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Leadership development is the pressing need of organisations across the globe. Whilst there are organisations investing significant sums of money to develop leaders, according to recent research the results have been disappointing. Management-Issues discusses research by the Global Leadership Forecast 2008|2009, by consultants DDI, which sets out to examine why confidence in leaders is declining despite a heightened focus on developing leadership talent. The study surveyed almost 1,500 HR professionals and more than 12,000 leaders from 76 countries. The key findings of this research is as follows:

• Although three-quarters of the executives surveyed said that improving leadership talent was a top business priority, just four out of 10 were satisfied with what their organizations were actually doing to help them, a decline of 12 percentage points since the last Leadership Forecast was published two years ago.
• “… what emerges from the report is a clear message that while executives want more opportunities to learn on the job, such as special projects or moving to a new assignment, their senior management seldom takes responsibility for making this happen".”
• Almost six out of 10 executives said that they and their manager had not agreed on a formal written plan for their development.
• Only around a third of senior managers were held accountable for the success of leadership development programs.
• Just a quarter of organizations monitor their leadership development programs or formally measure their results. "Great leadership doesn’t happen by accident - organizations need to start listening to their leaders and make the right development investments if they want different results than they’re getting now," Wellins said.
• Only half of organizations globally have succession plans for their leadership team and US organizations even lower than the global sample. “But having succession plans isn’t the whole story - HR professionals indicated that one in three succession candidates fail.”

This research makes it clear that developing future leaders is not seen as a priority by today’s leaders. The sad thing is that one of the primary responsibilities of leaders is to grow and develop other leaders. It seems that we are failing in executing this responsibility. What actions can you take over the following week to start developing a programme to grow and develop future leaders in your teams and organisations?

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Leadership Development, Development, Research, Management, Business, Talent, HR, Succession

The Institute for Corporate Productivity article “Productivity Is a Higher Priority, but Which Initiatives Really Work?” discussing a the May 2008 survey, of 305 respondents, asking questions about 16 factors that have the potential to raise productivity. Of the16 factors, the following five factors, corporate culture, leadership, compensation and benefit programs, training and development, and performance management. Of the five factors, the most productive organizations furthest outstripped the average ones in the following four areas:

• The culture of the organization: “Seventy-nine percent of the most productive organizations say that, to a high or very high degree, the cultures of their organizations help raise employee productivity.”
• Leadership: “Seventy-six percent of highly productive companies said that, to a high or very high extent, leadership in their companies raises productivity (compared with 48% of all respondents).”
• Employee engagement practices: “Whereas just 31% of average respondents said their organizations use engagement practices to a high or very high extent to boost productivity, 59% of highly productive organizations said they do. Engagement means that workers are mentally and emotionally invested in their work and in contributing to their employer’s success.”
• Employee health/wellness programs: “People like to work for organizations that send strong signals that they care for their employees. These particular programs may be sending those signals more than most other types of initiatives do… It’s also possible that such programs actually boost the physical and mental well-being of workers, leading to higher rates of work productivity.”

The research highlights the importance of effective leadership for company success. Organisational and indeed personal success rises and falls on the effective practice of leadership. What are you doing to develop your leadership ability? What are you doing to develop the leadership ability of others? This may be the most important task of any organisation.

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Business, Research, Employee Engagement, Culture

Photo by b_d_solis

 

Conversation is an important part of effective leadership and change for the following reasons:

• Vision must be shared, before it can be lived… this requires conversation.
• Change is underpinned by conversation Organisations change, when people change…. and … people change one conversation at a time…..
• Employee engagement is driven by meaning and purpose… this requires conversation.
• Execution requires alignment of action…. this requires conversation.

Given the importance of conversations in the leadership practice, the following principles serve as useful guides to leaders wanting to shape conversation:

• Leaders are the custodians of an organisations conversation. Conversation happens on a daily basis in within teams and organisations and much of this conversation occurs by default. By this I mean that it’s aimless and unproductive. The quality of an organisation’s conversation is the leadership’s responsibility. To effectively navigate change leaders need to be proactively engaged in focusing, shaping and influencing an organisation’s conversation. The quality of the conversation can be directly correlated with the quality of the organisation’s leadership. Using conversation deliberately means that we need to think carefully about how we will craft conversation and how we can use it purposefully.Quality conversation leads to effective decision making, engaged employees, a compelling vision and aligned execution.  This requires leaders have a clear point of view about, what the organisation needs to be talking about at this time. “A leader’s job is to engineer epiphanies one conversation at a time.” - Susan Scott
• Effective conversation is about meaningful inquiry. An effective conversation is always based on asking questions that matter. This means that leaders must to be open to multiple perspectives and view points. To explore all facets of an issue requires open questioning your primary tool. Asking not telling, using open ended questions then standing back to listen. This is the key skill of inquiry. What is the ratio between asking and telling in your daily conversations?
• Conversations shape the context in which people act. Effective leaders use conversation deliberately to shape the organisations direction. However, without a clear philosophy and vision, the shaping of the organisations conversation cannot happen. Leaders need to have a clear message that effectively sets the container in which conversations take place. A great container for conversation require leaders to be clear about the following issues:
  • The organisations purpose - why it exists?
  • The organisations key objectives – what it needs to achieve?
  • The business model – how it makes money?
  • The leadership philosophy - how people behave?
  • Their goals, priorities and actions – what is most important, what should be do first?

“What gets talked about in a company and how it gets talked about determines what will happen. Or won’t happen. Conversations provide clarity or confusion. Invite cross-boundary collaboration and cooperation or add concertina wire to the walls between well-defended fiefdoms. Inspire us to tackle our toughest challenges or stop us dead in our tracks wondering why we bothered to get out of bed this morning.” - Susan Scott

• Language and words shape meaning. Effective leaders are very aware of the impact of their words. What a leaders does and what a leader says, are amplified and exaggerated by their constituents. Given this, if leaders don’t take charge of their words and carefully shape their messages, someone else will do it for them.

“…it’s through language that we create the world, because it is nothing until we describe it. And when we describe it, we create distinctions that govern our actions. To put it another way, we do not describe the world we see, but we see the world we describe.” - Joseph Jaworski, Synchronicity: the Inner Path of Leadership

• Build bridges and not walls. Leaders are in the business of building bridged to the future, this require the breaking down of walls! Change will always require the destruction of walls and the building of bridges. One of the best ways to do this in conversation is to replace “Yes, but . . .” and instead say “Yes, and . . .” When someone says something you disagree with, don’t make them wrong with “Yes, but I don’t agree with you” Rather, help them understand that you you have a different point of view “Yes, and in my experience there is another way of understanding that situation.”
• Leaders selectively involve influential people in meaningful conversations. When seeking to bring about change, leaders involve influential people to help shape the message and allow them to take the necessary action to bring the message to life. This involves a very conscious choice of people, and of process that’s convened to manage the organisations the conversation. Conversation taps into our head and hearts, it taps our mind and our emotions. Inspire influential people and they will take your message to others, sparking further conversation…
• Keep the conversation focused on a few key themes. Focus the organisations attention on a few key themes, the essential drivers of performance and shapers of behaviour. Concentrate the key themes on what really matters. These themes must be simple enough to communicate effectively and be understood. They should be repeated over and over, be managed and measured so that they lead to action. Key themes need to be framed so that they capture the imagination and inspire further conversation.

Considering the above principles, how effectively are you leading your organisations conversation?

 

Technorati Tags: Conversation, Communication, Strategy, Planning, Objectives, Vision, Management, Business, Inquiry, Language, Collaboration

MIT Sloan Management Review has a great article “In Search of Growth Leaders” by Sean D. Carr, Jeanne M. Liedtka, Robert Rosen and Robert E. Wiltbank discussing the importance of growth leaders. Growth leaders are these managers who can generate organic growth to “find new streams of revenue without always resorting to acquisitions”. After three years of research the authors have identified the following characteristics and strategies that distinguish growth leaders:

• Rich in Experience “All of the growth leaders in our study had unusually varied experience early in their careers. Along the way, they acquired skills that eventually helped them explicitly in their launching of growth initiatives…. Along with diversity of experience, we found in our subjects a deep-seated belief in their own abilities and in their power to change the world around them. For them, life is a journey of learning. They thrived on accepting challenges, taking action and getting immediate results. These positive traits tended to reinforce one another in a virtuous circle…This type of growth mindset prepared them to see and to chase opportunity.”

• Changing the Rules… “Most managers are programmed to think the way the head office does, to seek certainty and to rely on data with which to predict and plan. That approach can work well for an established business that knows its field and where surprises are few. But it is deadly in the world of growth, where what a company doesn’t know is far more important than what it does know. Growth is all about uncertainty and how to work with it. Prediction and analysis have their place, but they can’t be the only tools a business has.”
• …But Managing Risk “Although growth leaders embraced new ventures, they weren’t risk seekers. In fact, they minimized risk wherever possible.… while most managers are taught to approach new projects by calculating expected return on investment, growth leaders are more likely to estimate an acceptable degree of loss to start. This lets them pursue interesting opportunities without investing more than they can afford to lose… The managers in our study tended to place small bets fast, then study how their bets had influenced the market. This, in turn, encouraged them either to double-down or to place new bets elsewhere. It’s an approach that allowed them to be fast, flexible and capable of capitalizing on early success.”
• Preferring People to Data “Success was based more often on thoughtful exploration of customers’ needs than on dry market data. The managers in our study personally sought detailed knowledge about individual customers, instead of just seeing them as data in market-research reports… Direct knowledge about customers also helped the managers see what was most important to the customers in terms of products and services.”
• Pragmatic Idealists “In assembling teams, growth leaders learned to combine two seemingly opposing forces: holding people ruthlessly accountable for results, and engaging their passion to build something great together… Their overall approach was to be tough but fair. But they were adamant about acquiring staff with only the needed skill sets. Team effectiveness often depended on moving people quickly into positions that optimized their strengths, and removing people who did not fit or who lacked the necessary capabilities…. Groups pursuing new ventures were seen as no place for rookies. As one leader commented, growth initiatives should be about testing markets, not people. Yet despite this hard-nosed attitude, employees who worked for such managers invariably described them in terms such as ‘caring,’ ‘motivating’ and ‘inspiring.’”

Grow leader seem to be able to hold people accountable, to inspire passion for the vision and purpose and have a gut feel for making business decisions, informed by their rich experiences, their courage to challenge rules and to make calculated risks.

Technorati Tags: Growth, Leadership, Leaders, Business, Management, Risk, Organic, Innovation

Tom Peters has a great post on his blog, "The Right Plan Is to Have No Plan" which discusses two belief systems adopted by leaders seeking to initiate change, that of planners who seek to impose top down solutions, who Tom says “more or less believe that the plan is the thing—and that the messy process of implementation on the ground will take care of itself if The Plan is ‘right.’” and searchers who adapt to the adapt to the local context and culture and implement change from the bottom up. Tom quotes William Easterly the author of, “The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good”, discussing the differences between planners and searchers…

"In foreign aid, Planners announce good intentions but don’t motivate anyone to carry them out; Searchers find things that work and get some reward. Planners raise expectations but take no responsibility for meeting them; Searchers accept responsibility for their actions. Planners determine what to supply; Searchers find out what is in demand. Planners apply global blueprints; Searchers adapt to local conditions. Planners at the top lack knowledge of the bottom; Searchers find out what the reality is at the bottom. … A Planner thinks he already knows the answers; he thinks of poverty as a technical engineering problem that his answers will solve. A Searcher admits he doesn’t know the answers in advance; he believes that poverty is a complicated tangle of political, social, historical, institutional and technological factors; a Searcher hopes to find answers to individual problems only by trial and error experimentation. A Planner believes outsiders know enough to impose solutions; a Searcher believes only insiders have enough knowledge to find solutions, and that most solutions must be homegrown."

This is central to a philosophy of small wins… An approach to change the advocates looking for making small wins that have the potential to bring about huge changes. Llooking for what’s working on the ground and then building of those proven successes…

"Somewhere in your organization, groups of people are already doing things differently and better. To create lasting change, find these areas of positive deviance and fan the flames." — Richard Pascale & Jerry Sternin, "Your Company’s Secret Change Agents," Harvard Business Review

"We made mistakes, of course. Most of them were omissions we didn’t think of when we initially wrote the software. We fixed them by doing it over and over, again and again. We do the same today. While our competitors are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design perfect, we’re already on prototype version #5. By the time our rivals are ready with wires and screws, we are on version #10. It gets back to planning versus acting: We act from day one; others plan how to plan—for months." — Bloomberg by Bloomberg, Mike Bloomberg’s business saga

Successful leadership requires a solid underpinning philosophy, a purpose and a bias towards getting things done.. that is a focus on execution. A drive towards creating small wins, informed by what’s already working, creates change. Small change, builds..  creating momentum and momentum brings about significant change…

 

Technorati Tags: Small Wins, Momentum, Execution, Action, Change, Planning, Strategy, Management, Business, Plan

Google has taken time to clearly articulate their business philosophy, described in the article, “Ten things Google has found to be true”. The article highlights Google’s beliefs, values and principles, which guides how they go about growing and managing their business. The ten things that comprise Google’s business philosophy are:

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There’s always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn’t good enough.

These are the ten things that support Google’s business philosophy and guide Google’s leadership. In the same way, all leaders need a personal leadership philosophy, a set of values, beliefs and principles that influence how they act and lead.

“In order to live, man must act; in order to act, he must make choices; in order to make choices, he must define a code of values; in order to define a code of values, he must know what he is and where he is—i.e., he must know his own nature (including his means of knowledge) and the nature of the universe in which he acts—i.e., he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, which means: philosophy. He cannot escape from this need; his only alternative is whether the philosophy guiding him is to be chosen by his mind or by chance.” - Ayn Rand, 1966, “Philosophy and Sense of Life” from What makes Ayn Rand’s philosophy unique?

Many leaders fail to take the time to think and reflect on their leadership philosophy, the beliefs, values and principles that supports their leadership. A leaders philosophy is grounded in who they are as individuals. A clear leadership philosophy supports consistent action, building credibility and trust with the leader’s constituents.

• What are the ten things that form the basis of your leadership philosophy?
• Do you live your ten things?

 

Technorati Tags: Philosophy, Leadership, Management, Google, Business, Worldview, Mental-Model, Thinking, Reflection, Values

When Jason Fried from 37signals was asked "How did you create the culture at 37signals?” he answered as follows:

"You don’t create a culture. Culture happens. It’s the by-product of consistent behavior. If you encourage people to share, and you give them the freedom to share, then sharing will be built into your culture. If you reward trust then trust will be built into your culture.

Artificial

Artificial cultures are instant. They’re big bangs made of mission statements, declarations, and rules. They are obvious, ugly, and plastic. Artificial culture is paint.

Real

Real cultures are built over time. They’re the result of action, reaction, and truth. They are nuanced, beautiful, and authentic. Real culture is patina.

Don’t think about how to create a culture, just do the right things for you, your customers, and your team and it’ll happen."

Whilst I agree with Jason’s view, that a) culture takes time to develop and b) the culture is a by-product of consistent behaviour, culture doesn’t "just happen". Culture is the shadow of the leader. If Jason means that culture just happens, if you have the right leadership, then I support his view, and perhaps that is what he is say. The with the right leadership… culture just happens! Organisations that set out to create or build a culture, without changing the leadership behaviours, results in what Jason refers to as artificial cultures.

In the end, culture determines who’s in and who’s out…. Once you have the right leadership in place … then … culture just happens.

• Are you purposefully acting to develop your organisation’s culture?
• Do you have the right leadership in place?
• Are you hiring and promoting people who reinforce the culture you’re trying to develop?

 

Technorati Tags: Culture, Leadership, Management, Business, HR, Strategy

A leader is likely to be challenged by a number of leadership transitions as they develop and grow their careers. These transitions may be from team member to team leader, from manager to divisional leader or from director to CEO. Other difficult leadership transitions can occur as leaders move between companies or even between industries. Research reported in Management-Issues, conducted across 18 industries and 11 countries by the Institute of Executive Development and Alexcel Group found that the

"ramp-up time for new external hires is worryingly long. Around a third of those questioned said that it takes between six and nine months while a further quarter of respondents said it takes more than nine months… Ramp–up time for those making transfers within the same organization was less, but not by a huge margin. The most commonly cited period was between three and six months, with a quarter saying it takes longer than six months…. Moreover, one in five (21 percent) of executives who make internal transfers fail to meet expectations in first two years."

Given these findings and the risks associated with leadership transitions, it’s of critical importance for leaders, to learn how to transition effectively between different leadership roles. Some great advice on making an effective transitions is provided by Dan Ciampa and Michael Watkins in their post discussing the transition of Vikram Pandit, to become the new CEO of Citigroup and provide the following guidelines to help leaders make manage their leadership transitions.

1. Identify the critical alliances. "To transform their organizations, new CEOs must gain the support of powerful internal and external constituencies. Influential players must perceive it to be in their interest to help realize your goals. You must therefore begin to identify them and at least begin to gain their support during the transition."
2. Get the right top team in place — fast. "Like most new CEOs, you will inherit a group of senior executives. Some will have the knowledge, skills, and background needed to drive the business forward. Others will not….. The decision to remove a senior-level manager is among the most serious and complicated that any leader makes. But among the most common regrets CEOs have is not replacing senior-level people once it becomes clear they are not the right fit for the situation and for the CEO’s style or vision."
3. Secure early wins. "To create momentum, you must secure some early wins. …. This means marshalling resources to focus on issues that meet three criteria: (1) they yield tangible financial benefit, (2) they address issues that employees understand to be important, and (3) results can achieved early in the new leader’s tenure. New CEOs secure early wins by identifying substantial problems that can be tackled in a reasonable period of time and whose solutions result in tangible operational and financial (not just behavioral/attitudinal) improvements in performance."
4. Lay the groundwork for effective communications. "New CEOs prepare for derailment when they fail to get their messages about priorities across, to convey the values that they hold as important, or to clearly define expectations. As a result they create vacuums of understanding and emotional connection that undermine their effectiveness. ….. Everyone is parsing your actions and words closely and critically, hunting for signals of direction, purpose, motives, and, especially, for the answer to “who is this person?” Leaders lay the seeds of their own destruction when they fail to gain control of the communication processes of the company. As a result, do not effectively get their messages across to the people whom they most want to influence; nor do they shape the mood or morale of the organization."
5. Shape your vision. "…. What we mean by vision is a vivid mental image that depicts your view of the desired future state of the organization in an inspiring way. It is not a statement of mission, a set of objectives, or a list of values. It is a picture of what will be seen, heard, and felt when the organization fulfills that mission, and achieves those objects….. If it’s not inspiring, for the leader and for key people in the organization, then it’s not a vision."
6. Build and use a balanced advice network. "…Finally, and perhaps most important, you have to build and use the right kind of advice and counsel network. No leader is an island. …. So its essential that you find ways to accelerate learning about markets, products, technologies, organizational capabilities, team, politics and culture. Identifying and leveraging the best advisors — internally and externally — is the most effective way to do this."

This useful list of guidelines can assist in your leadership transition and compliments a previous post "5 tips on making a successful leadership transition". Another great resource for planning a successful leadership transition is the Harvard Business Review book "The First 90 Days" which I’ve previously reviewed here. Before jumping into a new role or hastily accepting that new leadership position take some time to plan your first 90 days and thereby increase your chances of success……!

 

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Transition, Business, Management, Planning, Change, Career, Success, HBR

“Take my 20 best people, and virtually overnight, Microsoft becomes a mediocre company.” - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates

Great leaders are always of the lookout for talent and recognise the contribution and importance of other people in their success. Talent Management has a great article titled “Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials?” discussing the 2007 Talent Pulse study by global HR consultancy Hewitt Associates. The study surveyed and interviewed nearly 750 high potentials and their managers in seven Fortune 500 companies. The research identified the following six key motivators that drive the performance and engagement of high potentials:

• Motivator No. 1: Job Fulfillment/Challenge: “High potentials are most driven to work on projects they consider challenging, intellectually stimulating or strategically impactful….. Underutilization frustrates them.”
• Motivator No. 2: Total Compensation: “…Hewitt found achievement-driven high potentials place great value on how much money they make…. Talented employees expect their pay to accurately reflect their level of contribution, personal effort and to differentiate them from average performers. For them, total compensation also serves as tangible proof they have accomplished, if not exceeded, their goals.”
• Motivator No. 3: Opportunities for Advancement: “High-potential employees continually feel the need for upward mobility. They recognize that progression goes hand in hand with development, learning new skills and having new experiences, and they expect a steady stream of opportunities in the near term, not years down the road.”
• Motivator No. 4: Good Work-Life Balance: “According to high potentials, a good work-life balance includes much more than simply the number of hours logged at work. It extends to the amount of travel required, the extent of sacrifice of personal life for professional success and the degree of flexibility in terms of how and when their work gets done. There is a constant struggle between maintaining quality of life with the drive to achieve, an aspiration that frequently results in a highly demanding and stressful work schedule…. The message to leadership is: ‘Honor and respect work-life balance; give us a chance to breathe.’”
• Motivator No. 5: Being Linked to Business Results: “Top performers want to play a key role in the organization. They want projects that yield high impact on the business. High potentials yearn to understand how their efforts contribute to the success of the business and its customers.”
• Motivator No. 6: Integrity: “Still affected by the corporate governance scandals that have plagued big business in recent years, high potentials said they want no part of any organization that even hints of acting in an unethical fashion. Their rationale is simple: If they are expected to throw their heads, hearts and souls into their work, the company’s leaders should be willing to be open and transparent about their conduct.”

It’s the responsibility of leaders to create an environment where people can grow and develop to reach their full potential. The growth and development of people does not just happen, it requires focused attention and constant effort. The key drivers listed above provide a great start for those leaders wanting to create an environment to retain their top talent. Consider the above six drivers:

• Rate how well you are doing on each of the drivers on a scale from 1 to 10?
• Ask some of your top performers to do the same.
• Compare the results.
• What changes do you need to make?

 

Technorati Tags: Talent, Growth, Leadership Development, Engagement, Retention, Research, Leadership, Management, Business

Photo by homelessballoon

 

An article by Dan Heath and Chip Heath, in Fast Company, Analysis of Paralysis discusses a key principle, "If your strategy doesn’t help employees act, it’s not a strategy.", as discussed in the article….

"Researchers Eldar Shafir and Donald Redelmeier helped prove this point in an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association. They gave doctors the medical history of a 67-year-old man who’d been suffering chronic hip pain from osteoarthritis. He’d been given drugs to treat his pain, but they had been ineffective, so there was only one viable option: hip-replacement surgery, which would involve a long and painful recovery. Then a final check with the pharmacy uncovered one medication that hadn’t been tried. Would the doctors like to give the drug a shot? Forty-seven percent of doctors chose to try the medication in a final attempt to keep the patient from going under the knife.

Another group of doctors saw the same facts, except they were told that the pharmacy had discovered two medications that hadn’t been tried. If you were the patient with the bum hip, you’d be thrilled–two nonsurgical options are better than one. But when the doctors were presented with two nonsurgical options, only 28% chose to try either one.

What happened here is decision paralysis. More options, even good ones, can freeze us, leading us to stick with the "default" plan, which in this case was slicing open someone’s hip. This clearly is not rational behavior, but it is human behavior. Similar tests with different groups have revealed consistent results.

Think about the sources of decision paralysis in your organization. Every business must choose among attractive options: growing revenue versus maximizing profitability, quality versus speed to market. Fold together lots of these tensions, and you have a surefire recipe for paralysis. It took only two options to fuzz the doctors’ brains. How many options have your people got? As Barry Schwartz puts it in his book The Paradox of Choice, as we face more and more options, ‘we become overloaded…. Choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize.’ …. Simplicity is the way out. Imagine if the doctors in the psychology study had worked for a hospital with the mission statement, ‘Invasive treatments should be a last resort.’ Suddenly, the choice isn’t so paralyzing, even with two drugs. The statement is simple because it makes a decision easier, not because it’s dumbed down. Doctors aren’t idiots."

The underlying principle is that: Simplicity allows people to act.

 

Leaders need a clear leadership philosophy, resulting in a set of principles that are clear and simple. When leaders are clear about their leadership philosophy and openly communicate it to their teams, people can confidently make decisions and act to bring about the leader’s vision. A good example of a leader communicating the principles that others can use to guide the organisation towards a vision is Jack Welch from GE. Remember Jack’s set of six leadership principles….

1. Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were.
2. Be candid with everyone.
3. Don’t manage, lead.
4. Change before you have to.
5. If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete!
6. Control your own destiny or someone else will.

These principles gave people a means to guide their decision making and actions, knowing that they were acting in the spirit of their leader’s vision. What principles do you use to guide your actions? Is your team aware of your principles? Do they understand them? Do you use principle with your team to guide how you go about achieving your vision? If not, this may be a good time to focus on developing a set of principles to guide how your team goes about achieving your vision.

 

Technorati Tags: Principles, Character, Philosophy, Decisions, Vision, Execution, Action, Leadership, Management, Business, Jack Welch, Simplicity

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