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The Lenses of Leadership
Sarah Goschy • August 29, 2016
Why are some teams successful and others doomed to fail? Throughout my career, I have experienced the thrill of being part of teams that felt so in sync nothing felt impossible. I’ve also been a member of teams where corporate culture was crushing and employee morale so low that it squashed any chance for success. When I consider what drives success versus failure, the finger always points back to the leader.
So, how do we lead a team where all members are rowing in the same direction? At this year’s Global Leadership Summit, Bill Hybels, its founder, shared the 4 lenses of a successful leader.
The first is PASSION. Is your passion a lifelong dream you’ve been pursuing? Or does it stem from enormous frustration? It doesn’t matter – as long as you identify it. Once identified, it’s crucial that you feed it! Read articles written by other passion-leaders. Go to places that stir your soul. Surround yourself with passion-filled people. The love for what you do will be obvious to your team and their passions will be ignited as a result.
The second lens is PEOPLE. Team members are not just bodies you hired in order to meet company objectives. Focus on hiring and retaining team members who share your core values. Remember that you have the ability to change their lives by loving, leading and stewarding them to greatness.
Third is PERFORMANCE. Everyone likes to know how they’re doing. Set goals for your team and allow them the freedom to determine how they are going to track and measure their success. Remember that goals are in constant need of readjustment. Communicate feedback constantly celebrate success!
The fourth and last lens is LEGACY. What will people remember of you when you’re gone? I’ve never wanted someone to stand up at my funeral and say, “she was a really hard worker”. Man was not created to be a slave to his vocation. Let’s lead our teams by example and be leaders who place importance on all areas of life.
What lenses are you looking through? Are they cloudy? Scratched? Rose-colored? Perhaps it’s time to clean them off or put a new pair on. When it comes to leadership, in business and life, blurry vision just isn’t gonna cut it.
We are excited to announce the recipient of our most recent Food for Thought grant — the Hot Springs Food Pantry, located in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Food for Thought is a fund we created through The Community Foundation to offer grants to organizations that help feed children in our community. This isn’t just about money though. We’re also on the lookout for ways to teach kids about good food, to help them learn to prepare it, and to encourage them to love it as much as we do. We are always looking for organizations in our local communities whose mission aligns with ours and have specific needs we can provide grants for. Because our croux reaches far and wide, “local” doesn’t just mean Tennessee. In this case, the community is local to one of our core team members, Lauren. After moving back to her hometown of Hot Springs, South Dakota to be closer to family, she got involved with the local food pantry and saw a specific need there. The food pantry needed a refrigerator so they could provide more fresh produce and protein to families in the area. They were also seeing an above average need in the community due to rising costs which has depleted some of their funds. The grant received from Food for Thought will go towards these efforts and help provide fresh food for families in the area.
We’re back with another creative croux feature. Normally, these pieces are put together by one of our freelance writers, Annie Van Essen, but this time, we’re spotlighting her!
We celebrated our 10-year anniversary in July 2023, making this our tenth Mardi Gras as a krewe. We are so thankful for the many projects, partnerships, clients and friends who have been a part of our journey so far. The essence of Mardi Gras can be summed up in one lighthearted phrase, “ Laissez les bons temps rouler!” — French, for “Let the good times roll!” We’ve had a lot of good times here at roux over the last decade, and we’re excited for them to keep on rollin’. Bon Mardi Gras and merci beaucoup, friends!
Every January we like to gather as a croux and plan for the year ahead. It serves as a holiday celebration and a strategy session. We look forward to it every year. Over the last few years, we’ve also begun incorporating a “word of the year” practice, where we each choose a word that we will focus on throughout the year.
This year, we decided to take our merry-making to the streets of Nashville to see how well the average passerby could interpret some of our favorite Creole vocab. The results were… entertaining. See for yourself!
Every year, our croux puts together a roundup of our favorite Super Bowl commercials.
This time around, we thought we’d switch it up and ask for submissions of our team’s favorite commercials EVER. Whether from 2023 or 2003, we want to celebrate the advertising magic of Super Bowl Sunday.
Here at roux, we have a wonderful team of creatives supporting us, including photographers, videographers, writers, and designers.
Today, we’re excited to introduce you to Kyle Sorvick, one of the talented graphic designers we work with as part of our extended croux.
We all look forward to receiving Christmas greetings from friends and loved ones, whether it’s a social media post or a physical card to display in our house or hang on the fridge. But when it comes to company Christmas cards, corporate greetings can sometimes fall a bit flat. We love when a company spices things up and sends a message that’s genuine and fun. Videos can also be a more effective and affordable option for a company, when you consider the reach made possible with email and social media, and the savings on printing and postage. Averitt and JetRight are two local companies that knock it out of the park every year when it comes to their video Christmas cards. Whether they choose to be lighthearted and silly or share a heartwarming message, watching their videos shows you the real people and spirit behind the companies. Check them out below!