Spring Training

I recently spent a great week (first with my boys and then with my cousins and college roommate) in Florida. This was our 12th year watching baseball, March Madness, sunsets on the beach and eating. Did I mention the eating part?

This year I saw seven baseball games in Clearwater, Bradenton and Orlando. That made for many miles in the car and endless traffic jams (probably due to all of the out-of-state drivers like us who blindly followed their GPS).

On one of the many drives, the four guys talked about leadership. Each of us has different backgrounds. One is a senior financial leader in a large corporation. One is a manager in the food services industry and the third is an executive in IT focusing on security. Oh, and then there is me. I now call myself an executive coach and I have seen my share of good and bad leaders.

I think I started the discussion saying that leaders set the culture. It is their job to provide vision, set values, inspire, motivate and encourage. Leaders should help others be better versions of them and to think globally.

I thought my statement was a pretty safe one. But it turned in a different direction. I opened a ‘can of worms’.

We then discussed everything from unions to politics to family-owned businesses, etc.

This was not the direction I thought this conversation would take!

I tried my best to ‘first seek to understand’ what everyone was saying. Some believed that different settings drive behavior. Some said that groups can be leaders, values can bubble up from the workforce and movements can develop and drive performance. Furthermore, one or two individuals do not expect their leaders to be role models. Good stuff and valid points.

But in the end of the day, I stood firmly on the belief that there are certain characteristics (my definitions) of good leaders and those leaders drive behaviors. Here is what I mentioned:

1. Empathy (The ability to step into another’s situation)

2. Humility (The ability to relate to all individuals without regard of position)

3. Vision (The ability to point a group toward something bigger and better)

4. Inspiration (The ability to lift up others)

5. Accountability (The ability to hold oneself and others to meet and exceed expectations)

There are many other characteristics but these five jumps right out at me.

I also believe that one in a leadership position assumes some unspoken responsibility.

Leaders must realize that their actions can impact the lives of others. Their actions are ‘under a microscope’ and often mirrored. Their decisions have social, economic and spiritual impact on individuals and families. And people look up to the leader for values and beliefs. Yes, to be a leader is a huge responsibility and honor.

When I look back on my career, I realize that I ‘built’ my management style. I picked and chose certain styles which I liked from a number of my superiors and peers. (I ignored areas that didn’t fit me or I didn’t like). I used trial and error to see what felt comfortable to me and how people responded.

But in the end, most of my management style came from my faith-based values.

Once I truly cared about my team as individuals, walked in their shoes, remembered that I wasn’t any more important than anyone else on the team, focused on doing the right thing and tried to be as open and transparent as possible, things just started to click. Success seemed to follow.

Going to get an MBA is a good thing. Working around a lot of Harvard grads will expand your thought process. And working for highly successful large corporations will help you grow. But I believe that at the end of the day, leading can really be reduced to something very simple and easy: just truly caring about your people.

Thanks for reading this and have a great weekend.

With a goal to “help the next one in line”, Glen Cavallo, a 30+ year healthcare executive has chosen to share the many lessons he has learned with others. Glen does this by serving as a coach/advisor to leaders at all levels of organizations, as a board member and as he presents inspirational speeches at regional, national, annual and awards meetings.