Archive for February, 2010

Where There Are People…There Are Issues

When discussing his rise through the ranks of management to executive leadership over the course of thirty one years, one of my clients said, “The time between rewarding moments is often filled with frustrating weeks.”  Is that true for you?  If you said yes, you’ve obviously had enough leadership experience to know that there is some element of truth in this statement, because not every day is rewarding.  If this statement is not true for you, you’re either not really leading or you are one of those rare exceptions.

Effective leadership is a simple process, but difficult to well.  If it wasn’t difficult, everyone would do it and everyone would do it well.  I do believe that leadership skills can be learned.  However, I also believe some people are born with some talents that, if developed, can make them highly effective leaders.  In either case, if you are interested in improving your leadership effectiveness, make it a priority in your schedule to take four L.I.T.E. steps.

Lead Proactively, Not Emotionally

When thrust into a leadership role, you may have nothing to rely on other than your natural instincts.  If you’re an impatient person, you’ll likely be an impatient leader.  If you’re a dynamic person, you’re likely to be a dynamic leader.  And so on. 

The key is not to let your leadership style be determined by your emotions, your mood or your personality.  Leadership requires skills.  Effectively leadership requires developing knowledge, skills and talents into a strength.

Whether you aspire to a leadership role or you are currently in a leadership role, leadership skills can be and should be learned and developed.  The most effective leaders are those who coach / develop / grow / mentor their followers along a path toward peak performance. 

Leading employees effectively and developing them into peak performers provides a significant return on investment for the organization.  That’s the highest and best use of leadership skills.

Influence, Not Control

Leadership is an influence process. 

In the “good ol’ days”, leaders could say to an employee, “Do this or you’re fired.”  If the employee complied, the leader was successful.  The leader had the control in that situation. 

Nowadays, leaders often don’t have direct control in a situation.  And, even if the leader can today say, “Do this or you’re fired,” they know that this is a costly standoff.  Leadership effectiveness is achieved when the employee carries out the leader’s direction even when the leader is not looking.  When this happens, the leader has influenced the employee to embrace the assignment and/or direction.  When this is done successfully, the leader multiplies his or her efforts several times over.

Think First, Then Speak

Wouldn’t work be easier if you could single-handedly do the work of all the people who report to you?  There wouldn’t be any need for leadership, but, if you could do all of that work alone, work would be easier than leading effectively, wouldn’t it? 

The difficulty in the leadership role is that we have to accomplish objectives through the work of other people.  And, as the title of this article says, where there are people – there are issues.  Those we lead are not automatically single-mindedly focused on whatever we want them to do.  They have issues.  And those issues don’t always line up with the work we have for them to do.

The clarity of our communication on what exactly we want them to do, why we want them to do it and how it fits into the larger scope of things will determine our success in getting employees to embrace the work we have for them.  Generation Y is called that for a reason.  When given any assignment, they want to know “Why?”  The reality is that it’s not just Generation Y, we all want to know why something needs to be done.  We want to know the larger context within which this assignment fits. 

The key is to think through what and how you want to communicate your leadership guidance.  Clearly communicating what needs to be done and why it needs to be done is one of the hallmarks of effective leadership.  Think first, then speak.

Exit If You Hate It

If you end up in a leadership role and you hate it, quit!  Life is too short. 

Just as it takes a certain set of interests to enjoy a career as a Geologist, leaders thrive on the fact that where there are people – there are issues.  If you went to school to be an accountant, worked in your field and now find yourself doing leadership stuff instead of accounting stuff and you hate it, quit.  Go back to being an accountant.  We’re each wired with a unique set of talents, skills, knowledge, interests, and experience.  Find out where your “sweet spot” is and make a career there.  You’ll quickly find that it doesn’t feel like work anymore.  

Leadership is a noble calling like many other roles.  Some of us thrive on the frustrating weeks because of the rewarding moments.  If leadership is your calling, spend your career taking these four steps to improve your knowledge, skills and leadership effectiveness.  The Employers’ Association has programs throughout the year geared specifically to help you develop leadership skills.