Five Key Qualities of Great Leadership

Good Leadership Is Both What You Do and What You Don’t Do

As you work with others in your leadership role, you will find that they face decisions, challenges and problems as often as you do. A good leader resists solving other people’s problems, but rather works alongside them to help them recognize opportunities and resolve difficulties for themselves.

It is critical for a leader to create an open environment that supports experimentation and discovery—key ingredients for both mistakes and successes. An open environment also includes time set aside for reflection, analysis and discussion about what is going well and what needs to be improved.

Key Quality I: Interpersonal Skills

This skill set reflects your ability to interact with others in a positive manner. Good interpersonal skills are vital to leadership development success. A leader who is empathetic, compassionate, fair, and encouraging will generate the personal trust and respect needed for leadership effectiveness.

Key Quality II: Self-Management Skills

Self-Management is the ability to prioritize and complete tasks in order to deliver desired out comes within allotted time frames. It is also the ability to control one’s emotions in challenging “pressure” situations. It requires self-awareness, valuing feedback, making decisions, and being willing to change. A leader who cannot effectively manage him/herself will have great difficulty in managing others. Leaders who have mastered self-management are more effective role models for everyone around them.

Key Quality III: Personal Accountability

This is a measure of your capacity to be answerable for your personal actions. Personal account-ability is leadership by example. A leader who has mastered personal accountability will inspire his/her protégé and team to exhibit the same behaviors and encourage leadership development within the team.

Key Quality IV: Influencing Others

The most critical key to leadership success is your ability to personally affect others’ actions, decisions, opinions, or thinking. Today’s leaders are in a position of influence, rather than power. To achieve results, you must be able to influence others to bring out the best in themselves as well as to do what you want them to do.

Key Quality V: Goal Achievement

An effective leader is one with the overall ability to set, pursue, and attain achievable goals regardless of obstacles or circumstances. This applies to the leader’s personal goals, as well as the protégé’s individual goals and team goals. Individual and team goals must be complementary to achieve the highest level of success.

Everyone has these skills to some degree. Some of these skill sets will develop a good administrator, but a good administrator is not automatically a good leader. It is the complete mastery of all the skill sets that creates the true leader.

Why Are These Skills So Important?

Your leadership effectiveness is measured through the results achieved by your team. Your role is to inspire and motivate them in ways that values their contributions while guiding them in a cohesive direction takes strong leadership skills. Effective leadership at any level demands that you be able to gain the trust of others, both one-on-one and in groups. They depend on you, their leader, to have a vision, see possibilities and work with them to create and achieve mutual goals. This is the cornerstone of the “art” of leadership!

Poor Leadership Skills Can Create Many Difficulties

A leader who has not developed good leadership skills can’t solve problems effectively. He/she may not have the empathy, self-confidence or motivation skills necessary to establish and meet goals or communicate them effectively.

 A true leader:

• Communicates a vision and a belief in its value

• Inspires others to peak performance

• Sets appropriate examples for others to follow

• Instills a sense of order, direction, and focus

• Responds to adversity without faltering

• Clearly communicates the “what”, “why”, and “when” behind every “how”

Leadership Skills Can Be Developed … They Must Not Be Left To Chance

An aspiring leader must create a personal development plan and pursue it at all times.

 As a leader you must learn to:

• Lead based on the foundation of your values, beliefs, and experience

• Share information with others; don’t hide news, feedback, critiques, or praise

• Support people when they make mistakes and help them learn from the situation

• Choose your battles wisely

• Be decisive

• Not make decisions for others

• Listen to others problems and help them define solutions

• Be persistent

• Encourage others to take initiative; reward them for independent decisions

• Not procrastinate

• Build teams and empower them to address problems

• Recognize the value of others contributions

The Best Leader Is The Most Effective Manager

A good leader inspires his/her team to constant improvement. A good leader recognizes that his/her own ongoing power and influence come from empowering others around them. A good leader nurtures leadership qualities within the team to complement his/her own development.

Productivity

There are many examples of individuals who overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to achieve worldwide acclaim, of leaders who took their companies to positions of global dominance in the face of fierce competition. There are even more examples of those who gave up, threw in the towel, and failed. It’s easy to blame others, or the environment, or the economy, or to rationalize ‘why’ it wasn’t their fault. If circumstances are not the determining factor, what is?

Too many people hold themselves in lower self-esteem than the actual facts warrant. Bad moments and past mistakes tend to make a deeper impression on our memories than our past successes. Many people tend to think more often of where and how they’ve failed, rather than where and how they have succeeded. Thus, many people tend to view themselves as less capable than they actually are. Another problem is that many have never learned the importance of self-love. The awkwardness with which some people accept compliments illustrates this fact. They often allow minor imperfections to color their view of themselves, resulting in a low self-image. To build a self-image on anything less than self-love, is to build on a hopelessly weak foundation.

With these thoughts in mind, let’s explore the difference you would make in enhancing the self-image of others if you thought more frequently in terms of their strengths and implemented a system and recognition program focused on their achievements, rather than on mistakes and failures. How much easier would it be to implement a change process if everyone viewed himself or herself in such a positive light?

What would happen to productivity if everyone thought more in terms of their unlimited potential rather than their limitations?  What if you were to pay close attention as you go through your day to the processes and systems you use? I’ll bet with a raised level of awareness, you could easily identify three things that could help you be more productive.

Maybe you could immediately think of more than three things, but just for the exercise, boil them down to three main barriers that get in the way of getting work done successfully. In the work we do at eMBC Inc., we often notice participants benefit enormously from this simple act of observing and asking questions.

What obstacles do you run into that, if they were different, would help you get your work done more easily, faster, and better? If you could directly change any of the things you observe, you can commit to making those changes by the end of the week.

I ran across this page the other day on Wikipedia: Human Interaction Management. Apparently there is a movement stemming from business process management that includes the human elements. The simple act of observation and questioning can help bring to light needed areas for productivity improvement.

Let me give some examples.

·                  If you need assistance or approval from a colleague or manager, find out how you can get that process in motion.

·                  If the change you need carries a cost, be sure you can identify the cost justification and have it ready when you start your conversation

·                  If you have direct reports, do this exercise with one or more of them this week, as well.

It’s a good idea to take an entire day to observe your work day in process, asking questions at each step. Ask yourself, “What is getting in the way of successfully making progress on this project?” And ask your direct reports the same questions.

What will you discover? It depends on the quality of your observations and questions. I believe this is a valuable exercise anyone can engage in at any point in their career, at any day of the week. One of my clients is practicing this currently in his company.

Be willing to ask tough questions and be ready to commit to doing things differently; which also requires going out of one’s comfort zone.

Caveat: Pay attention to the phrase: “If you could directly change any of the things you observe, you can commit to making those changes by the end of the week.”

If all you see is what other people should or could be doing differently, then you are stuck. What can you directly change that will make a difference?

If you haven’t taken time out recently for observing your work day and asking tough questions, may I gently suggest you do? I know every time I do this exercise it is invaluable and effective. Let me know what you discover…

What's So Hard About Real Conversations?

If you’re a leader, your job is to accomplish the goals of the organization. You do that in large part by making every conversation you have as real as possible.  A leader’s job is essentially to engineer the types of conversations that produce clarity, cooperation, creativity, drive, and a connection to values beyond the company.

Being conscious of how you communicate and having a well-thought out strategy is key to being an effective and influential communicator.


We come into contact with so many different people during the course of our day, we can't just have one mode or style of communicating. Your boss, your direct report(s), your partner, your clients, your colleagues - they all need and expect different things from you. Being able to communicate in the appropriate way and match those needs will make your life easier!


The Beauty of 360degree Communication
Here are a few tools and techniques you can employ to deal with those different groups of people:


1) Your Boss


He/she is expecting you to do your job, that's why they hired you so when they interact with you, they want to hear about what you have been doing especially the things you have completed that will make their life easier.


• Keep positive - if you have a challenge then have a solution as well.


• No surprises - as much as you may not want to tell them something, honesty is always the best policy. If it's a genuine mistake then admit it, be upfront and give your Boss a chance to prepare for any fall-out there may be. Depending on what it is, your Boss may be as much on the line as you so have him as your ally as opposed to your enemy.


• Be inclusive - don't complain about other people to your Boss. Don't be seen to be self-seeking or sycophantic, it's not attractive and only makes you sound desperate. Like the 'comedian' who can only make people laugh by poking fun at others; be credible and good at what you do without having to malign your colleagues.


2) Your Direct Reports


Just as you will want to impress your Boss, your direct reports will want to do the same thing with you, or at least your high performing direct reports will. They also need something in return - they need to hear information from you about the business, they need to know how their job fits in with that and contributes to the bigger picture. They also need to know you care about them and their development. Lots of things huh?! Here are a couple of easy ways you can meet those needs:


• Set the Communication temperature - set up regular briefings with the team informing them of things happening in the business, within their department and even the industry. Let them know that open communication is a given and that you are committed to sharing things with them and giving them an opportunity to share their own ideas.


• Set up regular Engagement Interviews - these need to only be once a quarter or maybe twice a year depending on how many people you have in your team. Spend at least 1hr speaking to each individual direct reports about what they are passionate about, what they enjoy about their job, how you can make their lives easier, why they stay with the Company. This information is like gold dust and will give you great insights in to how your team can be more productive and how to keep them engaged.


3) Your Client


This can be one of the more difficult relationships to manage as it really is about positive influence, without any positional power. You need to rely on your personal power - the traits you have that set you apart and make you someone your Client wants to do business with. Be a person with integrity, who can be relied upon to do good work. Build a track record based on success and delivery. Be an expert in your field and use your knowledge and network to add value to your Client. All good in theory right, so how do you put this into practice:


• Be a skillful enquirer - ask lots of questions, gather information and really understand your Client, the needs they have and where you can help and add value. Have a Question Strategy - think about the questions you will ask at the next meeting, use open questions to encourage your Client to talk and share and make sure you plan enough time so it doesn't feel rushed and like it's the Spanish Inquisition


• Know their style - we all have a preferred style of communication. Some of us like data, others value relationships; some like to make decisions and do so relatively quickly and others prefer to consider all angles and make a more informed decision, over a period of time. There is no better way but we have more in common with some styles than others and that can impact how well we communicate and ultimately influence. Knowing if your Client is more about data or relationships could be the key to getting the next deal signed!


So, ultimately, it's all about knowing how to change your communication style to suit others and having an arsenal of tools and techniques you can readily deploy for any given situation. Good luck!

Positive Thinking – Your Secret Weapon

Learning, growing, and changing is possible with the right attitude and focus. All individuals have the ability to master their individual talents and be the best they can be! There are people who scoff at this philosophy and espouse limiting beliefs. However, that is the fundamental difference between positive thinking and foolish thinking. We all have the innate ability to be the best of who we were meant to be.

Based on a 2007-2008 NBA survey, the average height of a player is 6’6”. It would be fairly inconceivable for a person with the height of 5’4” to make the NBA a long-term career choice. It is certainly a goal that can be aspired to however, physical limitations could present ongoing challenges. Is it foolish thinking for an individual of 5’4” to want to be an NBA star? Retired player, Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues (Hornets, Bullets, Warriors, and Raptors) who is 5’3” and Wizard’s point guard Earl Boykins who is 5’5” would probably disagree.

Many great people have overcome adversity and challenge to accomplish great things. Ronald Reagan spent his early life admittedly being an introvert, but during his Presidency he was called “the great communicator.” Marie Curie, was the first person to win two Nobel prizes, the first woman to receive a doctorate in France, the mother of two daughters (one of whom also won a Nobel prize), and a tireless humanitarian; suffered through times of extreme financial and personal hardship, Curie is an amazing example of a person with perseverance, breaking boundaries imposed by others. John Lennon, the revolutionary pop music icon overcame adversity of many types along his journey; a turbulent childhood in which his mother and father each abandoned him in different ways; courageously overcame drug addiction and repaired his marriage with his wife Yoko; and he was tragically gunned down in the prime of his life by a crazed fan. Pablo Picasso overcame great poverty to become a renowned artist.

We are not born great at anything. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “All great speakers were bad speakers at first.” No leader, manager, artist, business owner, or musician started out great. However, the difference between average and great is the desire to develop and succeed, a commitment to do so, as well as a positive attitude and the belief that you will make it happen.

What do you desire to accomplish? What do you want to be known for or what will be your legacy? Define what you want to accomplish, achieve, do, and be. Be careful not to let your practical mind limit your dreams and ideas. Grant yourself permission to think big and out of the box. Make the commitment to define who you are supposed to be. Learning, growing, and changing takes work but the effort is worth the results.

The second step is making the commitment to pursue your dreams and take action. Establish and define a plan. Determine the destination and create a map to get there. Sometimes the steps necessary will be small, and sometimes you may have to take a leap of faith but trust your vision. Your contributions will make a difference to many, so failure should not be an option.

Finally, remember that positive thinking will get it done. That is not to say you will not face obstacles and adversity as success does not come easy. It has been my experience that nothing of significant value ever comes easy or free. However, your focus and your attitude will give you what is necessary to create the right solutions and the next best steps. You can’t control what happens around you but you can certainly control how you react. Your attitude and positive mindset are your secret weapons to success as you define it. Don’t let anyone or any circumstance take away your secret weapon as it is far too important to your contributions.

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Would the sole reason you would be starting your own business be that you would want to make a lot of money?  Do you think that if you had your own business that you would have more time with your family?  Or maybe that you would not have to answer to anyone else?  If so, you had better think again.

On the other hand, if you start your business for these reasons, you'll have a better chance at entrepreneurial success:

An entrepreneur must have a passion for what he is doing. The important thing to remember is that he will hit lows during the process that will make him question his decision. Belief in the idea is important though, and your passion will keep you going.

You should be able to build a competitive edge in the business. It could be in technological processes, marketing relationships or solutions you offer customers.

Entrepreneurs work hard and are extremely goal oriented. Along with hard work, comes the ability to work unsupervised. It is a critical requirement of entrepreneurship. As a paid professional, often someone can blame the system for not providing either the direction or the resources. As an entrepreneur, you no longer have that latitude. You have to work hard, very hard.

Entrepreneurs are flexible, opportunistic and recognize the power of 'emergence'.

I love this story about IBM and its founder Thomas Watson, Sr. It was 1934 or '35. IBM had built the first accounting machines for banks but in the Depression years, no bank was buying anything. IBM was on the brink of bankruptcy. Watson's wife forced him to accompany her to a social event where he was seated next to a middle-aged lady.

While talking with her, Watson described to her the machine IBM had built. It turned out that the lady was in-charge of the library system in New York City. She told Watson that they were in complete disarray, unable to manage their books, and told him that she would need half a dozen of these! Next day, he sold her five of the machines.

Until that moment, Watson had never thought of his computing devices as machines for tracking books. That one sale pulled IBM from the brink of bankruptcy.

Had it not been for Watson's capability to go with the emergent flow of events - moving from accounting machines to the recognition that he could make general purpose computers - IBM would not be what it is today? We all know that the essence of entrepreneurial ability is about building a future and living in it. Sometimes, it is about 'willing' a course for the enterprise. Yet, things do not always go the way you plan. Destiny tests you all the time, plays pranks and shows tiny openings in a moss-covered brick wall behind which often a whole new world awaits.

When it comes to the success of any new business, you - the entrepreneur - are ultimately the "secret" to your success. For many successful business owners, failure was never an option. Armed with drive, determination, and a positive mindset, these individuals view any setback as only an opportunity to learn and grow. Most millionaires possess average intelligence. What sets them apart is their openness to new knowledge and their willingness to learn whatever it takes to succeed.

So why do businesses fail?

·        Failure to anticipate market trends. Lack of market research when entering new markets, resulting in poor sales and return on investment.

·        Overspending. Or spending too much on frivolous luxuries instead of products and services that improve the bottom line.

·        Poor cash flow control: paying creditors too early, buying too much stock or giving customers payment terms that are too long, late payments and bad debts. These can all lead to a lack of working capital and cash flow problems.

·        Failure to listen to customers. Listen to your customers and adapt accordingly.

·        Lack of innovation. Some businesses never change, but they lose their market share when a new company comes along with a new way of doing things

·        Loss of financial support/investment. If an investor pulls out, you may find it hard to attract another one in time.

·        Reluctance to seek professional services. 

3 Ways Power Changes People

How much does power go to your head? If it didn’t, then you’re the exception and you’re magnanimous and generous of spirit.

According to numerous studies, people put into power positions are prone to a couple of behavior changes:

1.    Power makes most people become more focused on their own needs and wants

2.    Power changes people to become less focused on what others need, want and do

3.    Power influences people to act as if rules others are expected to follow don’t apply to them

Consider this scenario. Three people are working together. A plate of five cookies is made available on the break. Social norms dictate that no one takes the last (fifth) cookie, but what about the fourth?

In an experiment for the research study, groups of individuals were placed into teams of three, to evaluate the output (the “boss”). During the break, the experimenter arrived with a plate of five cookies. This allowed each participant to take one cookie, and at least one participant to comfortably take a second cookie, thus leaving one cookie on the plate. No one was expected to take the fifth cookie and no one did. But what about the fourth, the one that could be taken without awkwardness, or negotiation?

The results of the study showed that the “boss” (the evaluator) was clearly more likely to take a second cookie.  (Videotapes of the interactions also showed them more likely to eat with their mouths open and scattering crumbs widely.)

The conclusion is that individuals in power are more “disinhibited” and prone to focus on their own needs to the exclusion of others.

This is just one study showing bad boss behaviors and how “power corrupts.” There are many others. Maybe you can think of a few examples in your experience when the boss ate the fourth cookie with his/her mouth open?

Leave a comment.

If you’re wondering if you’ve fallen into these power traps, you might benefit from some outside coaching. Give me a call.

Are you out of control with the daily drama of the Dow (DJI)?

Often fear originates in our mind because, as much as we try, we have little control over the future. And, the future is where we tend to look for our security, seeking the assurance that everything will be all right. The illusion is that we have control over many variables in our daily life and that seems to make us feel better, at least temporarily. However, we really have no control over anything, other than our next breath and our next thought.

I know of very few people who are not being severely affected by the economic roller coaster roaring through Wall Street and into our daily lives-it is, without doubt, a very frightening ride; the fear of loss and being out of control is palpable. Since the financial meltdown of 2008 I have been observing how the ups and downs of the stock market affect people’s sense of well-being. In some regards the Dow Jones Index (here in after, I’ll just call it Dow) is similar to a barometer that reports the amount of fear pulsating through the collective consciousness. In the financial industry they actually make a practice of measuring these pulsations using a gauge called the VIX (Volatility Index). It is often referred to as the fear index or the fear gauge because it represents one measure of the market's expectation of stock market volatility over the next 30 days. Talk about forecasting our future based on the energy of fear and expectation of loss. The result is, for many, the Dow is like a “reverse” biofeedback device that, rather than detecting how we are feeling, tells us how we should be feeling each day; when the Dow is up it gives us cause to feel good - when the Dow is down it gives us cause to feel a bit down as well. Metaphorically speaking this is like the tail wagging the dog. No wonder we feel so out of control.

If the drama of the Dow has got you feeling down... and up... and down, it is safe to say you are not alone. What is happening on the Wall Street (and in Washington DC, as well as around the world) stirs up our fears because it brings us to the very edge of not knowing what the future holds reminding us that we are not nearly as much in control of our lives we think we are. What I do know is this: While we may not have control over the dramatic events unfolding before our eyes, we have absolute control of what is going on behind our eyes. In other words, we can choose to either respond or react to the mystery of the moment and that choice will determine how we experience the roller coaster ride. The primary reason the drama of the Dow is so volatile is that the system is hardwired to operate reactively, triggered by the fear and the perception of loss rather than faith and expectation of increase. How do you perceive life in this moment? Self-inquiry is a sound spiritual practice you might want to employ as you take a look at how you approach life today. Are you mindlessly and fearfully reacting to or mindfully and faithfully responding to what you see and hear on the six-o’clock news? It’s never too late to change how you perceive what is. (You may want to read a couple of postings I made recently on my Facebook page – on 1. Perceptions – URL: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=254789771212592&set=a.158130517545185.36519.100000447132850&type=1&theater  and 2. Mindfullness - URL: https://www.facebook.com/notes/drsurya-m-ganduri/mindfulness/197322030327608.)

The primary difference between mindfully responding as opposed to mindlessly reacting is that by responding we create an intentional gap (or space) in time and mind where we can breathe and pull ourselves out of the future and anchor ourselves in the present moment long enough to become the detached observer of our own thoughts and feelings before we say or do anything. The “response gap” is a sacred space whereby hitting the emotional “pause button” we consciously create an opening for the presence of the Divine to be revealed within us. Will seeing the drama of the Dow through the eyes of Infinite Intelligence give us more control over the uncertainties of the stock market? Not necessarily, but it will absolutely give us control over our own thinking process in the present moment which is our only true point of power. When we are present in the moment we are led to make clear minded choices which can include the mindfulness practice of knowing what and when to let go of that which causes us to suffer.

Reconciling what we have control over and what we don’t have control over is the first step to making peace with what is. There always has been and shall continue to be the metaphoric roller coaster rides in life, be it the stock market, the weather, or any of the other millions of variables over which we really have no control. Perhaps there is greater wisdom than we know in the ancient saying, “This too shall pass.” It’s true - anything that has a beginning must also have an end, including the current cycle of economic uncertainty. That awareness may take a bit of the power away from those who worship the god of the VIX.

If the drama of the Dow has you feeling down and a bit out of control, gently guide yourself back to the remembrance of the Divine Essence from which you came, which  is also the ultimate source of all that is. You are one with the source of your good so focus on what you do have control over - your next breath and your next thought. May it be one that brings you peace in this moment... after all, it’s really all there is, so why not breathe and enjoy the ride.