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Leadership - the difference between success and failure
Strategic Alignment Leadership Principles
Leaders must understand that their role is to serve others, and not vice versa. Leaders are to be facilitators; equipping employees with the tools and information they need to do their jobs fast and efficiently.
1. Leadership 2. Agility 3. Empowerment 4. Focus & Result Orientation
Whether it is your product that brings success or your leadership seems like a chicken-and-egg
5. Empathy & Adaptability
question. To us it isn't...
6. Common Sense Attitude Our Clients
An excellent product with mediocre leadership will eventually fail. A mediocre product with excellent leadership may very well succeed. It is always the leadership that makes the difference.
So, what makes the difference...? Which are the prerequisites to develop successful leadership in your organization? Here are a few:
1. Leaders must lead Leaders must lead. This seems like an obsolete statement, however research in the USA and the Netherlands has shown that 70% of employees have the feeling that their leader has no idea what they are doing. So, leaders must lead. Leaders first of all are to be facilitators; equipping employees with the tools and information they need to do their jobs fast and efficiently. Leaders are to help employees set targets in line with the purpose, the goals and the strategy of the organization, and to coach their employees towards success. Leaders also need to hire and fire, and help poor performers improve. It is a lot of work, leadership, but it is the first and most important key to success.
2. Leaders must be engaged Engaged means that a leader's motivation to act and perform must be genuinly in line with the purpose, the strategic goals and the strategy of their organization, without self centered motives. Engagement means a whole lot of other things as well: it means knowing and understanding your people, engaging their hearts and minds, understanding what moves them, what is on their minds, and what they need. It means understanding and supporting your people's targets and tasks, and be engaged in helping them achieve them. It means being engaged in what is happening in the perifery of the organization, etc. etc. Leaders who are truly engaged will spend more time with their employees than with other CEO's or other 'important' people. To an engaged leader all employees are VIPs.
3. Leaders must be committed One of the key success factors of successful organizations is that key managers are committed to stay with the organization for a longer period of time. In our studies of successful companies none of the top managers was planning a next career move, very few of them were the typical ‘tour-of-duty’ type managers, staying for just the odd three years of their tour to prepare for their next career move (one of those habits that kills ownership all the way down to the work floor – “Why would I follow a leader who will be gone within a few years anyway…?”).
4. Leaders must be genuine One of the first prerequisites for leaders is to be genuine. It's OK to be yourself. People like to be led by real human beings with qualities as wel as quirks, not by puppets. Of-course genuinity requires a large and healthy dose of realistic self awareness, unfortunately not one of the strongest features in some leaders.
5. Leaders must communicate Leaders must communicate. John Kotter once mentioned that leaders undercommunicate with a factor 10; I fully support that statement. Access to information is essential to create empowerment. Poor and sluggish communication creates complexity; the organization will become slow and lethargic when people need too much time so sort things out. When employees have quick access to good information and everybody is on the same page, your organization will take decisions more quickly and move forward faster.
6. Leaders must empower Empowerment is something amazing. In all cases where we have been involved in developing empowerment in organizations staff turnover decreased dramatically within two years as soon as employees found out they could make a real difference for the company. Employees will automatically assume ownership for protecting the right to be engaged in work that gives them a sense of meaning and significance.
7. Leaders must embrace change Change is an inevitable part of modern business practices. Leaders must welcome change as something essential to develop progress and innovation, and develop the same willingness to adapt speedily to changing circumstances with their employees. They need to demonstrate and promote agility in adapting working practices and processes where changing circumstances require it. It pays to invest in good leadership, which seems a lot cheaper and more rewarding (and a whole lot more fun too) than investing in the bureaucracy compensating for poor leadership. Read more about bureaucracy and agility here... Read more about our leadership development program based on our six leadership principles here... Back © 2009 Advance! Business Consulting B.V.
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