Watch your people. The more time I can spend in the field with our folks and with our leadership understanding who has the ability to do what, the better. It’s almost like practice. It’s important for a coach to spend time watching their players in practice and finding out what their strengths and weaknesses are.
I like being out in the field with my people going out on what I would call client opportunities or even what we call client-service assessments to see how we’re doing. I like to do that as much as possible because I get to see how we’re performing.
I like to get a read on folks based on how they interact with me. With certain people, even at our lowest staff levels, I can kind of gauge how they interact with me and you can see that level of confidence in some and apprehension in others.
I use folks’ interactions with me as one sign. I definitely use the feedback that I get from my leaders and the people that are most associated with our folks as another.
Observe client interactions. The better way for me is when we are interacting not only with our folks but with a client, as well. I really get to learn about my folks when we are interacting with a client. I like situations where it’s a client opportunity or it’s a client service investment and I get a chance to interact with my people with a client.
I really get to see how well or not well we are doing or how good or not good we are positioned for an opportunity. … It really gives me a window into where we are at. It gives me a window into the individuals, as well.
Seek out advice from others. You look at a guy like Phil Jackson, (the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers). He has Tex Winter right there behind him. You think Phil Jackson knows everything there is to know about basketball, and you watch him during the game and he turns around and he’s asking Tex a question.
That’s the way I view the senior partners that I have here in my office. They have been through a lot, and it’s an opportunity for me to go down, and if there is some gray area or if there is something that I’m unsure on, that’s one of the first places I go is to go to that experience. I say, ‘Hey, have you ever been faced with this before? Can I ask for your advice?’ A leader can’t be afraid to do that. You can always learn from someone.
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