166: #LeaderSHIFT from Enough to Excellence

We’re continuing with the #LeaderSHIFT series on the podcast this week. These episodes are very direct & to the point, where we'll talk about the different challenges leaders tend to face & how to shift into becoming an influential leader who leads a healthy culture & engaged team!

In this episode, I’m sharing how you can shift from doing just enough to leading in excellence!

Need one-on-one help with navigating being a new leader? Schedule your complimentary clarity call with me here! 
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Culture Building Like a Pro podcast, helping
small business owners and managers lead a company culture where
employees are engaged to do their best work because they
want to and not because they have to. Now, let's
jump start your culture transformation with company culture strategists, leadership
coach and trainer Deanna Appling.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Happy Tuesday and thanks for listening to the Culture Building
Like a Pro podcast. I'm your host, Diana, and we
are still going strong with the hash tag Leadershift series.
The series was made to talk about the common challenges
that we face as leaders, and specifically the ones that
just don't get talked about enough. But more importantly, we

(00:51):
talk about how to overcome them and how to shift
into the level of leadership that creates an impact and
influences as excellence among your team. I'm not sure if
you know this about me. You know, I've shared some
things about myself on the podcast here and there, just
so we can continue to build our rapport and connection.

(01:13):
But one thing about me I'm not sure if I've
shared as of yet is my love for food. I
love food, I love to cook it, I love to
try new restaurants, all of the things. I just love food.
So much. But AnyWho, not too long ago, I was
actually out at a new restaurant and I was with

(01:36):
my cousin and we were just we tend to do
this with each other. It's kind of like our little thing.
We go to different restaurants and just have a time.
We just enjoy each other. And we went to this restaurant,
as I said, it was a new one we hadn't
tried yet. And the server we had, I have to say,

(01:56):
was unlike any server I think I've ever met at
any of the places I've gone to. Not only was
he attentive to us, it was the way he engaged
with us, and the fact that he engaged with us
at all. He was very thoughtful and keeping us updated
on what was going on. For example, they had I

(02:19):
think maybe he said, two large parties that particular night,
and he made sure to come back to us and
just simply said, my apologies. I don't mean to interrupt.
I just wanted to let you know that we do
have two large parties that we're serving now, so your
orders will be coming up right after them, and it

(02:40):
will be about a fifteen minute delay. And I'm really
sorry about the weight, but I just wanted to let
you know so that you knew when you could expect
your dishes. I don't think a server has ever said
that or anything like that before, not that I've experienced.
Usually it's a do you need anything, you know while

(03:01):
we're waiting, or something to that effect. But it was
very thoughtful that he just simply let us know that.
And later on, you know, after we had been eating
and everything and he was boxing our food, he simply
just asked us up. Because this was a Sunday night
for context, so he asked if you know, we had

(03:21):
anything else planned for the night, and of course we
said no, we have to get ready for work the
next day. He asked us what we did, He engaged
with us about our work, and it was just so
many other things. It was actually quite a few other
things that he did that was just mindful of our

(03:42):
experience and him being our server, And it just got
me thinking about how he went above the bare minimum
because his job is to technically greet us, take our order,
ask if there's anything that we need, and take the check.
But he made sure that it was a pleasant experience

(04:04):
for us. He made it engaging, which ultimately made him memorable.
Because here I am weeks later talking about it with you.
This was an example to me of what it means
to operate in excellence. And although this was just a
minor example, when we think about it, especially in our

(04:28):
leadership journeys, we of course want a team who doesn't
just do the bare minimum, just enough to get by,
but they go the extra mile. They want to work
in excellence because that benefits everyone. But how many times
do we take inventory of ourselves as leaders and make

(04:51):
sure that we are leading the same way. It is
so easy to fall in the trap of doing just
enough and just getting the day to day tasks done
as a leader, but this responsibility of leading others is
so much more than that. So in today's episode, we're

(05:11):
talking about elevating, we're talking about the essence of this
hashtag Leadershift series, operating in excellence with our team, and
we're going to dive into how to shift from doing
just enough to leading an excellence. The first way that
you can start leading in excellence is by setting high

(05:36):
standards for yourself first and then your team. Instead of
settling for mediocre behavior and work, strive for excellence in
everything you do. And the key way to do this
is by setting very clear expectations and leading by example

(05:56):
and communicating those standards. So simple example, instead of just
aiming to meet the deadline, challenge yourself and your team
to exceed expectations by delivering your work and meeting that
goal ahead of schedule and with quality. So this doesn't

(06:16):
just mean working faster and not paying attention to detail
or just giving what's good enough, but setting the standard
of doing high quality work and delivering ahead of schedule.
Meeting the expectation and getting the job done is meeting
the deadline. But to move an excellence, challenge yourself and

(06:41):
prepare and positioning yourself to exceed those expectations by delivering early.
And once you begin to do this, you can set
this expectation with your team so that this is a
known standard of how we operate together. Next, investition yourself
in continuous learning. Commit to growing and developing yourself. I

(07:07):
remember an old job that I had and the VP
was leaving the company and he happened to work in
the same office that I did. He was a VP
of a sales team who I didn't report to, but
we knew each other because we worked in the same
office and the day he came in and said his goodbyes.
He came into my office and he said to me,

(07:30):
which totally called me by surprise. He said that he
noticed how I did things and how I carried myself
throughout the office, and that I approach things from a
place of curiosity, which would help me go so much
further in my career. And I always held onto that

(07:51):
because I agree with that statement so much. Simply staying
curious will help position you for learning, learning more, and
for more opportunities. So investing in yourself I call it
focusing on the PBS. It doesn't always mean getting another degree.

(08:11):
It can mean that, and if that is your path
and a decision that you choose to take, by all
means do so. But I say focus on the PBS, podcast,
books and skill development. So you already started that journey
of investing in yourself by listening to this podcast, but
you can also do that by reading other books that

(08:35):
focuses on the areas that you want to grow in,
and skill development can be attending workshops and trainings, any
resource that will help you grow and learn more so
that you can in turn give out more in how
you lead and do your work. The next way you

(08:55):
can focus on leading with excellence is to seek feedback,
but act on it. That's the key. Seek feedback and
act on it. Be open to feedback from not only
your peers or even your mentors, but your team. And
I would say that your team's feedback is probably the

(09:17):
most important because they're the ones experiencing you on a
day to day basis. Use what they give you as
a tool for your own growth and improvement, but make
it a priority to take action in those areas. Next,
lead with purpose. In other words, have a purpose and

(09:38):
be intentional about leading towards that purpose. You can do
this by getting clear on your vision, your leadership vision
and the vision for your team or your company values
and the goals and being able to clearly communicate the
expectations around those things as well. And when you also

(10:00):
involve your team in this, you get their buy in,
which helps them foster a level of commitment to seeing
these things become a reality. So I encourage you to
also have a shared vision where you work with your
team in a collaborative way about what this team is
and where you guys aspire to be and be an

(10:23):
example of demonstrating your commitment to this vision so that
they can in turn be inspired and influenced to follow
through with their commitment as well. And the last way
that you can shift from leading with just enough to
leading in excellence is by celebrating successes and learning from failure.

(10:47):
In other words, filling forward. You can help create a
culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and resilience by making it
a point to celebrate the achievements and the milestones of
your team, no matter how big or how small they are,
but also using failures or what I like to call

(11:10):
the things that just didn't work out the way we
plan as an opportunity to grow forward or fail forward.
So this means you can be intentional with how you
celebrate the achievements and recognize people on your team. You
can incorporate things like shoutouts or different awards, or just

(11:32):
simple acknowledgment and encourage dialogue about the things that didn't
work out right and setbacks that may have taken place.
These can be teachable moments versus the bad things that
happen that we just sweep under the rug. Failures aren't negative,
it's just feedback of how you can do things differently.

(11:54):
Moving forward, If this episode was helpful for you, I
love it. If you could share it with someone else
and leave an honest rating, or review an Apple podcasts
or wherever you're listening from, and if you have any
questions about it, or maybe you just want to share
something that you do to intentionally lead with excellence. I

(12:15):
would love to hear that. You can email that to
me and the address is culture at Business advocatespro dot com.
Remember that we aren't leaders doing the bare minimum. We
aren't leaders who do just enough. We aren't leaders who
just want to mark something off of our to do list.

(12:36):
We are leaders who desire to create an impact and
influence excellence among our teams. And we aim to do
that by setting high standards for ourselves because after all,
we want our team to follow suit and do the
same thing. You have the power to elevate how you
lead and how you inspire and influence those around you.

(13:00):
It takes is one decision, one decision to do something,
So take the simple steps in this episode, challenge yourself
to step up to the plate, take action, and start
to see how you impact not only the work that
you do, but those that you lead. Have a great week,