XLR8 The Passionate Leader: (G + L + F = JOY!!!)

Weekly Inspiration: You Can Do It! (click) Affirmation by Louise Hay from her 2010 calendar:

• “Life is simple. What I give out comes back to me.”
• At our kick-off Leadership Retreat for the XLR8 YOU!! Leadership Excellence process, we read a book summary: Napoleon Hill’s Golden Rules – The Lost Writings. He was most known for his book: Think and Grow Rich, which was one of the first audio-book sets I purchased. He is the first and foremost motivational author of all time, whose books have sold over 60 million copies worldwide.
• He interviewed hundreds of successful people in the early years of the twentieth century to distill the rules of success that still apply today. One was that Law of Reciprocation will cause people to treat you as well, or as poorly, as you treat them. We are all trying to get people to do what we wish them to do. If you want them to dislike you, you can treat them badly. If you want their respect, their friendship and their cooperation, you can extend them your own respect, friendship and cooperation.

The Law of Reciprocation & The Leadership Challenge:

In The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner, Model the Way is the first leadership dimension addressed. If you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe the message. So this begs the question, who do the people who report to you think is the most important leader in your organization? YOU!!! When asked, people would like to work in an average organization with a great boss, rather than in a great organization with a lousy boss ~ unless, of course, they can transfer out!

You are more likely than any other leader to influence whether people will stay, perform at their best, wow customers, or be motivated to share the organization’s vision and values. Lots of evidence supports this claim.

1. According to Kouzes and Posner, longitudinal studies of corporate executives reveal that the single best predictor of career success is the relationship they had with their very first supervisor. The character and quality of that relationship – for example, the expectations that your first supervisor had about your work potential – are more important than where you went to school, what grades you got, what your studied, who your parents were, what field or industry you were in, and the like.

2. When asked what contributes to the ethical behavior in your organization, the most frequent response from employees – managers and individual contributors at every level – is “the behavior of the boss.” When asked what contributes most to the unethical behavior in your organization, the most frequent response is identical – “the behavior of my boss.”

So, if you are not getting what you want from your employees, first look in the mirror. They are just giving you what they are getting! The Law of Reciprocation never lies.