The Slight Edge Approach to Effective Team Leadership
Are you tired of constantly playing catch up and putting out fires as a team leader? It's time to take the Slight Edge approach and become proactive instead of reactive. In this episode of the Leadership Hustle, Andrea and Michelle discuss the key differences between a proactive and reactive team, and how you can implement small changes to improve your day to day tasks. Don't let your inbox control your day, learn how to work smarter and gain the slight edge as a leader.
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The Slight Edge Your Leadership Needs
Does your leadership need a slight edge? If you feel like you are constantly reacting to emergencies and putting out fires instead of focusing on growing your business, then that’s exactly what you need. Most of the time, leaders and executives put their effort into bigger-picture projects, and they don’t realize that small thighs are the ones that need to change in order to achieve success. In this episode of The Leadership Hustle Podcast, Andrea Fredrickson and Michelle Hill talk about what the slight edge is and why your company needs it.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Most leaders believe that working harder is equal to working better. But, before taking on bigger responsibilities, we should stop and ask ourselves if our current tasks and habits are helping us to be successful.
In leadership roles, we tend to react to situations and fix problems instead of creating high-pay-off activities. This means we often find ourselves responding to immediate crises when we could be executing activities that can prevent these emergencies in the first place. So, what exactly is a high-pay-off activity?
High-pay-off Activities
High-pay-off activities are the tasks that significantly contribute to the results you want to achieve in your organization. They are strategic actions that align with your long-term goals and objectives. These activities are the tasks that come from the slight edge of your leadership role.
The Slight Edge of Your Leadership
The 'Slight Edge' is a mindset that will help you create daily habits to shape your path to success.
It challenges us to examine our existing routines and consider whether they're driving us toward our goals or steering us in the opposite direction.
This mindset focuses especially on the small, consistent actions over time that have a bigger weight than we realize. The minor things we do (or don't do) can accumulate into significant outcomes.
How Can You Make Changes in Your Leadership?
The Slight Edge Book goes more in-depth on how this mindset can help you achieve these goals, but for leaders, this is the small task you can change today to become a leader that prioritizes high-pay-off activities:
Opt for Face-to-Face interactions over emails
Connect with your team
Understand your team’s needs
Be a present leader
Maintain a positive attitude
Work Smartly
Here are some strategies you can use right now to reduce your workload and work smarter by incorporating a slight edge into your business.
Conduct a Time Study
Track how you spend your time during a typical workday. This will help you identify areas where you might be wasting time or tasks that could be delegated or streamlined.
Seek Feedback or Advice
Regularly seek input from your team on ways to improve your work processes and theirs. Their perspectives may shine a light on opportunities for improvement that you might have overlooked.
Self-Reflect on Your Activities
Regular self-reflection can help you identify patterns, understand what works and what doesn't, and make necessary adjustments. Consider which tasks have high results and deserve more of your attention.
Prioritize Tasks
Not all tasks are equally important or need your full attention. The job of a leader is to delegate activities in a way that can be more efficient and to have time to develop their team.
Start Seeing Results Today
Ready to see the results you want in your organization and elevate your leadership to the next level? Need some help implementing effective leadership in your organization? Contact Revela Group today for tips and leadership mentoring.
About the Hosts
Andrea Fredrickson
Andrea Fredrickson is a thought leader and consultant at Revela, an organization based in Omaha, Nebraska specializing in the development of leaders, culture alignment, and business strategy for private and family businesses of all sizes. Revela is one of the region's most experienced thought challengers, helping individuals and companies find their greatness. Andrea has built an amazing team by believing that fundamentally people want to be successful and become better versions of themselves.
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Andrea has degrees in education, management, and business. She is the author of Insight Unseen; How to lead with 20/20 business vision. She helps people see things differently, self-reflect, and never stop looking for ways to improve themselves on a personal and professional level. Andrea has spent more than 30 years researching and developing methods to help people communicate and lead more effectively.
When Andrea isn’t working with clients, you’ll find her spending time with her family & friends and making memories by exploring new cities.
Michelle Hill
Michelle Hill is a master facilitator and coach at Revela, an organization specializing in the development of leaders and aligning the culture of privately held and family businesses of all sizes. Revela is one of the region's most experienced thought challengers, helping individuals and companies find their greatness.
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An ambitious leader, Michelle has the natural ability to create forward momentum to build teams and get results. She inspires others to look within themselves and to challenge the status quo. She helps create high-performing environments. Michelle brings a diverse background: operations, employee development, and sales in the steel, hospitality, and consulting industries.
Outside of work, you will see her competitive side engaged in her daughter’s sports and ISU athletics. She loves life, her four-legged companions, and captures all the moments through her camera’s lens.
TRANSCRIPT
Andrea Frederickson: Let's face it, most of us work way too hard. Yet how many of us are using the slight edge to get the results we want? In today's episode, we're going to discuss how to work smarter and not quite so hard. Hello and welcome to the Leadership Hustle for executives whose companies are growing fast and need leaders who are ready. This is a topic that has gotten so much emphasis or so much attention lately, at least in conversations that I'm having with leaders, leaders of leaders, senior executives. You know, what are you noticing?