The Four Big Lessons for Today's Leaders - A "Tune-Up" for Executives |
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By: Larry Wenger Posted: 2007-07-18 13:59:11 |
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Leading an organization or a work team in today's environment calls for special skills and abilities. This requirement applies to every industry and all areas of society. No longer is it good enough to lead by your "instincts". We know that the skills exhibited by successful leaders are not ones that they were born with; we learn leadership skills, and regardless of how we might evaluate our present skill level, we can always learn new, more effective leadership behaviors.As we think about leadership development, the skills to which we might aspire fall into four categories. After reviewing them you will be able to clearly identify areas where you need to improve or you will realize that they are useful concepts that you may have not thought about or used in some time.1. Keeping staff is about positive relationships. Being a leader today means keeping staff turnover at or below what is regarded as normative for your industry. Reducing staff turnover is not about bonuses or special recognition; it's about improving the relationships between leaders and followers...reducing the number of negative interactions which occur in any work day. Leaders must make the transition from being a dictator of supervise behavior to creating a work environment of mutual growth and development geared toward meeting the mission of the organization. John Maxwell outlines how positive relationships amongst persons at all levels in the organization ensures the organization's success.2. Accepting Personal Responsibility. This means being better at everything you do...better today than you were yesterday. We cannot expect our direct reports to be committed to self-improvement if we ourselves do not exhibit the same commitment. Secondly, personal responsibility means looking at your role in every "mess" that happens. This does not mean that you don't review the role of others too, but that you don't start the investigation assuming that it is "their" fault exclusively. Ben Zander in "The Art of Possibility" talks about the mutual dependence between leaders and followers.3. Improve Teamwork. Organizations often suffer because teams don't complete their assigned tasks satisfactorily. Patrick Lencioni says that leaders must make sure that their work teams perform in an atmosphere characterized by: honest, unambiguous communication, a high level of trust, the constructive use of conflict, and accountability for decisions made.4. Use Goals to Reach a Higher Level of Performance. Social science research tells us that at least 95% of all Americans have no clear goals for their lives; they thoroughly plan a two week vacation but leave the other 50 weeks a year to chance. Out of this part of the population come many of today's alleged leaders and so beginning to use goals will mean a significant behavioral change for them. Achieving goals is not a matter of chance or wishful thinking. Rather it is a specific, detailed process designed to lead your organization to the successful realization of it's mission.As you think about your own leadership performance, place the four "big ideas" on a sheet of paper and evaluate your performance in each of those areas on a 1 to 10 scale. Any number 7 or below suggests an area in which you need to significantly improve your performance. Being a leader today necessitates a continual self-reflection and evaluation, and as we have said, a commitment to self improvement and learning. When we are always focused on "getting through the day" we run a high risk of loosing our sense of direction and focus.Larry Wenger is the President and Founder of the Workforce Performance Group. located in Newtown, Pa. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Social Work and has led human service organizations of various types for over 40 years.Larry Wenger is a leadership development expert. For more information on Executive Tune-ups or other organizational and staffing issues, contact Larry at
http://www.workforceperformancegroup.com |
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