Your leadership behaviors impact staff development and employee performance. Let me illustrate with this example from the world of grade school education. A pool of students, who all tested the same academically, were divided between two teachers. Each teacher heard a different backstory. One teacher learned that his students were the cream of the crop, the ones with the highest potential. The other teacher heard that his students were from the bottom of the barrel, the ones with no potential. Because of that, the teachers behaved differently toward their students.
At the end of the school year, the students were all tested again. You can guess how the results turned out. The students who were expected to excel did so. But the students with the teacher who thought they were idiots scored poorly. Yet all the students had scored equally before this little experiment.
Your leadership behaviors actually manifest themselves in staff performance!
What does that tell you about how your leadership behaviors influence staff development? Your perception matters. Your opinion of them actually manifests itself in their performance! If you want better results with people, assume they have great potential and behave that way:
- Treat people like you expect excellence because you know they have it in them.
- Never indicate that you don’t or didn’t expect much out of employees.
- When they make a mistake, assure them you know they can do better, not that you knew they’d blow it.
- Find ways to build people up, not knock them down.
It works for leading yourself, too. You’ll be more successful with others if you assume you’ll be successful with others! Potential – it’s all in your head. You haven’t peaked yet!