After many long hours and a lot of hard work, it’s always a great feeling to bask in the glory of our achievements, especially ones that exceed our very own expectations. Let’s face it…it’s human nature to do so. Go ahead and congratulate yourself, say Dr. Mikel J. Harry and Richard Schroeder, authors of Six Sigma. Give yourself a quick pat on that back…realizing that career kudos always translate into monetary value, such as raises and promotions. But, get back to work because you must be careful if you think that your past victories guarantee you a spot in the winner’s circle. Just like a company’s balance sheet, it’s important to take frequent stock of your personal assets and liabilities that add or subtract from your personal career goals. Continue Reading…
Learning More Once We Figure It Out
Managing By Walking Around
As commander of the Third Army, General George S. Patton was known for getting the job done. General Patton succeeded because he was a realist who understood what was going on in the trenches. He always took into consideration the big picture and assessed what needed to get done…and then did it without any delay or excuses. More than anything, he hated orders that didn’t make sense or put his men in harm’s way. If the orders were outrageous, he would tweak them just enough so that the troops could still achieve success.
General Patton wanted no part of bad strategy. When he was told to stand by and not advance, he sharpen and polish his troops by sending out small battle groups to keep the enemy guessing and on their toes.
When it comes down to being successful in business, a leader should make sure his or her “troops” have what they need to execute the grand plan, or that plan can quickly become a disaster. Whether you are selling automobiles to customers in a retail setting or delivering parts to an oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, how well you perform the task will indicate your level of success. On the flip side, great plans are ruined when the execution suffers. Bottom line…grandiose strategy plans won’t sell more cars, but solid customer service will. Listen to your customers, as for they are always telling you a story on how to keep them satisfied.
With that said, all of this reminds me of something Tom Peters wrote in A Passion for Excellence. In this book, he states that “Customers love being appreciated and hate supervisors who pull the disappearing act.” Heck, who doesn’t for that matter? Peters also stated, “Bad leaders are invisible, while good leaders demonstrate MBWA,” an acronym that he coined which means: “Managing By Walking Around.”
If you want to be informed about your company and provide useful direction to employees and managers, you need to get out of your office and change your focus from analyzing yesterday’s trends to witnessing the daily operation of your organization. By asking questions in the face of the day-to-day operations, you will get answers to problems you didn’t even know existed. By listening to other people within your team, you can give real input into the processes of your organization. By talking to customers, you’ll know if the business is hitting its target or just missing. Talking to a customer is much more valuable than looking at the results or marketing surveys.
So, the next time you want information…take a walk. Good things are sure to happen!
Group vs. Team
Groups of people have been around since as long as I’ve been around… and then some; human nature draws people to one another. Group behavior ranges from encouraging to chaotic, from adversity to success. Many managers are fine with group performance. For me, though, it is increasingly obvious that groups that experience the highest output are those that have bonded into a team.
I believe that the main determining factor between a group and a team is their point of reference to one another. A group is two or more people working in proximity, each doing his or her own thing to accomplish a goal.
A team shares the same goal. Its work is dependent upon each team member for the final results. Take for example some of the curriculum at the International Leadership Conference. While it’s a group of people with different accountabilities… one laying out materials, one proofing, another editing, another administering tasks… none is successful without the other. The final product, whether it’s a book, a CD or a slide presentation, cannot be completed without the team’s integration of talent.
A leader’s job is all about getting results. You do that by building your team, individual talent upon individual talent. You balance the multiple needs, recognizing one and minimizing another to incorporate them into a unit. Taking care of your associates with an organic focus is what makes the team strong.
Developing individual team members so they compensate for and support one another makes them a team. As individuals improve, the team improves. The result of moving among your roles of coaching, mentoring and counseling is what your team produces… productivity and job satisfaction.
Ask people today what motivates them to join one organization over another and a top response is to be able to work with the team. Integrating your individual associates into the team requires the same skilled approaches for me. Shared values, common goals, constant rewards and satisfaction take a group and shape it into a top-performing team.
Make your team world class!
Balancing the Leadership Challenge.
Leaders who attract quality people, know that the key is to become a person of quality themselves. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills, and opportunities you offer as a parent, as a manager, as a business owner. I’m going to go ahead and call leadership the great challenge of life. It seems that what is important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves continuously until they become effective. And once they become effective, they continue to grow in all aspects of life.
Here are some specifics that the late Jim Rohn showed us during his journey into the leadership horizon.
1) Learn to be strong but not rude. It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It’s not even a good substitute.
2) Learn to be kind but not weak. We must not mistake kindness for weakness. Kindness isn’t weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell somebody the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.
3) Learn to be bold but not a bully. It takes boldness to win the day. To build your influence, you’ve got to walk in front of your group. You’ve got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem, discover the first sign of trouble.
4) You’ve got to learn to be humble, but not timid. You can’t get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. Humility is almost a Godlike word. A sense of awe…a sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and spirit. An understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we’re part of the stars. So humility is a virtue; but timidity is a disease. Timidity is an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem.
5) Be proud but not arrogant. It takes pride to win the day. It takes pride to build your ambition. It takes pride in community, it takes pride in cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is being proud without being arrogant. In fact, I believe the worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance. It’s when you don’t know that you don’t know! Now that kind of arrogance is intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that’s just too much to take.
6) Develop humor without folly. That’s important for a leader. In leadership, we learn that it’s okay to be witty, but not silly. It’s okay to be fun, but not foolish.
The Ego Factor
After studying a leadership model called “The Ego Factor”, I noticed it pointed out that torpid growth, lost market share, and panic response management are more likely to occur if growth objectives are Ego driven vs. Profit driven. This often leads to personal needs getting ahead of business needs and is a common symptom of the lack of leadership within an organization.
A servant leader makes a conscious choice to lead by being a servant first. He or she is noticeably different from the person who is leading first, because of the need to alleviate an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions.
Good managers get employees to respect them, effective leaders get employees to not only respect them but more importantly they get them to respect themselves.
It has been shown that effective leaders go through a never ending development process that includes education, self study, training, experience and coaching and mentoring from one or several individuals that have a very positive influence on their personal development. Leadership is the ability to influence, inspire and motivate others to accomplish specific objectives. It includes creating a culture that helps direct the organization in such a way that it makes it consistent and coherent keeping short term goals and objectives in alignment with long term strategic initiatives. The success of leadership in this process is directly influenced by the individual leaders’ beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge and skills.
Position and title may give one power but power in itself does not make one an effective leader. To become an effective leader there are specific skill sets that one must understand and master. This does not come naturally. It takes dedication, passion and commitment to the process. That commitment, dedication and passion includes a tireless effort to improve on specific skills and the development of a personal leadership methodology. This is referred to as your personal leadership model.
What is your personal leadership model?
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