models can find it hard to communicate, and this can be damaging in business. Learn to recognize different patterns of behaviour in your team members, and work with these differences to maximize performance.

Try to differentiate between people with different personalities in your own team. Improve performance by ensuring that people's characteristics fit their job scope. Make sure people's natural personality preferences are well-matched to the tasks they perform.