Project Management Articles
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Why Don't They Follow Me?
12 Easy Lessons to Boost Your Leadership Skills
Lesson #1 -
Humor - Credibility = Doofus
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 leader—he 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 didn’t 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.
Betty’s counsel hit Ed right between the eyes:
“Ed, you’re a great guy and people really like you, but I
just don’t know if you’ve got what it takes to lead this group.
The team is concerned which makes me concerned.” While Ed’s
focus on using humor to connect with the team was great, he didn’t
take the time to establish the necessary credibility with them.
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Any one of us can think about an influential figure we’ve 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 won’t 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 you’ve 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 “We’ve got problems and I’m not sure what to do!” I’d 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 doesn’t 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 (we’ll talk more about this in lesson #2). Demonstrating a clear understanding 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.
-
Don’t be so gun-shy of using humor that you are viewed as a stick-in-the-mud – Being cautious about using humor shouldn’t give you a reputation as stern, mean, or stoic. By all means, be pleasant, approachable, and engaged in your interaction. The team will find it easier to talk to you and will get a more comfortable feeling that you understand their problems.
-
Use a bit of self-deprecating humor – I use this technique a lot particularly when I am doing presentations. I will frequently tell of a situation where I did something really foolish or where I publicly embarrassed myself in front of a group of people. This demonstrates that you’re secure enough with your own abilities to share them with other people. It also shows that you are able to laugh at yourself and not take yourself too seriously. One note of caution here: don’t be self-deprecating to a point that the team sees you as having a self-esteem issue.
-
Avoid humor which tarnishes the credibility of others – Using humor which trashes other people or competitors creates problems in a couple of ways for you as a leader. The first has to do with the trustworthiness of the leader. While team members may see destructive jokes as funny, they can develop a viewpoint of “so what does this person say about me when I’m not in the room?” The second has to do with the questionability of your motivations. When you trash talk others for a laugh, you can be viewed as attempting to build your credibility at the expense of someone else through your own insight and wit. For credibility to be well entrenched in the team it needs to be absolute, not relative. Otherwise, you’re only demonstrating that you are worthy to lead a team until someone better or smarter comes along. Not a good foundation to establish credibility.
Graduating
with honors:
Look, none of us wants to follow a leader with all the personality
of cottage cheese.
Having a leader who is able to share an occasional joke and laugh
with a team is huge in moving a team from
acceptance to
inspiration.
Just ensure that you as a leader take the first step to
establish credibility with the team and garner their trust in you
before you get too liberal with the funny stuff.
To help you boost your leadership skills download the free Self-Assessment Guide which helps you figure out which take-aways need focus and helps you construct an action plan to boost those leadership skills.
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100+ Copies - 25% off - $8.96 each
Get a personalized signed copy $14.95
Download the free Self-Assessment Study Guide to use with the book
Want to make 20% commission selling the book on your website? Join my affiliate program.
Buy on Amazon.com $11.95
Have a Kindle? Get the Kindle version
Order direct and save-plus free shipping!
10-19 Copies - 10% off - $10.75 each
20-49 Copies - 15% off - $10.16 each
50-99 Copies - 20% off - $9.56 each
100+ Copies - 25% off - $8.96 each
Get a personalized signed copy $14.95
Download the free Self-Assessment Study Guide to use with the book
Want to make 20% commission selling the book on your website? Join my affiliate program.