Posts from — June 2007

The first thing that an aspiring leader must realize is that they must be inspiring! That is, they must be capable of, and willing to inspire people on to greater things than if the leader were not in their lives.

So, is this too grandiose an ideal for the average local business owner? Absolutely not. The people who work at your business, school or organization need to be inspired by you on a regular basis. It is what keeps them from giving up.

Remind them of the big picture…

Everyone knows that quality leadership is an important part of every successful business. A good leader can drive an organization to ultimate success, while a bad leader can potentially run a business into the ground.

But what exactly makes one leader better than another? That question is extremely difficult to answer, as a good leader seems to possess a varied combination of traits, rather than a carbon copy of one specific personality type.

Still, today’s volatile business environment demands a definition of the ideal leader. Without at least some idea of good leadership traits, a business won’t survive against the competition. Recently, business expert Bill Blades answered these difficult questions about what makes good leadership:

So you’re faced with a challenge. Start solving it by giving it a positive name: call it an opportunity. Next, make it as simple as you can by breaking it into small pieces. Arrange the pieces in the order you wish to address them and then address them one at a time.

Often it helps to look at the situation in different ways:

- Can you turn it upside down or inside out?

- Can you diminish or enlarge it?

- Could the sequence of its parts be reversed or reordered?

When it comes to fishing, my husband takes the lead. But his lack of leadership ability in a recent canoe trip on the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota offered wonderful lessons on how leaders can unknowingly screw up.

(1) Assign responsibility without authority.
Bill insisted that in order to cast his fishing line, he needed to be in the back of the canoe. I was to paddle as he cast and trolled his lure. The only challenge is that the ability to steer a two-person canoe is handled by the person in the back. He’d shout directions to me but I had little authority over the craft. Frustrated, I wanted to turn around and whack him with the paddle.

You can be a leader, have a fulfilling life and make a difference in your home, job and community by building and enhancing these twelve success qualities!

1. Have A Mission That Matters – Your life goal is at the core of your success.

2. Be A Big Thinker – See people, places and things bigger and better than they are.

3. Be Ethical – True success means having and expecting high ethics.

4. Be A Change Master – Create your own future by being flexible and innovative.

5. Be Sensitive – Sensitivity to other’s needs, wants and values builds loyalty.

Leaders are often metaphorically compared to eagles. Rightfully so; because like eagles leaders posses a keen since of vision and have a tremendous strength of character.

However, the misnomer is when leaders assume they should be found alone like most eagles. The sighting of a noble leader may be rare; however a good leader should never be alone. When a leader acts as a lone ranger, taking all the responsibility upon himself; it is neither good for him or for the people. Both he and the people will eventually wear out.

Leaders get results through others. There are everyday heroes you’ve never heard of who may teach you almost as much as famous business writers. Why? Because these people have developed the ability to discover extraordinary employees — right under their noses.

Is there a gold mine of creativity, innovation, and leadership in your midst? Most companies do and don’t know it. You may have such a worker right now and not be aware of it.

Patty Lake, one of my “everyday heroes,” told me about a woman on her staff at Shell Services International who had worked in Payroll for over twenty-five years.

Games are an ancient and fun way to get people interacting, even in stressful situations. At one of my seminars, an attendee, Susan Peters of BorgWarner PTC Shared Services, shared this technique that she and her colleagues had found very valuable.

“After one of the sessions,” said Susan, “we spoke briefly about our company’s struggles while we are combining five divisions under one ‘happy roof’ with a shared services department acting as the building cheerleaders. In addition to the day-to-day payroll, our jobs are HR, IT, and finance, getting everyone to work together as a team.

Leadership is mistakenly portrayed as an exclusively intentional activity. Most commonly, we think that we need to make a speech to lead. It’s allegedly a matter of making a deliberate appeal to people to follow us along a particular path.

Leadership can, however, be shown by example, unintentionally. Every time you achieve something at work against the odds, work extra hard, propose a better way of working or simply set an ethical example for others, you might be having a leadership impact on those around you without knowing it.

“If I could just get my team really engaged in this project . . .”

“The problem is that people don’t seem to really care. If they were more committed to this work, we’d get better results. . .”

“You can’t get people to really work hard any more . . .”

I’ve heard all of these comments, and many like them, and so have you. You may have even thought or said them yourself.