Chances are if you are like most of the business professionals that take the 10 question Leadership Culture Index below, your organization can use some improvement. A lot of improvement.
From selecting and supporting the right people to caring enough to provide the tools, mentoring and constructive feedback, this leader, whether CEO, Shift Supervisor or High School Tennis Coach, is truly responsible for creating an environment that breeds success. Success as we know, tends to breed more success. It’s a wonderful, vicious cycle.
While to most it might seem implausible or even laughable that the leaders of tomorrow are applying skills developed from years of what we viewed as “wasting time” by playing on-line games, it merits some consideration. Certainly most organizations completely drop the ball on effectively identifying and developing leadership talent, and my own experience and research indicates that where most (new) leaders struggle is in the area of soft skills and feedback. You don’t learn how to lead from a book or sitting in a classroom at graduate school, so who’s to say that the on-line gaming environment is not an outstanding and risk-free way to develop leadership acumen.
I reflected on the Basic Business Principles as the values are known at Matsushita, when I co-authored the Values for a future employer, and I reflect and draw upon them regularly as I teach sections on Values-Focused Leadership in workshops and classrooms. A typical session will end with a majority of participants highlighting how they never understood until now how powerful the corporate values could be in strengthening their culture, driving performance and guiding behavior. This is a valuable lesson to learn for all of us.
Jump-starting a leadership development activity does not require a tremendous investment in program development, outside consultants or big company meetings. Sometimes the best results come from simple approaches, and anything that gets people talking about the right issues can serve as a starting-point. The key point is for you to do something. Any or all of these three simple ideas can get you started.
Every Project Manager with a few years of experience under his or her belt can likely recall at least one example of a major project that lived on long after the plug should have been pulled and the project canceled. The best (or worst) examples are the ego-driven initiatives of top executives that can’t let go for fear of losing face by admitting defeat.
More than a few organizations have been taken to or pushed over the edge by these self-anointed visionaries bent on changing their corporate world with some grand project. Once invested, they cannot let go, and if left unchecked, the results can be nothing short of disastrous for the organization.
There are no magic answers for taking a horrible company situation and suddenly making it better. There are also no guarantees that your heroic efforts will save the day. However, as a professional and an emerging leader, these are the situations that test your skills, that challenge you to mature and that give you the tools to succeed the rests of your career. If you plan on walking through the door in the morning, show up prepared to fight for your firm. And when you walk out the door at night, remember the wise words of a good friend: “Family and health count, all the rest of this stuff is just politics and money.” Keep it in context.
The Carnival of Human Resources, Installment #32 is live today at the Maximize Possibility blog. One click leads you to 27 great blog postings on all things people, leadership and business. Go ahead and check it out. You will be glad that you did. Thanks to Jake Flanagin for running my post on “Strategy Bursts.” It’s in some great company with thefeatured bloggers.
A passionate employee is like rocket fuel for your organization. These rare and valuable people build your brand, strengthen client loyalty, stimulate repeat business and energize your workplace just by their daily participation in your business.
A blog post at on Looking and Acting Like a Success at Alan Weis’s Contrarian Consulting site triggered some thoughts on what it means to look and act like a leader. While Alan’s post emphasizes how a successful person might act to present a desired image, how does a leader portray himself or herself as competent? If this seems superficial to some, I would challenge that a leader is responsible for acting (and to an extent looking) the part.
