The four best affirmative leadership 'hacks'

​By William Seidman hacking-550x412I’m not going to recommend that you break into anyone’s computer – like with so many things, the language of programming has seeped into everyday speech, and in this case, hack means something different entirely. People are starting to apply the idea of radical structural change to various aspects of life and calling it ‘hacking’ – lifestyle ‘hacks’, design ‘hacks’, etc. Like computer hacking, leadership ‘hacks’ are based around altering your companies’ basic structure to work better than it normally would. Here are some of the best we’ve found: 1. Understand and implement Affirmative Leadership. ​Figure out why your best people are best at what they do, and spread that over the whole organization. Read The Star Factor when it comes out in December! 2. Create a micro strategy. ​If you’ve got a group of creative people but they don’t seem to have enough direction, it can be useful to bear down on a single ‘micro-strategy.’ Identify their values, understand their assets, and keep at them until you’ve come up with a set of specific actions leading to the desired result. 3. Find the value of your employees. ​It can be difficult to really get to know the people you work with, and the ‘click-down’ hack allows you to really home in on the core values of a person. The click-down hack involves taking a part of something they say, something as simple as “ I’m having a rough day” and repeatedly asking questions that get closer and closer to their real feelings and core values. Ask open-ended questions about their comments until you get to the heart of the matter. 4. Treat your employees like part of a functioning machine – but not cogs. ​The takeaway from all this is not to approach leadership as if you are a dispassionate programmer, because people are not bits of code, but instead to try to break down and improve upon existing structures. Use these hacks to identify and bypass problems in the workplace and take your leadership potential to the next level. ​  ]]>

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