John Graci - Leaders Are Made, Not Born!: What Your Employees Always Wanted to Tell You, But Never Do!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

With admiration and respect, for Ross Reishus (12/23/19389/21/2017 ), my friend and mentor. His ability to weave a story and command an audience inspired and paved the way for me to continue his passion for real-life, common-sense management training and speaking. Without his support and encouragement, I would not have had the courage to excel as a leader.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leaders arent born... they are made. When a baby is born, people do not say, A leader is born! They say, Its a girl! or Its a boy!

I have been called the Professor of Common Sense for a reason. I firmly believe that my frank talk and unvarnished truth-telling leads to greater profits. I give leaders permission to focus on maximizing their teams performance, without the academic wackiness and theories.

A business opens its doors to provide a product or service that meets a demand at a profit. Yet, you sit through some seminars and training classes these days and presenters discuss the importance of gaining a deeper understanding of each other. Sounds like they are running a day-care center. Whats interesting is, often the word profit is never spoken, or if it is, it may come across as a dirty word.

Leadership is an intervention. If a leader sees something he likes or dislikes , he must say something to truly be a leader! Being unclear with people on how they are doing is being unkind to people. If you are not coaching when you see unproductive behavior and performance, you are allowing these behaviors to attack your bottom line. Leaders have an obligation to help underachievers meet expectations and become profitable on behalf of the people who are profitable.

As a battled-scarred veteran, who is real and delivers advice from bloodied-nose experience and not ivory-tower theory, I pour myself into every presentation or training session. I give everything I have because I know an engaged mind is a learning mind. I enjoy teaching. I enjoy seeing the light bulb go off above someones head! I enjoy persuading people to do things differently in order to make their lives easier.

As a frequently requested presenter and trainer for 20+ years , I have been speaking to audiences ranging from entry-level team members to all levels of management about topics that promote leadership, encourage communication, motivate teams, and inspire groups.

Dont forget! Leadership is an intervention. It takes courage to be a leader!

INTRODUCTION

For the last 20+ years , I have read plenty of books on leadership, supervision, and management. There are some good ones out there! With that being said, often, when reading a book that was filled with theory and inspirational stories, I would ask myself, How do I apply this fluff to the real world? This book is intended to be easy reading and is organized with short bursts of straightforward information and very simple things to do. Because these ideas rest in human nature, they have stood the test of time and will work with all generations in the workplace. The methods and concepts I present have been successful for the thousands of leaders I have had the privilege of working with in all sectors of business.

Many leaders have been promoted because they were good at doing their job. To be brutally honest, many got promoted because they were somebodys friend or niece. If a leader has not been trained properly, the company often will lose a good worker bee and gain a bad leader. It is my belief that many leaders are well intentionedthey know what needs to be done but they just dont know how to do it. They dont know what they dont know.

Management has many resources they rely on to get the job done. Machinery, methods, materials, money, and employees. Employees are by far and away managements most vital resource. Case in point: if all the leaders of an organization attend a training session off-site, how much of the work actually gets done? If all the employees make a choice not to show up one day, how much of the work gets done?

Every day, employees hear managements battle cry. They ask for quality work. They ask, Why don t you cooperate? Why arent you loyal? Why don t you produce? and so on.

If employees had a battle cry, it would be quite simple: Why dont you treat me like a human being and not like a pair of hands and a back?

All motivation is self-motivation. Employees make their own choices to work faster, harder, smarter, and show up each and every day. Leaders, your job is to activate the want to work in all your employees. The secret to influencing the want to work does not rest in an employees hands or back, it rests in treating the employee with dignity and respect. A leader can stare at an employee all day long, but when the leader walks away, how is the want to work influenced in an employee?

Employees have no problem being supervised. In fact, they know a leader needs to rule with an iron fist from time to time. The employees just want you to put a glove on that iron fist. You see, its not what you are doing, its how you are doing it that they love to discuss in the breakroom.

This book is about many of the worst mistakes that can get you into trouble, but no one has told you directly what those are. Most employees do not know all there is to know about management, but they know when you are off key or out of tune. Just because employees never took a management class does not mean they cannot spot a boss who is practicing management without a license.

The following pages discuss several management techniques that are broken down, simple, yet very effective. The root concepts come from the standpoint that employees want to be treated with dignity and respect, the same way you would like to be treated.

TREAT US WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT

• Your resume does not impress me! Employees don t care how many letters you have behind your name. They dont care where you went to college. They dont care if you obtained a masters or a Ph.D. They dont care if you have worked for the company for 20 years. Employees dont care how much you know until they know how much you care about them!
• We are not personnel, we are people! Employees are more than just a pair of hands and a back. The ability to get them to want to work does not rest in their hands, but in their hearts and minds. Why would they give a leader their best work if you dont like them? Anybody with an IQ higher than a head of lettuce knows that no one will want to work faster, harder, and smarter for a leader with that kind of attitude toward them.
• Get to know me on my first day of work! It only takes a minute or two. An employee and leader are on the same team, but they both have different jobs. If a leader helps an employee succeed, they will succeed. But, if a leader treats an employee like a widgetin other words, big me and little youmost likely the employee will not want to work.
• Take an interest in us! Developing a relationship with reporting employees is a key factor in managing. You dont want to be your employees divorce counselor or therapist, but you do want to know whats happening in their lives. Take an interest in where the employee is going on vacation or that his kids play soccer . By doing so you are taking a healthy interest in your employees lives. Knowing that their cat died, expressing sympathy for the loss of a loved one, makes you an interested, involved boss. If you dont have time to do it every day, then start delegating more so you can do your job. Leaders, one way to be seen as an interesting person is to be interested in others .