Your leadership training Information
Some leaders are born, while others are created. It’s often difficult, especially as a manager, to convince others to follow in our footsteps, but it is possible. Whether you’re a natural born leader or not, the following qualities can and should be nurtured in order to enhance your leadership abilities.
Vision
Do you have a vision and are you able to share that vision with your team? Having a vision means you know what path you want to take in order to achieve optimal end results. Your communication skills must be strong enough to effectively convince your followers that your path is the right choice given the current situation.
Dedication
Are you really dedicated to your work? Are you willing, if necessary, to spend extra long hours at the office to get the job done? Your dedication will inspire your team members to share the same level of enthusiasm.
Humility
Humility means being able to recognize that you are no better off than anyone else on your team, regardless of your salary or job title. You’re all human and you all make mistakes. Your job status doesn’t exempt you from error.
Fairness
A good leader needs to be able to make fair decisions regardless of how he or she may feel personally about a given situation. Fairness means looking at the facts, not each team member’s personal opinions about them, and then making an educated decision.
Humor
Let’s face it – laughter is the best medicine. People are happy when they are laughing, and laughter eases tension and increases productivity (in moderation, of course). Those stuck in a boring or hostile workplace won’t accomplish much. Put your sense of humor to work and keep the entire team happy.
These are, of course, only a few leadership qualities you should keep in mind but they offer you an excellent place to start. Take a look at your day to day interactions with your team and determine whether or not you need to tweak your leadership style. Good luck!
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Article author: Sean McPheat
I’ve had the pleasure and honor to meet some of the world’s greatest leaders and leadership gurus, from Sir Richard Branson, General Tommy Franks, and Captain Mike Abrashoff to Dr. Warren Bennis, Dr. Henry Mintzberg, and Tom Peters.
I recently had the opportunity to meet with Bill George, former chairman and chief executive of Medtronic, Inc., the world’s leading medical technology company, and author of the best-selling book, Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value.
Bill George speaks boldly against the “shareholders are king” philosophy that has created many of the problems facing businesses today. With corporate accounting scandals rampant and CEOs being handsomely rewarded even while their companies are rushing headlong to failure, George believes that leaders must reexamine their values and principles and refocus their companies on the things that create true sustainable value: satisfied customers serviced through valued employees.
In the pursuit of shareholder – not customer – value, CEOs have been driven to pursue quick riches – almost always at the expense of long-term growth and customer service. Worse, this misguided pursuit of shareholder profits has led some – as evident in Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and others – to create the illusion of profitability and growth.
Where’s the leadership? In many cases, the leadership is as vaporous as the long-term profits.
Bill George calls on all of us to demonstrate authentic leadership, to return to the core values of sound business. He argues that taking good care of employees and customers will result in a higher stock price than focusing on shareholder value. And his arguments are persuasive. During his tenure as CEO at Medtronic, revenues grew from $750 million in 1989 to $5 billion in 2001. The company’s market capitalization rose from around $1 billion to more than $60 billion – a 37.5% growth rate compounded annually.
Bill George has faced many of the same pressures all leaders face: the CEO cult of personality, the 24/7 workday, the passionate pursuit of earnings, the excesses of ego, and the breach of trust by far too many corporate leaders in the 1990s. In his book, Mr. George draws from his rich experiences – as well as from those of leaders he admires and disdains – to illustrate his five dimensions of authentic leaders:
• Understanding why you want to lead
• Practicing solid values
• Leading with a heart
• Establishing connected relationships
• Showing self-discipline
Terence R. Traut is the president of Entelechy, Inc., a company that helps organizations unlock the potential of their people through customized training programs in the areas of sales, management, customer service, and training. Terence can be reached at 603-424-1237 or ttraut@unlockit.com. Check out Entelechy's website at www.unlockit.com.
Terence R. Traut is the president of Entelechy, Inc., a company that helps organizations unlock the potential of their people through customized training programs in the areas of sales, management, customer service, and training. Terence can be reached at 603-424-1237 or ttraut@unlockit.com.
Article author: Terence Traut
Leadership is one of the most talked about and least understood aspects of human behavior. There must be hundreds of definitions of leadership, yet none of them is useful for success in life because none of them allows you to 'create' leadership from within your life.
Why is that? Why isn't leadership one of those things you can go to school to learn, pick up through experience, or work on yourself to develop?
To answer this important - life-changing - question, the first thing you need to understand are the false assumptions - the myths - about leadership. Then you'll come to realize that leadership is one of those things you can go to school to learn...
...if there was school that knew how to teach it.
You can pick it up through experience...
...if you know what leadership is and, as importantly, what it isn't.
You can work on yourself to develop it...
...but you need to know what to work on.
The first barrier to developing leadership is breaking through the false assumptions we have come to accept without questioning. You may not believe all the assumptions listed below but it's a good bet you believe some of them. Yet, they're all false.
THE FALSE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT LEADERSHIP
- 1. Leadership is innate - you're either born with it or you're not. Absolutely false!
Leadership consists of a set of skills that can be identified and learned. It's true that some people have a greater aptitude for leadership but all of us can be leaders and can build our leadership skills.
- 2. Leadership is charisma and style; it's the way we do things, not what we do. False.
We'd all like to be charismatic and stylish, and many leaders are just that. But leadership is substance, not style. Leadership has to do with what we do and the impact we have on others. There have been great leaders who were dull as dust and others who have been charismatic. In our own time Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, is dull, "nerdy," and as uncharismatic as one can get, yet look at what he's led others to do and the impact he's had on Today's world.
- 3. There's no structure or system to leadership; it's situational. Again, absolutely false.
Not only is leadership - true leadership - structured and systematic, it can be duplicated again and again. Students in the Mastery Leadership program learn how to do this during the course of their study. Leadership has principles, skills that can be learned, and specific ways to get results. All those things are the building blocks of the successful accomplishment of goals, managing the aspects of our lives, and creating a life worth living. And if you can systemize it, you can duplicate it.
Believe it - leadership can be built into your life as a workable, predictable system.
- 4. The top person - the "boss" - is the leader, and it can't be any other way. False.
In fact it's the exact opposite that is so often true. In the best businesses, families, schools, and groups, anyone in the group can exhibit leadership. Leadership should be encouraged at every level of the organization (with a few rules of behavior to prevent conflict and confusion).
If you believe any or all of these myths, you'll need to revise your beliefs or you'll never build true leadership into your life.
SO, WHAT IS TRUE LEADERSHIP?
Leadership is nothing more than a core set of skills that can be learned. There are five of them:
- Vision
- Discrimination (or discernment)
- Strategic Thinking
- Commitment, and...
- Inspirational Communication.
You'll learn about them and how to develop them in yourself and others as you progress through the Mastery Leadership program's Mastery Keys for the Emerging Leader. At the same time, you will be able to assess your own leadership capabilities and of those you associate with, and devise a leadership development program for enhancing your skill level.
THERE'S NO MYSTERY TO LEADERSHIP
Contrary to popular belief, there's nothing mysterious about leadership. Once you know its core skills and specific systems, it becomes a straightforward personal development task, just like any other system in your life.
Like many other seemingly mysterious things, once you know the secrets of duplicable leadership, you'll want to say, "How simple! Why didn't I see it sooner?"
Leadership is probably the single-most important aspect of your life and ability to produce the results you want.
It's leadership that figures out what you need to do to enhance your life and give it the power, thrust and momentum it needs.
And it's leadership that determines how to do it.
Then it's leadership that makes sure it gets done.
Without leadership, life is aimless, purposeless, random, ineffective, and - no exaggeration...
...terminally ill.
With effective leadership, your life will thrive, you will navigate through any storm, and surpass every goal you ever set for yourself.
Leadership is the cornerstone of the warrior's ability to create the life worth living and developing the skills necessary for protecting that life from anything that would threaten it. And so it is also the cornerstone of the Warrior Concepts Life Mastery Program. Here at WCI, just like every other solid, educational institution, we create leaders - not just in the martial arts, but at home, school or work, and in the community.
We create the light that will cause others to engage in our vision with us and that will brighten the Path for others to follow.
Read more articles like this by subscribing to the author's newsletter at: http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com/newsletter.html Jeffrey M. Miller is the founder and master instructor of Warrior Concepts International. In addition to regular classes for local students, he is called upon by groups and organizations as a speaker, lecturer, and seminar leader on such topics as leadership, personal development, self-defense, and the benefits of training in the martial art of ninjutsu He may be contacted for media interviews and seminar/speaking information at (570) 988-2228 or through his website at http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com
Article Source:
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