The Leadership Toolboxes

By Dr. Jeffrey Belsky

If you are asking what the connection is between "toolboxes" and "leadership," you are not alone! However, this relationship could be the most powerful element in today's ever-changing business world.The Leadership Toolboxes sets the tone for those critical skills needed to lead an organization through any business environment. These skills have withstood the test of time and are the foundation for anyone seeking to learn new concepts or sharpen their already proven leadership abilities. Yes, times have changed! Business has changed! However-expectations on effective leadership remain steadfast!In this book, Jeff Belsky concentrates on the practical application of select leadership skills-or "tools." He does this through using engaging, personal, and professional anecdotes to take the reader through all phases of their own leadership journey. Readers will immediately gain a better understanding of those leadership skills that result in increased effectiveness in the workplace.Whether you are a new or an experienced leader, The Leadership Toolboxes provides a workable and impactful road map toward personal and professional results.What is in your leadership toolbox?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662431586

Book preview

Section 1

Understanding the People You Are Leading

Leadership is the key strategic differentiator in attracting and obtaining quality talent.

—John Buddy Hobart

First Impressions—Be Cautious

Several years ago, I took a sales position within a very large company in Pittsburgh. I never thought of myself as a salesperson, but the timing was right, and I thought I would give it a try. The first step was to attend an eight-week training session with ten other newly hired individuals whom I never met prior. We would need to sit in a twenty-by-twenty room with no windows each day for eight weeks to review company policies, sales procedures, and communication styles. Of course, the first task on my list was to size up everyone to see who my competition would be moving forward.

Everyone around the room seemed nice, talented, and came across as genuine human beings—except for one gentleman! This gentleman just rubbed me the wrong way from day one. He seemed arrogant, outspoken, and was more interested in making others laugh than anything else. I immediately knew my tolerance for him would be questionable, to say the least. Others in the group surprisingly seemed to gravitate to his demeanor. Over the eight weeks, I was perplexed as to how this person could elevate himself as one of the most popular individuals in the entire group of professionals. I learned not only to discard this person as a viable employee, but also, I honestly disliked him.

During the seventh week of training, the group was informed that the final phase of our indoctrination would consist of two weeks on the job at another location. Additionally, we would be sent out in pairs to complete this training. We had no idea what city we were going to and had no voice in the pairing of individuals. As you can imagine, my biggest fear was to be placed with this gentleman. However, I thought with ten of us in the group, the chances of me being paired with him were slim—but then again, I am one to lose consistently even at the highest odds table in Vegas. We were also notified that each pair would be staying in the same hotel room and sharing the same rental car. Even under the best circumstances, this did not seem to be the most conducive method of training. However, by this point, I had no choice but to successfully complete the training.

A few days before our departure date, we were told what city we were going to, and who our partner was going to be. Yes, you probably guessed it by now—I was unfortunately paired with this gentleman that I had come to dislike for almost eight full weeks. I dreaded being alone with him for two weeks. Believe it or not, I seriously contemplated quitting and moving on to something else. My wife, with her consistent levelheadedness, convinced me to push on and simply put up with it for two weeks. My goal was to get through the trip and hopefully never see him again. I vividly remember this trip. Not only did this gentleman initially rub me the wrong way, I even had to carry his bags throughout the trip because he had back surgery a few months prior.

Let me put this whole thing into perspective and make a long story very short: I spent the last eight weeks in a small room with a person I came to dislike. I had to share a room and rental car with him for two weeks. I had to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with him and be with him for almost twenty-four hours each day. I carried his bags everywhere we went, rode in a car with him throughout the day, and shared each meal. Getting away from him was almost impossible. What made matters even worse was that his feelings about me were apparently different from how I felt about him. He actually seemed to enjoy spending time with me!

I surprisingly learned so much about the two weeks of spending time (or should I say living) with this gentleman. He was a genuine family man who loved his wife of many years and his four kids. He was a faithful Christian who had a strong belief in God. He enjoyed traveling, playing the guitar, and having a few cold beers. What I came to understand was that this gentleman and I shared the same passions, likes and dislikes, and even the same favorite TV shows. The two weeks were full of hard work, but many laughs and good times. The camaraderie between us grew stronger each day, and the bad feelings I had about him quickly dissipated.

HAMMER THIS HOME!

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

Max Lucado

What was once a feeling of dislike for this person turned into an actual friendship. Upon arriving back to Pittsburgh after the two weeks of on-the-job training, this gentleman and I continued to remain friends. In fact, over the next five years, we worked ten feet from each other and became best friends. We trusted each other, consoled each other during bad times in our lives, and motivated each other to succeed professionally. We were friends at work and after hours. That was twenty-five years ago, and although we do not work with each other any longer, we see each other occasionally and reminisce about the good times we had in that organization. What I first considered to be the most horrible experience with a person I disliked turned into a lifelong friendship.

What I learned from this valuable lifelong lesson was that first impressions are normally wrong. Unfortunately, we all look at someone and immediately make judgments. Within the first few minutes, we evaluate their color, accent, behavior, clothing, smell, hairstyle, communication style, hair color, weight, and even height to answer that first question—do I like this person? That’s exactly what I did with the gentleman in the training class. I immediately judged him without even knowing him. I never gave him a chance. Then, I permitted that judgment to overshadow any other possible feelings about him. I truly didn’t know this person, nor did I understand who he really was. It wasn’t until we were forced to spend time together that I genuinely understood him and got to know him personally and professionally. Fortunately, in my case, my prejudgment was wrong and resulted in a positive lifelong friendship. Since that experience, I look at first impressions as the cover to the book, not the pages inside. To understand the title of the book, you need to read the words within the book in its entirety. Sometimes it is surprising to learn that the words within the book openly explain the cover of the book!

Throughout my leadership career, I have used this real-life story to guide my principles on wrongfully judging a person. I no longer look at people and judge them on the first impression. I spend the time necessary to get to know them and do my best to understand them as human beings.

Know Them and Understand Them

There is a big difference between knowing who someone is and understanding who they really are. You can go to a hundred seminars and training courses on leadership, and you will hear the facilitator tell everyone to know your employees! I am not here to dismiss this statement or degrade its worth. On the contrary! I firmly believe there is significant value in knowing your employees’ desires, what they like and dislike, their aspirations, their backgrounds, and so on. However, I would say that the true foundation of being a successful leader is to really understand the employee. I can know that an individual wants to be a manager someday, but if I understand why they want to be a manager, it gives me a more profound realization of the motivation behind those feelings or aspirations. Furthermore, understanding why someone wants to be treated a certain way, how they handle communications, their reactions to conflict, and their desire to be more of an introvert than an extrovert (or vice versa) gives me a blueprint to that person’s human core.

The reality is if leaders can understand—and I mean genuinely understand—who they are leading, they can increase motivation and employee satisfaction and decrease employee turnover. In today’s competitive landscape, are these not necessities for human capital persistence and growth? The complexity of knowing who you are leading is somewhat rooted in an individual’s generation—basically, when they were born! Of course, it is not the only factor, but it is very important. There is much truth to the notion that generations have similarities of characteristics, behaviors, and needs. Substantial research has been conducted to prove this theory.

However, understanding those human elements and using that wisdom in the workplace has faced substantial challenges for some odd reason. Some leaders fail to embrace the concept of generational tendencies, or simply differences between generations. Would it surprise you to learn that for the first time in history, many workplaces are experiencing up to five generations working together, creating situations that present opportunities and challenges for most leaders?

Buddy Hobart—The Generational Guru

Over the past twenty years, I have been affiliated with an organization in Pittsburgh known as Solutions 21 (www.solutions21.com). Recently, I left my position of twenty years in the corporate world as a vice president to work with them full-time. They are an international organizational development and consulting company founded by Mr. John Buddy Hobart. Buddy (as he formally goes by) has been a mentor to me for many years. His tenacity to work with organizations across the globe makes him an industry expert in several areas. He is highly respected and is sought after for his experience and knowledge.

Buddy, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate and successful business owner, has spent more than the last decade understanding how human generations’ differences and similarities have impacted the professional world. In addition, his research findings have solidified the fact that if the leader can understand the genuine generational tendencies of the follower, they can be better equipped to lead them effectively, motivate and challenge them, and coach them to success. Buddy is so dedicated to this understanding that he has authored several books specifically related to this topic. His books Gen Y Now and Gen Y Now: Millennials and the Evolution of Leadership give the reader a thorough understanding of the generations currently in existence, and how to lead them effectively. Additionally, his latest book The Leadership Decade: A Playbook for an Extraordinary Era, published in August 2020, contains essential concepts for any organizational leader. If you want to gain an in-depth understanding of leading the various generations and how those generations impact the workplace, I invite you to purchase Buddy’s books. His complete analysis will enlighten you more than you can imagine and will be a useful tool in the workplace.

Prior to writing this chapter, I contacted Buddy and spoke in depth about his books and their valuable content. This chapter is a condensed version of many of Buddy’s findings and thoughts concerning generational tendencies in the workplace. I could lie and say that I came up with some original material concerning the generations, but the concepts and research findings that Buddy has uncovered are so valuable and accurate that I believe having this in one of your leadership toolboxes is imperative to becoming a successful leader.

Additionally, this chapter also contains some of my own perspectives on the generational leadership concepts from my own thirty years of industry experiences. I have also been intrigued as to how an individual’s generation molds their overall human being, and what implications it has on organizational success. I am honored to know Buddy and have him as a mentor. I have decided to dedicate this chapter to him personally for his unwavering dedication to improving organizational leadership and understanding human behavior as it relates to specific generations. I hope this chapter makes you proud, Buddy!

Understand the Generations—Understand the Person

It is an astonishing fact that there are currently five generations that exist in the workplace. Many of us simply walk around looking at others without any consideration of from what generation they come. We view others as older or younger, but rarely stop to consider just how old they are, what they have seen over the years, and what world implications occurred during their life span. More importantly, we rarely consider the correlation between their age and their overall behavior as a human being or employee in the organization. The generation a person falls in can tell specific and significant characteristics related to that person’s wants, needs, behaviors, aspirations, and attitudes—significant points that are essential in understanding who someone really is! Furthermore, when attempting to lead another individual, these generational characteristics will become inherently important in effectively motivating, coaching, and encouraging others in an organization.

Let’s review those specific generations and when they occurred before we discuss more details surrounding each generation. Let’s first understand that there are significant amounts of research on generational tendencies. However, you will find that the time periods of each generation sometimes slightly vary depending on research references. Though there is a consensus on the general time period for generations, there is no agreement on the exact year that each generation begins and ends. All research essentially agrees that today’s workplaces are populated with workers ranging from ages fourteen to eighty-plus. This is a fact that should spark concern and question how leaders need to understand each generation accurately. A leader who believes that a leadership style is just as effective when managing a twenty-year-old as it is a seventy-five-year-old, please read on! The reality is it doesn’t work that way. Figure 1.1 outlines the generations and gives a snapshot of what they are called and their general birth years.

Figure 1.1 Generational Time Periods

As you can see in figure 1.1, each generation has been titled depending on their birth time period. Before we really dig into exploring each generation, it is also important to understand the depth of each generation in terms of population. Understandably, the common conception is that as each generation gets older, the possibility of that generation being in the workplace significantly decreases. This is true simply because of the certainty of death, sicknesses, and those who choose to retire.

However, over the years, mortality rates have substantially increased. Men and women are living longer and finding that their retirement date is being delayed for years. It is not uncommon to witness individuals certainly in their sixties, seventies, and surprisingly even their eighties still waking up each day, garnishing that blazer, and putting in a full day of productive work in an organization. In many cases, it is not because the person has to work; it is because they still want to work. Again, this all goes back to understanding the person you are