Want to Grow as a Business Leader? Employ the BRAVE Methodology

As a business leader, what keeps you up at night? What is causing you to feel pain?

Some of the most significant leadership pains business leaders suffer from include: the shortfall in achieving desired results, lack of an inspired high-performing executive team, the lack of an engaged workforce, the inability to attract and retain quality talent, the lack of leadership skills in managers, and the lack of a values-based culture that enables bad business decisions and unethical behaviors.

There is a certain DNA of the army in creating brave leaders: competent and confident in their ability to lead. Based on this DNA, I became inspired to develop my own methodology called BRAVE that incorporates proven best practices from my experience in the army that can be immediately applied to the business world. This method is the subject of my upcoming book, with each letter representing a key element of the methodology. When applied, it can help grow leaders, grow the people being led, and ultimately produce greater results for the business.

Would it be beneficial to have a simple, yet powerful, proven process to help guide your development as a leader, and in turn help you develop your people? If so, I invite you to read on.

Be a leader of character

Character is at the heart of being an effective leader. It represents who you are and what you stand for. No amount of leadership or technical competency can overcome a lack of character. It begins with a comprehensive understanding of yourself—a necessary condition before you can effectively lead others. Character is ultimately defined by those values or deep beliefs that guide behavior. For leaders to be followed, they must secure the trust and confidence of their followers. The best leaders of character define their own values and embrace the core values of their organization. The communicate those values, then bring them to life through living them, and reward others who live them.

Reveal and reinforce leader competencies

Uncover those critical leader skills for you and those throughout the organization. Bring them to life. Core leadership skills highlight the fundamentals  for every leader in the organization. Additional skills become important as one progresses up  the organization because responsibilities and authorities change. For instance, at the executive level, the environment is characterized by increased complexity, higher risk, greater uncertainty, and less direct control over subordinate echelons. After the critical leader skills are identified, perform a comprehensive assessment of proficiency in these skills for you and the other leaders. There is risk to any organization if expectations of proficiency in the critical leadership skills are left up to chance.

Attack with a leader development program

Since 1775, the army recognized the value in investing heavily in the development of leaders at all ranks. Good development programs help prepare the current and future leaders to be prepared to lead teams and set the conditions for the organization’s future success. Use the assessment performed above to determine the priority goals of your program. Then put into place the actual program based on on available resources. Once developed, rigorous execution of the program is paramount. The best leaders recognize the importance of sustained investment in the development of their people. Success stems from a culture where leaders are equipped with the mindset and passion for developing others. Leaders own the task of developing their people and cannot ignore it.

Value coaching excellence

One-on-one coaching is arguably the most important skill a leader must possess to be effective in developing others. Effective coaching starts from what is inside the leader’s heart. Great coaching skills do not come naturally to many leaders; they must be learned and practiced. When leaders ignore or short-change this critical task, their people fail to grow and reach their full potential. The consequences continue to expose themselves as their people will also fail to learn how to coach their own subordinates. The entire organization suffers. The keys to coaching success include establishing a standard approach to your sessions, establishing agreed-upon goals, and enforcing accountability by assessment of performance and inspiring actions for the future.

Embrace trusted relationships

Trusted relationships between leaders and their people trump everything when it comes to effective leadership. Being successful in life is a team sport. A leader’s influence over others will not occur if their mutual trust is absent. The above 4 categories of the methodology directly impact trust. In addition, leaders must know and care for their people. They must exercise humility. And a great way for leaders to bridge their relationships with their people is to spend quality time outside the work environment.  Soldiers will follow their leaders into the most dangerous places, under the most extraordinary conditions if they trust their leaders. Same goes for those in the business world.

Why BRAVE? Francis Scott Key is the author of the famous words “The land of the free and the home of the brave.” He wrote those words in 1814, and since 1931, they have been sung as the national anthem of the United States. The word BRAVE has powerful meanings. Being a great leader is tough business. It takes courage. It takes bravery. There are powerful lessons to be learned from the US Army.

I wish you the best in your leadership journey.