Part 2 Third R in Leadership
                                                                                                     Respect
Another crucial R is respect. In order to be a high level true leader that gets results for the team you have to respect people. When I say have too, I really mean you should want to. If you have to, something is wrong with your attitude. If you don’t respect people you will never be a leader and an influencer nor will you achieve lasting results. All the results that you will appear to achieve will be short lived.
When I say respect people I should say, “Be not a respecter of persons.†This is a bible saying that means not to value a CEO more than a Janitor. Don’t value someone that can help you more than someone that you perceive cannot help you. Some team members and people maybe more qualified, more experienced, bring more to the table, add more to the bottom line and may out preform others and they may be more important to the team than others. They just aren’t more important than others as a person.
No matter the person’s prestige or pedigree all people should be treated with the same respect. Even when you replace someone on the team, it should be done with integrity and respect.
                                                                                                   Replace
  Replace is another crucial R in leadership. Everyone you replace or fire should have seen it coming. Your communication should have been so crystal clear that they should have known that their performance was not meeting your guidelines and standards. Replacing low achievers is important. You are establishing a clear standard when you do.
When you truly respect people you will treat them with another important R and that is rule, as in the Golden Rule! How would you want to be treated if you were not performing to the desired standards? Would you want someone to mentor, coach, train and communicate the standards of performance to you. Would you want to receive a warning and have a clear understanding on what you need to do to stay on the team? I would.
Sometimes you are the one to be replaced. I mean you as a leader you need to be on a new team. A lot of leaders have leaders that they report to. If you are a leader and you report to a leader, you need to be aware of the fact you might be at a higher level of leadership than your current leader. If they are insecure and they do not allow you to play at your top performance, you might have to make a proactive change and leave. Don’t let your “love for the team†hold you back, like I have done.
One of my core values is to never criticize a company, organization or a person that I am drawing a paycheck from. I worked with a low level leader that constantly criticized his company and leaders. He did not value or respect his leaders or his team. I had to leave the team.
Whether you “get fired†or you realize your time and talents and energy should be spent on another team. You need to ask yourself if your current team, company, organization or your leader shares in your core values. If they don’t and you feel you can’t influence a change, you need to leave.
If you as a leader do not have a platform to reproduce yourself and share your core values with your team, you need a new team. You will only get limited results for your team and you as well as your team will never reach your full potential. Even though you love and help your team, your results will be a drop in the bucket compared to what you can do.
Don’t think about the team and people you have to leave behind, think about the team and people you can truly help. As a leader you need to follow leaders that have a passion to allow you to be empowered to help your team. Even if that means that they work their way out of a job. True leaders are always looking for their replacement. True leaders surround themselves with leaders that excel in areas that they don’t.
True leads care about their team and their members more than their role, title, position or their credit. True leaders find their significance in getting results for everyone involved. True leaders don’t want to be interesting they are interested. True leaders feel important when they make others feel important. True leaders feel empowered when they empower others. Low level leaders feel empowered when they have power over others.