4H's

Bring Out the Best In Your Team

Leadership is a choice, not a position, and following is a choice, not a requirement. Management is charged with the responsibility of maximizing the value of all resources.

The challenge, the opportunity of the empowering leader is to "bring out the best so results exceed high expectations." Leaders do this by maximizing the engagement of every person on their team. You recognize that every member of your team has choices about what they do with their "three H's" - their hands, heads, and hearts. The empowering leader finds a way to more fully engage all three H's.

H1 - HANDS

The first H, hands, is the only H you can actually control - you control when associates are scheduled for work, their shift, role, and work station assignment. H1 - Your associates' physical capabilities: Experience on the job and training improve physical capabilities. At some point, our physical capabilities, our dexterity and physical strength, actually decline; we lose capability.

H2 - HEAD

You have a competitive advantage when everyone on your team brings more than their hands to the job, they think before they act. H2 - Understanding the context of the work being performed and the needs of the "downstream customer" naturally leads to improved performance. When everyone thinks about ways to improve their processes to reduce costs and improve outcomes, you are on the road to increased engagement and continuous improvement. Your team gets things done easier, faster, and safer. Your costs go down, your sales go up, and your safety incident rate improves. Applying imagination and creativity creates innovation. This ability may be limited by IQ.

H3 - HEART

Recent research shows that as people give their hearts to their efforts with passion, even their IQ increases. When associates care about creating improvement, they persist when they feel like quitting, and they dream up ways to make things better. When everyone on your team cares and gives it their hearts, there is passion in their performance. H3 - Emotional Quotient is the willingness to persist, commit, and care. This comes from a cause to champion and a purpose to care about. This passion for improvement spills over to those around them. Now, this synergy takes your performance to record-setting levels. Obstacles are now seen as stepping stones. People don't stop, don't give up, and they don't beat their heads against the wall. Instead, they creatively go under or over the obstacle. It's important to remember that the third H, EQ, the emotional quotient, is the H that can fluctuate most on a daily basis. When you find ways to ensure that everyone is putting their heart into their work in spite of difficulties at home or on the job, everyone wins.

H4 - HOLISTIC

With this level of engagement, now you have the "whole" person and everyone on the team. H4 is "Holistic Engagement." The exciting and rewarding thing about this level of engagement is that it's a win-win-win. Who wins? Your enterprise wins - you are more competitive; your customers win - they have a superior customer experience; and most important, your team members win. They have fulfillment in and from their work.