CALF_News_April_May_2019

14 CALF News • April | May 2019 • www.calfnews.net Whitt and Wisdom The Leadership Top 10 By JimWhitt Contributing Editor I recently had the opportunity to speak at a leadership conference for Petroleum Service Corporation (PSC), a company that specializes in product handling and site logis- tics services for the petrochemical, refining, midstream and marine transportation industries. I was invited to the awards banquet the evening before my presentation and was glad I attended. As I listened to the accomplishments of the award recipi- ents, I was impressed with how many of them were hard- working, blue-collar employees who had worked their way into leadership positions. Their director of information technology told me he had started with the company as a tankerman. I asked him if he ever dreamed he’d be leading the IT depart- ment when he was loading barges.“No,” he said,“we didn’t even have computers back then!” Company President Joel Dickerson started with the com- pany loading railcars. I followed Joel on the program the next morning. You’d expect the company president to talk about financial performance, but he spent most of his time talking about what drives financial performance – people . He really got my attention when he shared his Leadership Top 10: 1. Pick Good Leaders – This is JOB #1 for each of us. Picking the right leaders will do more to shape our future than anything else we do. This is a task that can’t be delegated. 2. Model Servant Leadership – Make a daily choice to focus your energy and attention on supporting your employees and helping them become more successful. 3. Develop Emotional Intelligence – Your moods and behaviors drive the moods and behaviors of everyone on your team. Before your team cares about what you know, they want to know that you care. 4. Set the Course – Communicate the vision, set the expectations and lead. 5. Demand Accountability – Excellent performance demands excellent leadership at all levels. Hold yourself and your leaders accountable. 6. Lead by Example – If you say one thing and do another, you cannot lead effectively. 7. Learn from Your Mistakes –We all make mistakes and have a lot to learn. Don’t let arrogance or a lack of introspection prevent you from learning from the mis- takes you make. Ask for feedback regularly. 8. Give Second Chances –We need to create an environ- ment where employees can learn from their mistakes and continue to move forward in their careers. 9. Be Approachable – Be visible and available to those you are leading. It’s not enough to have an “open-door policy.” Get out of your office and interact with your teams in their environment. 10. Communicate – Don’t underestimate the need for your employees to regularly hear from you. The rumor mill ramps up when there is an absence of clear, consistent communication. It was obvious this list wasn’t something he just copied off a website and pasted into a Power Point presentation — this was his Top 10. He gave real-life, on-the-job examples to illustrate each point. He wasn’t just telling his leaders what they need to do, he was modeling what they need to do. He was lead- ing by example . I thought about the awards ceremony the night before. When I listened to why each recipient was being recognized, it was because they exhibited the kind of behavior Joel talked about in his Leadership Top 10. The behavior of the award