Lonnie Pacelli - I Need to Lead: Leadership Made Simple for Todays New Leader

Graduating with honors - This section gives you a summary of the leadership lesson and gives final tips on how to avoid screw-ups of your own.

Youll quickly grasp the leadership principles in I Need to Lead! and take away a couple of nuggets to help you put new tools in your leadership toolbox and improve your skills as a leader. To help you in this journey go to ineedtolead.com for a vast library of leadership resources to help you boost those leadership skills.

Ed was just appointed team leader in a public works organization of the federal government. In preparing for his first meeting with his new team, Ed thought long and hard about some of his prior managers leadership styles. One characteristic he particularly admired in several of his managers was the ability to connect with the team through humor. He decided on a strategy that would help the team accept him as a leaderhe would show his human side and use humor to connect with them.

Ed had his first meeting with the team and was very satisfied with the results. The team seemed to really like him. The meeting was filled with laughter and both the team and Ed seemed to really be enjoying themselves. Ed was very happy and believed things were getting off to a great start.

With each passing meeting, though, there seemed to be a growing concern among the team. While Ed seemed to connect with the team, he didnt see the cooperation on getting things done as he had hoped. There were also a couple of team members who asked for permission to interview for positions outside of the group. Ed was growing concerned over the trend and asked Betty, one of the team members, what she thought was the problem. Bettys counsel hit Ed right between the eyes: Ed, youre a great guy and people really like you, but I just dont know if youve got what it takes to lead this group. The team is concerned which makes me concerned. While Eds focus on using humor to connect with the team was great, he didnt take the time to establish the necessary credibility with them.

Learning the Lesson:

Any one of us can think about an influential figure weve had in our lives, whether a parent, boss, or religious leader, who used humor to build camaraderie and inspire people. Leaders who have a sense of humor motivate those around him to want to participate in the journey. The problem arises, though, when a leader tries to connect with a team of people prior to establishing himself as worthy of being followed. If a leader fails to establish his worthiness by gaining credibility with the team, the team may only stick with the leader when things are going well and there are no problems on the horizon. The moment that problems start cropping up, team members will be more apt to defect because they wont have faith in the leader to navigate the storm. Credibility breeds acceptance, humor fosters inspiration.

So why is the failure to establish credibility such a massive issue? Here are the biggies:

Team members need to trust that the leader can get from origin to destination Being a leader means knowing the plan and leading the team down the field. The leader not only needs to know the plan and how to execute, she needs to communicate the plan to the team and ensure the team understands and believes in the plan.

Team members need to feel secure that the leader will navigate well through stormy issues Think of an airline flight youve been on where some unexpected turbulence hit. While the plane is rocking and rolling, the pilot speaks to the passengers with incredible calmness and control. His job is to make you feel that things are well in hand. Imagine if turbulence hit and you heard the pilot say Weve got problems and Im not sure what to do! Id be heading to the cockpit to fly the bird myself (and I can barely fly a kite never mind a plane!) Having credibility with the team gives the team greater security that the leader will get them through sticky issues.

Use of humor by a credibility-starved leader will exacerbate the credibility issue When leaders continually use humor as a means to connect with a team without establishing credibility up-front, the use of humor itself becomes a credibility inhibitor. Teams will tend to see the use of humor as the leader trying to cover up the fact that he may not know what he is doing. Thus, each time the credibility-starved leader cracks a joke, he is actually reinforcing this lack of credibility issue with the team. Rather than seizing the opportunity to gain credibility, the leader uses it to brush up on his lounge act.

Adding it up:

Appropriate use of humor is a great means to inspire a team to perform, so long as the credibility has already been established. Use the following tips to help you get over the credibility hump:

Start with listening Gaining credibility doesnt mean you have all the answers before you understand the questions. In fact, not taking the time to listen can actually hurt your credibility campaign and brand you as arrogant. Demonstrating a clear under-standing of team concerns and issues is a great credibility builder in that the team learns to trust you as a leader.

Use humor sparingly up front The team first and foremost wants to know why they should be following you. Use those initial opportunities with the team to connect through understanding the issues they are facing and gaining an understanding of the most important things for you as a leader to focus on. As you build the credibility, feel free to introduce more humor to move the team from accepting you to being inspired to follow you.