By Tom Borg
April 11, 2013
When it comes to leading your team and getting the kind of results that positively affect your bottom line, being a transformational leader is critical. Two of the forms of leadership many business owners and managers use are:
- Transactional Leader -focuses on tasks
- Transformational Leader - focuses on improving the lives of those he or she leads.
As Dr. Nido Quiben says, “While we all need to be a transactional leader at times, it is being a transformational leader that gets the best results.” Being a transformational leader means you focus on the individual you are leading or managing. Being this kind of a leader means you must be able to influence the beliefs of a team member. To do this you must understand him or her. Once you do that, you are in a position to do what it takes to inspire a better belief system within that individual. What this means is taking a sincere interest in each person on your team. Do you really know your people? Do you know what motivates them to stay with your company and do their job to the best of their ability? In a recent study, there were five reasons identified as to why people will leave a job. Here they are in the order of importance:
- They don’t feel good about what they do. In other words, they either don’t believe in the product or service the company offers, or they don’t feel they are making a meaningful contribution to world. They feel it is just a job and nothing more.
- The next reason people will leave a job is because they don’t feel important. They look at themselves as just a cog in the wheel. They perceive that what they do at their place of employment really doesn’t matter. Dr. Marshall Goldsmith reinforces this concept with his belief that “as leaders, we need to do less criticizing and look for ways to do more praising of our team members performance.” As I have always said “praise pays.”
- The third motive is they don’t feel they are growing. Like the saying goes, “When you are green you grow and when you’re ripe you rot.” At the point of departure from their company, they are feeling like they are going nowhere with the position they are working in and they want out.
- The next cause for people to leave to a job is because they don’t get the support they need. When requests are made for better equipment or tools to do their job, they are told things like: there is no money in the budget; it is not a priority, or given some other lame excuse. I know of one engineer who wanted to take some additional company paid training that would increase his skill sets and allow him to do his job even more effectively. When he inquired about being allowed to take this training to help him increase his value to his company, he was told he should already have those skills, and if he felt he still needed to acquire them, he should refer to the (outdated) online tutorials. He is now seeking employment elsewhere.
- The final reason for a member of your team to leave is they don’t feel they are getting paid enough. Are you surprised this is last on the list? You shouldn’t be. It has been this way since the beginning of people being paid to do a job. This doesn’t mean that there will not be people who use that as the only reason for parting ways with your company, but for the most part, it is the factor that is usually of lesser importance than those mentioned above.
So, in order to lead your company and to produce the profitable results you are seeking, make it a priority to understand your people. Be a transactional leader. But more importantly, be a transformational leader. Doing so will build your people, and in turn they will build a successful company.
Tom Borg is a marketing, sales and customer service expert; professional speaker and popular Small Business Association of Michigan radio show guest. To reach Borg, call (734) 404-5909 or visit www.tomborgconsulting.com.
