{"id":5762,"date":"2017-04-10T18:14:19","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T23:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=5762"},"modified":"2017-04-10T18:14:19","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T23:14:19","slug":"how-winsome-approachability-can-be-a-leadership-game-changer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/10\/how-winsome-approachability-can-be-a-leadership-game-changer\/","title":{"rendered":"How ‘Winsome Approachability’ Can Be a Leadership Game-Changer"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, the Willow Creek Association announced the news that a new president and c.e.o. had been named for the WCA; Tom De Vries. You can read about this\u00a0<\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For those of us who have worked with, and been led by, outgoing president Gary Schwammlein, the exciting news is tinged with sadness.\u00a0We realize that the leader who has been a part of the WCA for more than 20 years will soon retire.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When people ask me about what has made Gary such a remarkable leader, one term that comes to mind is “winsome approachability”.\u00a0This was a term I first heard to describe Gary by Global Leadership Summit founder\u00a0Bill Hybels.\u00a0<\/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

As I thought about the importance of this quality, I jotted down\u00a0some\u00a0important qualities of winsome approachability\u00a0that I’ve seen modeled by Gary Schwammlein:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Approachable leaders get out of their office.<\/strong><\/h2>\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

Gary has led by being with and among his colleagues.<\/p>\n

Approachable leaders talk about non-work related topics.<\/strong><\/h2>\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

Gary has always shown a keen interest in the lives of his teammates. And it matters.<\/p>\n

Approachable leaders smile.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A cold demeanor will build a cold team. Gary has led with the warmth of his smile.<\/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 warm up your approachability, consider getting out of your office a bit more, put on a warm, genuine smile, and\u00a0show a genuine interest in the lives of your teammates.<\/p>\n

These are qualities that have been exemplified by Gary Schwammlein. And they are qualities I have been inspired to develop in my own leadership.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, the Willow Creek Association announced the news that a new president and c.e.o. had been named for the WCA; Tom De Vries. You can read about this\u00a0here. For those of us who have worked with, and been led by, outgoing president Gary Schwammlein, the exciting news is tinged with sadness.\u00a0We realize that the…<\/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":[478,7,87,583,744,263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-leadership","category-leadership-summit","category-staffing","category-team-2","category-the-global-leadership-summit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5762","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=5762"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5768,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5762\/revisions\/5768"}],"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=5762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}