Have you ever had a moment where someone ticked you off and you could feel the negative energy and anger all around you?  Then you gathered some new information and it instantly drained that negative emotion away as you gained a new perspective?

Wasn’t it amazing how quickly that could happen?  Really NOTHING changed about the event, just YOU CHANGED how you INTERPRETED the event.

One of the toughest challenges as a leader is the balancing of different personalities, drives and opinions.  There can be a desire to take care of your team and try to manage the communication between members but there can be serious side effects that which will turn your team from results driven to angry and frustrated.

Here are some ways to avoid that:

1. Realize as a leader you role is not to take on the emotions or concerns of team members but instead to help them positively work through those discussions with others so they learn to create their own link and relationship.

2. Work with those who are comfortable with sharing their voice with HOW to share their voice so you don’t get caught in trying to BE their voice.

Ironically this very thing is what Les McKeown talks indirectly about in his book Predictable Success.  He talks about how the Visionary Leader often grows the business with the sales people and then later on brings in a Processing person to manage operations.  Then because the Processing person is actually trying to put rules, systems and structures to things (which can slow a sales person down) the sales person goes to the Visionary Leader and complains.  At that time, the Visionary Leader usually jumps in to side with the Sales person (after all they have been together for ever) and the Processing person gets chastised.  Thus the result is a cycle of negative action that doesn’t drive the results needed as both sides become frustrated.

So here is your Take Action:

When someone comes with a complaint, challenge or issue work with them on how to directly handle that with you being just the “third” wheel in the process. This will keep your group focused as a team, get things out in the open, allow all people to have a direct voice with no interpretation from you, and will allow you to step back in to a mediator role instead of a translator role.  A much more powerful role for you as a leader!

Learn more about strategic communication at www.impressionmanagement.com.