Effective Leadership

Leadership Defined

Leadership is the process of directing the behavior of others toward the accomplishment of some common objectives.

"Leadership is influencing people to get things done to a standard and quality above their norm. And doing it willingly."¹⁵

As an element in social interaction, leadership is a complex activity involving:

1. a process of influence

2. actors who are both leaders and followers

3. a range of possible outcomes - the achievement of goals, but also the commitment of individuals to such goals, the enhancement of group cohesion and the reinforcement of change of organizational culture.¹⁶

The Leader Is the Best, When...

By: Lao Tzu

The leader is best,...

When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,

The people say, 'We did it ourselves.'... More

Building Better Leaders through Attributes

Leadership attributes are the inner or personal qualities that constitute effective leadership. These attributes include a large array of characteristics such as values, character, motives, habits, traits, motives, style, behaviors, and skills.

Learning to Lead

Effective leaders recognize that what they know is very little in comparison to what they still need to learn. To be more proficient in pursuing and achieving objectives, you should be open to new ideas, insights, and revelations that can lead to better ways to accomplishing goals. This continuous learning process can be exercised, in particular, through engaging yourself in a constant dialogue with your peers, advisers, consultants, team members, suppliers, customers, and competitors.

Leading others is not simply a matter of style, or following some how-to guides or recipes. Ineffectiveness of leaders seldom results from from a lack of know-how or how-to, nor it is typically due to inadequate managerial skills. Leadership is even not about creating a great vision. It is about creating conditions under which all your followers can perform independently and effectively toward a common objective.

James O'Tool⁷, a noted management theorist proposes a new vision of leadership in the business world - a values-based leadership that is not only fair and just, but also highly effective in today's complex organizations. It is based on:

• your ideas and values

• your understanding of the differing and conflicting needs of your followers

• your ability to energize followers to pursue a better goal that they had thought possible

• your skills in creating a values-based umbrella large enough to accommodate the various interests of followers, but focused enough to direct all their energies in pursuit of a common good.

The Foundation of Leadership: Achieving Extraordinary Results

By: Brian Tracy

The most important quality of leadership, the one quality for which you want to be known, is extraordinary performance, with the goal of achieving extraordinary results. These results then serve as an inspiration to others to perform at equally exceptional levels. People ascribe leadership to those men and women who they feel can most enable them to achieve important goals or objectives... More

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

By: Stephen R. Covey

Public Victory

4. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood... More

Inspirational Leadership: 10 Roles

Inspirational leaders create an inspiring culture within their organization. They supply a shared vision and inspire people to achieve more than they may ever have dreamed possible. They are able to articulate a shared vision in a way that inspires others to act.

People do what they have to do for a manager, they do their best for an inspirational leader... More

Super-leaders help each of their follower to develop into an effective self-leader by providing them with the behavioral and cognitive skills necessary to exercise self-leadership. "Super-leaders establish values, model, encourage, reward, and in many other ways foster self-leadership in individuals, teams, and wider organizational cultures".⁵

Effective Leadership as a Source of Competitive Business Advantage

Leadership is imperative for molding a group of people into a team, shaping them into a force that serves as a competitive business advantage. Leaders know how to make people function in a collaborative fashion, and how to motivate them to excel their performance. Leaders also know how to balance  the individual team member's quest with the goal of producing synergy - an outcome that exceeds the sum of individual inputs. Leaders require that their team members forego the quest for personal best in concert with the team effort.⁹

An important measure of a leader's own success is he success of his or her followers. The strength of a leader is measured by the ability to facilitate the self-leadership of others. The first critical step towards this goal is to master self-leadership. If leaders want to lead somebody, they must first lead themselves.

6 Attributes of a Successful CEO

18 Leadership Lessons from Colin Powell

10. The most important question in performance evaluation becomes not "How well did you perform your job since the last time we met?" but "How much did you change it?"

11. Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand. The result? Clarity of purpose, credibility of leadership, and integrity of organization.... More

Empathy

Leadership and Management

References:

1. Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, W. Bennis

2. Leader Effectiveness Training, T. Gordon

3. NLP Solutions, Sue Knight

4. Ways of NLP, Joseph O'Connor and Ian McDermott

5. The New Superleadership, Charles C. Manz and Henry P. Sims, Jr.

6. Leadership – Magic, Myth, or Method?, J.W. McLean and William Weitzel

7. Leading Change, James O'Toole

8. Effective Leadership Masterclass, John Adair

9. Extreme Management, Mark Stevens

10. The Tao of Coaching, Max Landsberg

11. Effective Strategic Leadership, John Adair

12. The Leadership Crash Course, Paul Taffinder

13. The New Leaders, Daniel Goleman

14. Leading on the Edge of Chaos, Emmet C. Murphy and Mark A. Murphy

15. Test Your Leadership Skills, Brian O'Neil

16. Building Tomorrow's Company, Philip Sadler

17. Leadership Dynamics, Mick Yates

18. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Daniel Goleman

19. The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

20. Trust Your Subordinates, Brian Tracy

21. The Cycle of Leadership, Noel M. Trichi

22. Leading Your Boss, Michael Useem

23. The Radical Leap, Steve Farber

24. Jack Welch on Leadership, Robert Slater

25. Jack Welch and The 4 E's of Leadership, Jeffrey A. Krames

26. Leadership Connections – specialists in leadership coaching and personal development

27. Results-Based Leadership, Dave Ulrich, Jack Zenger, and Norm Smallwood