Optimism, Proficiency, Ownership

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One of the hardest components of being a leader is trying to find ways to consistently motivate and inspire your team.

Much of your success in this arena will be dictated by the culture you build, but it goes beyond that as well. I was recently having a conversation with a friend on this topic and they posed an interesting question, “how do you teach someone to be inspirational?”

I certainly haven’t cracked the code, and while tactics like being a great coach or cultivating a sense of humor are useful, my current inspiration formula is:

Optimism

I’ve talked about Optimism in multiple contexts in this newsletter before, but it is the foundation of my personal leadership philosophy and the inspiration formula. From one of our previous discussions on Optimism:

Optimism matters within the context of inspiration because no one will follow a pessimist when trying to do hard things. Sure you may hold sway over their attention for a while given your structural authority alone but if you are a pessimist, over the long run, you won’t attract great talent and you certainly won’t retain the great talent on your existing team.

An inability to attract and retain great talent is the onset of decline for any team.

Your team can do great things. You can inspire them to do so. Keep going.

Proficiency

At some point I’ll write an entire post on my love of proficiency as I’ve long been obsessed with competence. This obsession stems from my time as a Marine where it was so obvious which leaders took the time to sweat the small stuff and become deep subject matter experts in their field and which didn’t.

It was always the leaders who built their leadership on a foundation of competence that earned the most respect from their teams over the long run because true expertise cannot be faked in the arena. Those who are competent inspire the best from the teams they lead simply by providing an example to emulate.

Within the context of Proficiency I’m grateful that my time in the Marine Corps preceded my time in College because it taught me two important lessons where academia often misses the mark.

1. Any skill can be learned.

2. Learn a skill as if you are learning a craft, not as if you’re learning for the sake of passing a test.

You can choose to believe me or not on the first component, but I promise you in the era of high quality online private networks, generative AI, and world class universities releasing their content for free, you can learn anything you want.

It’s the second point from above which has always been the most interesting to me, treat proficiency in any arena as someone mastering a craft, not looking to pass a test. We’ll explore tactics on how to become proficient at any skill more in another post, but I like this heuristic of skills as crafts because when something is created as a craft it implies that it has utility in the real world. Put differently, it will help someone solve a problem.

For example, I am in sales and I believe proficiency in sales comes down to mastering the following 4 areas:

1. Outbound

2. Discovery

3. Pipeline Management

4. Relationship Management

Each of these areas has hundreds of sub-skills within them, but you could think about them as a checklist to be completed so that you can pass onboarding at a new company or you could think about them as skills to master within the context of solving problems for your customers and growing the revenue of the company you work for. The latter is Proficiency embraced as a craft.

When you are highly proficient within the domain of the team you lead you can lead by example not proxy. This builds respect between you and those you lead, this respect ultimately inspires them to achieve.

Ownership

In the military there is no greater mistake a leader can make than, “passing the buck.” From the NCO Creed which we discussed the other week:

“Their performance will reflect an image of me.”

Note here that the NCO creed does not differentiate between the leader and team. There is no better way to create psychological safety and build trust on your team than own the outcome when things are not going well and pass the credit when your team finds success.

On a team, a single person does not make a mistake. All mistakes, all shortfalls in performance are the responsibility of the leader. The leader’s failure to recruit the right talent. The leader’s failure to train and coach the existing team sufficiently. The leader’s failure to employ the correct processes needed to be successful.

On the flip side, when your team finds success give the credit where it is appropriately due, to those in the arena doing the work. Highlight the members of your team that provided an outsized contribution to the team’s success and encourage those who are yet to perform at their full capacity.

Mistakes will be made. How you respond to those mistakes, how you own and make them your own, will dictate the degree of risk your team is willing to take in the future. In a dynamic environment the ability of your team to improvise and take risk is essential to success in the long run. You foster that ability through owning the outcome when things go poorly while keeping an even temperament.

Conclusion

All leaders, myself certainly included, can work to become more inspirational. While it is easy to conjure images of Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone or a coach delivering a rousing half time speech when thinking of inspirational leaders, the truth is these are but flashes in the pan.

True inspiration comes from doing the work day in and day out to equip your team to succeed. This type of inspiration is built on Optimism, Proficiency, and Ownership.