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The Three Vital Requirements for Outstanding
Leadership
Isn’t it amazing what is expected of us as leaders on any
given day? Pick your book, and you’ll find the twelve competencies,
or the twenty requirements, or the fifteen absolutes for a good
leader. And these have nothing to do with the regular performance
objectives that are expected of us; sometimes it’s enough
to make us want to hide behind, well, the easy things, like putting
out the
daily fires.
There are three things
that you can focus on as a leader that will guarantee an improvement
in your team’s performance and a high probability of meeting
all of those performance objectives:
1. Communicating and implementing your vision. The
first President Bush admitted he had trouble with “the vision
thing,” but he’s not alone;
lack of a vision remains one of the biggest trouble spots for many
organizations. However, you can effectively communicate your vision
if you establish these priorities:
Communicate the vision with passion,
a sense of urgency and importance. After all, if you
don’t
care, why should your team?
Let’s use the example
of the following strategy: we agree that we want to have an integrated
IT system that takes orders from customer entry through customer
fulfillment, picks up accounts receivable, and includes customer
returns with account credit, and we’d like all of this accomplished
within 3 years. We’ll call this the Integrated
Customer Fulfillment process.
Now, I deliberately chose a rather dry
strategic item as it creates a more compelling opportunity
for how to communicate the vision.
So how do we make this admittedly
emotionless topic seem important? First, put it in terms that
are meaningful to the team. For example, remind them of the importance
of customer satisfaction and the linkage of these systems to customer
sat. No less important, highlight to them that their jobs should
be easier and more rewarding; how much quicker the employees will
be able to respond to the customers in each phase of the process;
how much less time will be spent on entering the same data
in different steps of the process; how much less chance for error
will occur; and how they can free up time to work on more challenging
aspects of their job than mastering the myriad systems at their
desktop.
Philip
Knight, co-founder and CEO of Nike Company described his vision: “We
wanted Nike to be the world’s best sports and fitness company.
Once you say that, you have a focus. You don’t end up making
wing tips or sponsoring the next Rolling Stones world tour.” There
is no confusion on Nike’s objective in the marketplace.
Communicate the vision repeatedly
and consistently. Many organizations
will use newsletters, training videos, and other formal vehicles
for communicating their vision. After that, however, the informal
channels become the more important breeding ground for gaining
buy-in.
Returning to our example above, now that we’ve notified
everyone that our strategic intent is to have an Integrated Customer
Fulfillment process, we need to start demonstrating our commitment
to it. The use of employee roundtables can be excellent for talking
about and soliciting feedback on the views of the strategy and
for identifying inhibitors to achieving the vision.
As we all well
know, understanding doesn’t necessarily lead
to action. Repeatedly, we hear leaders lament that everyone seems
to understand what needs to be done, and yet they don’t act
on it. The fact is, simply understanding is not enough to compel
people to do what needs to be done. Exercise and weight-loss are
often-used examples: most people do understand that being overweight
is unhealthy,
yet they fail to do anything about it. Like the reluctant
dieter, your team needs follow-up and reinforcement to reach their
goals.
Follow up on implementation. This
can be the achilles heel of any strategic initiative. Fortunately,
there are several ways to monitor progress.
Test if it’s working.
Is there acknowledgement when a deviation occurs? Back to our Integrated
Customer Fulfillment process: invariably a leader will encounter
decisions
that will go outside the strategic framework. An effective leader
will acknowledge that they’ve purposely deviated from the
strategy.
Monitor the progress. On a periodic basis, leaders should
measure the traction of their implementation. The IT implementation
from our example might have a twice-yearly review, the results
of which could indicate a problem with implementation or a required
change in the strategic direction.
Reinforce the importance of your
strategy. Are the key leaders in your organization delivering
on the strategy? A quick way to permeate this within the team is
to
select two or three key leaders and ensure that they emulate every
aspect of this new vision (compensate them, promote them, whatever
makes them tick, but make it visible). Soon, others in the organization
will be following their lead.
2. Empowering your people. Now that
you’re effectively communicating
the vision, take a minute and look around you. Most likely you are
surrounded by some extremely talented people in your organization,
chomping at the bit to take
on more responsibility. Don’t just delegate the mundane; assign
them some big tasks, responsibilities that go beyond what they’ve
done before. There is a high probability that they will deliver beyond
both their and
your expectations.
Back to its basic meaning, empowerment is meant to ensure
that power, responsibility, and authority are pushed down to the
lowest-level decision-making position within the organization.
The benefits of empowerment start with the employee.
They now feel that they are part of something—they have job
satisfaction as their work begins to feel more significant—and
they are likely to make higher quality decisions due to their intimate
knowledge of their area. It also has the added bonus of alleviating
you, as the leader,
to focus on your key responsibilities.
Michael
Dell, hands-on CEO of Dell Computers, agrees: “One
thing that has to really cut across….is engaging the workforce
and having them really excited about what they’re doing and
how they can really make an impact on the success of the company….”
How
does a leader ensure their team is empowered?
Allow your teams to
determine their own goals and commitments. The empowered teams
should be able to devise a set of goals and deliverables that will
meet
your larger objective.
Allow the team to be involved in the
decision-making. Not only will teammembers learn from
their involvement, they will also have “bought-in” once
the strategy is determined.
Be prepared to accept the outcome. Although
the temptation is great, avoid taking back the responsibility when
something goes awry, or worse, claiming the credit when the outcome
is favorable. Learn to be satisfied when the team has reached its
goal. Resist asking for marginal improvements; rarely do they improve
the results, and often they derail the team. You are not less of
a leader if all you’ve done is said, “Great job,
let’s move forward.”
3. Connecting with your people. Warren
Bennis, noted scholar and leadership expert, writes “Leading
is getting people to want to do what needs to be done.” Leading
is not simply getting done what needs to be done. Finding a way to
connect to people in your organization is the key to creating that
desire.
Ironically, connecting has become harder than ever. Despite
all of the ways of communicating that are available to us, this is
the one that has become the hardest. Cell phones, computers, text
messaging, TV, have helped to create a kind of self inflicted attention
deficit disorder. When coupled with many teammembers working remotely
at home, or customer locations. or in offices around the globe, connecting
can be a real challenge.
There are countless ways to improve
your connections but here are two of the most successful:
Have an
open door policy, even if that door is only electronic. An
open door policy has always meant people could stop in to chat.
Here you can find a way
to make technology work for you rather than against you. Your team
needs to know which communication vehicle—be it email, cellphone,
instant messaging or other—works best for you, and when.
So, if email is your preferred communication than you must be prepared
to respond in a meaningful timeframe.
If you prefer instant messaging, stress that it’s only for
quick and short answers; something more may require a phone call
or face-toface meeting.
When you do have a person-to-person
discussion, dedicate your time to that person. The paperwork,
emails, or flashing light on your phone must be ignored so that
you can focus on your employee. You have to connect with the
employee and maintain that connection until the conversation
is complete. This simple effort will go a long way in winning
the
commitment of your team. Legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi,
describes it this way: “It is essential to understand that
battles are primarily won in the hearts of men.”
Leaders
are always faced with more expectations than can easily be fulfilled.
You can simplify your list considerably by focusing on these 3:
communicate your vision; empower your leaders; and connect with your
people. You will soon see that your team wants to get things done.
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