Your Message Makes You a Leader... Or Not

What distinguishes leadership from management? Management oversees tasks, leadership is about creating followers. And that takes compelling, consistent messaging.

New leaders often overlook the importance of clearly defining and frequently repeating their values, their vision and the “why” behind their actions. A one and done approach will not work. Your staff needs an underlying thoughtful and consistent point of view in order to make solid decisions. As the team leader, it is your responsibility to provide the framework through which your team views problems and explores various possible solutions.

So, how do you verbalize your values?

I recommend starting small.

What three values are especially important to you? For example you might choose respect for team members, honesty, meeting financial goals, developing co-workers, responding to customers etc. The values which matter most are often assumed to be of value to all. In other words, if you have always highly valued honesty, you might also assume it's a universal value—and you may not think to specifically state that value to your team. But don't assume, think through which values matter the most to you and share them.

Articulating your vision for your team will involve communicating the organization's goals, the capabilities of your team and your personal goals. This task will be more difficult and time consuming to formulate than declaring your personal values, but you must make it a priority. Your mission statement will serve as the North Star for your team's strategic initiatives, for discussions around resource deployment. It will also help your team make thoughtful daily decisions. 

Consistent, clear messaging about your values and the team's mission is critically important. Once your staff embraces your message, you can move out of management and into leadership. Your followers will be equipped to make independent, thoughtful decisions and will be self-directed to achieve your mission. Communicating your values and mission are so important that you should not delegate all new staff onboarding to HR or to other staffers. Your staff is your most important resource—and often most expensive resource—and your message is too important. Take the time to meet with new hires one on one. Share your values, and explain the mission, not just once, but frequently and with passion. 

If you have time, read this HBR article. While the author discusses taking back delegated duties, the real message is about being in charge of your own message. It's a good read. 

Here’s another quick read, it’s a little hokey, but that's fun too. This article emphasizes how your message is supported by what you do and how small gestures can have a big impact. 

If you’re curious about how you’re showing up as a leader, take my 5 minute quiz. You’ll learn more about how you show up and receive detailed suggestions for growing your leadership skills.