{"id":5219,"date":"2016-04-07T19:55:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T00:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=5219"},"modified":"2016-04-07T19:55:47","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T00:55:47","slug":"the-vital-role-of-winsome-approachability-in-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/07\/the-vital-role-of-winsome-approachability-in-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vital Role of “Winsome Approachability” in Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week I was asked what I thought were some key characteristics of effective leaders. And as I thought about that, my mind went back to an observation made by Willow Creek Church’s senior pastor Bill Hybels a few months ago.<\/b><\/p>\n

During a coaching session, Bill\u00a0singled out Willow Creek Association\u00a0president Gary Schwammlein for possessing a vital leadership trait.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMore than just about anyone I know,\u201d Bill began, \u201cGary Schwammlein possesses winsome approachability. And that characteristic is a huge reason for his leadership success.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Winsome approachability.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As I thought about the importance of this quality, I jotted down three important leadership \u201cwins\u201d that approachable leaders achieve:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/a><\/p>\n

Approachable leaders transfer values quickly<\/strong><\/p>\n

If a leader is considered intimidating, or stand-offish, they can find it difficult to connect with people in a way that can easily impact core values.<\/p>\n

Approachable leaders spot emerging leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the primary role of a leader is to raise up other leaders, approachability is a must. You can\u2019t identify potential leaders from afar.<\/p>\n

Approachable leaders know the pulse of the team<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only when you\u2019re up close and personal with your team will you discover what is really going on in the ranks.<\/p>\n

How do you become an approachable leader? As I\u2019ve observed tremendously approachable leaders, like Gary, I\u2019ve observed three important characteristics of approachable leaders.<\/p>\n

Approachable leaders get out of their office.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This used to be called \u201cleadership by walking around\u201d. Call it what you will, the first step towards approachability is to simply emerge from the cocoon of your office and get out to where the people are.<\/p>\n

Approachable leaders talk about non-work related topics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If all you ever talk about are spreadsheets and strategic plans, your team will never warm up to you. Talking about family, sports, movies, and other \u201creal life\u201d topics will draw your team closer.<\/p>\n

Approachable leaders smile.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Nuff said?<\/p>\n

When Bill described Gary\u2019s approachability he added, \u201cI\u2019ve flown all over the world with Gary. And I\u2019ve always been struck that wherever we land Gary gets off the plane and gives our friends a big hug.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to up your approachability, consider getting out of your office a bit more, put on a warm, genuine smile, and ask your teammates about the latest movie they\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n

The results will be well worth the effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I was asked what I thought were some key characteristics of effective leaders. And as I thought about that, my mind went back to an observation made by Willow Creek Church’s senior pastor Bill Hybels a few months ago. During a coaching session, Bill\u00a0singled out Willow Creek Association\u00a0president Gary Schwammlein for possessing a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[738,478,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5221,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219\/revisions\/5221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}