Victor’s 10 Reflections on Leadership - 10 Your team needs you to be their champion
Steve Rosvold 00:05
Welcome to CFO talk. I’m your host, Steve Rosvold, Chief Learning Officer at CFO.University. Joining us from Wichita, Kansas today is Victor Ojeleye. In your tenth observation about leadership you mention the leaders need to champion your team. What happens when they don’t have a champion?
Victor Ojeleye 00:26
Yeah, it’s a, it’s a great question, I think, champion to me is an advocate, whether you’re helping to prioritize their time, defend their capabilities, and create boundaries almost around your team. This is what we do, this is our skill set, and really championing them for who they are. But when you aren’t there to do that, that’s where the work that you’ve done to help your team know how to be their own advocate needs to come out. It has to be there.
Whether it’s breaking down boundaries, hey, I’m stuck, I need someone to help elevate, you know, this work, or you need someone to partner with on those types of things. The way that you’ve rubbed off on your team becomes an active part of how they operate when you’re not there. My mentors have been champions for me, whether in work or other spaces, and the things that they told me have come to mind when I’ve run out of ideas. And it’s tough when you don’t have someone to champion for you, whether you’re looking for a new job, or whether you’re working on a project or you need you need resources, or someone to help you on something. Or you just need someone to say can we get a little bit of that individual’s time and then you get that buy in? So, it’s a little bit of those tactics you’re using to influence and you just hope that the work you’ve done helps people know how to do it best themselves.
You’ve got to champion when you are given the opportunity. So I’m working on that. And again, I’ll go back to the sports. When I’m championing my team and I’m cheering them on, it’s a lot different than a coach that maybe takes a different approach and might be negative or calling out mistakes. Positive energy oftentimes supersede the negative energy and allows you to look past small mistakes and keep moving forward.
Steve Rosvold 02:46
That’s a great, great response, Victor. Thank you.
That wraps up today’s CFO talk CFO dot University is a community of member scholars, companies and trusted advisors committed to the professional development of chief financial officers. Learn more about us at WWE dot CFO dot University. Until next time, enjoy, learn, engage.
That wraps up this video short taken from our longer interview with Victor, Reflections on Leadership. CFO.University is a community of member scholars, companies and trusted advisors committed to the professional development of chief financial officers. Learn more about us at CFO.University.
Until next time, Enjoy. Learn. Engage
Find Victor’s other Reflections on Leadership HERE
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