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Bankable Leadership

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Bankable Leadership

Happy People, Bottom-Line Results, and the Power to Deliver Both

Greenleaf Book Group,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Leadership skills you can use to “deliver results that your company can take straight to the bank.”

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Leaders think they must either be warm and fuzzy so employees like them, or ruthless and driven so employees fear them. Performance suffers when leaders worry more about losing friendships than achieving results. Conversely, leaders who focus solely on the bottom line cause low morale, employee burnout and high turnover. Dr. Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist, shows leaders how to balance the needs of their people with company performance goals and how to “be human and drive performance, be helpful and drive responsibility, be thankful and drive improvement,” and “be happy and drive productivity.” Eurich deliberately treads quite familiar territory, but she provides quite useful advice on being a more effective, “bankable leader.” getAbstract recommends her guidance to anyone, at whatever level, who supervises others.

Summary

People Versus Results

Leaders often feel the “universal tension” between putting the needs of employees first and putting the goals of the company first. Neither extreme exists in a vacuum, and both are important to the well-being and success of the organization. At one end of the spectrum, as a leader, you need good relationships with your people so you can earn their trust and motivate and inspire them. Yet you must balance winning their regard with your ability to achieve high quality results that you and your company can “take to the bank.” Examine your leadership style to analyze how you balance – or perhaps should balance – four pairs of extremes:

1. “Be Human and Drive Performance”

You must learn to trust your employees. They must know they can trust you in return, but “FEAR” often thwarts trust. FEAR encompasses: “finger-pointing, energy wasted, anxiety and rumors.” Under the influence of such fear, employees defend their turf at all costs, worry about appearances in front of managers, are afraid to speak out and invent explanations for changes they don’t understand – that is, they spread rumors. To counteract fear, build trust.

“The most basic...

About the Author

Organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich, known as “Dr. T” to her clients, is a consultant in leadership and team training. An instructor at the Center for Creative Leadership, she speaks often at the MBA programs at the University of Denver and Colorado State University.

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