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afford to continue to adhere to a wait and see philosophy.
Boldness, responsiveness, clear vision, flexibility, fast
response time, and courage will be the benchmarks of future
successful organizations.
There are three areas that I encourage you to consider if
you want to be on the leading edge in the coming years:
1. You must put in place a system of open, honest, top-
down, and bottom-up communication.
2. You must tap the resources of your most valuable asset,
your people.
3. You must do more than listen to your customers; you
must think ahead of them and offer them what they will
want in the future, not what you want to give them
because it is convenient, cost-effective, or within the
current scope of your strategy.
There are any number of approaches and philosophies
available to executives today, from Total Quality
Management to Principle-Centered Leadership. They will
all help you if you are not clear on your direction and objec-
tives. Any one of them can propel you with lightning speed
into the future if you know where you are going and why.
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CHALLENGE #59: Defining and
Personalizing Your Leadership Style
According to James MacGregor Burns, who authored the
Pulitzer Prize winning book Leadership, there are at least 130
current definitions of leadership. Warren Bemis and Burt
Nanus, in their book Leaders, claim there are at least 350.
Here are a few:
1. We have conceived of leadership as leaders tapping into
the existence, potential motive, and power basis of fol-
lowers, for the purpose of achieving an intended
change.
2. Though leadership may be hard to define, the one char-
acteristic common to all leaders is their ability to make
things happen.
3. Leadership is the will to control events, the understand-
ing to chart a course, and the power to get a job done,
cooperatively using the skill and abilities of other people.
4. Leadership is the ability to get men and women to do
what they don t want to do and like it.
5. Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to
want to do something you are convinced should be
done.
Here are the most frequently mentioned leadership traits
(not in any particular order):
" Courage
" Optimism
" Sense of duty
" Vision for the future (for self and others)
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" Unbending character
" Strong faith
" Integrity
" Purpose
" Compassion
" Realism
" Action
" Work ethic
" Spirituality
" Competence
" Charisma
" Effort
" Service to others
" Self-discipline
" Moral excellence
" Ability to handle power, success, and failure
" Influence
" Sense of humor
" Charity
" Humility
" A learning attitude
" Endurance
" A builder of people and enterprise
" Respect for others, life, and principles
" Personality
" People skills
" Handling uncertainty
" An ability to control emotions
" Positive-change agent
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" Ability to foster trust
" Making difficult decisions
I doubt you would find them all in any single person. So
the questions for consideration are:
1. Which ones are absolutely required in every leader?
2. Which ones would be nice to have, but are not vital for
effective leadership?
3. Which ones turn up the least in the average good
leader?
4. Which single trait is critical if none of the others are
present?
The way you answer will indicate your own preference for
leadership style.
The new leadership paradigm
A number of clients have asked me what I believe is the dif-
ference between leadership of the past and what it will take
to maintain a leadership position in the future. Here are my
thoughts:
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The leadership paradigm The leadership paradigm of
of the past was based on: the future will be based on:
" Mistrust " High Trust
" Fear/Incentives " Empowerment
" Selection " Open Communication
" Communication " Inclusion
" Exclusion " Team Approach
" Single Business Units " Individual Accountability
" Organization " Work Is Fun
" Performance " Bottom-Up Decisions
" Work Is Work " Everyone Is Unique
" Top-Down Decisions " Change Is to Be
" Everyone Is the Same Embraced
" Change Is to Be Avoided " Employee Freedom
" Employee Restrictions " Positive Reinforcement
" Negative Reinforcement " Mistakes Are Good
" Mistakes Are Bad
What do you think?
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CHALLENGE #60: Making Consistently
Good Decisions
One of the most critical management traits is the ability to
make sound decisions in a timely manner and to empower
employees to do likewise. The ability to drive decision-mak-
ing down the corporate ladder requires trust, confidence in
employees, and a safe corporate culture. The following will
give you some guidelines for your decision-making and the
ability to empower others to make decisions. To make con-
sistently good decisions:
1. Define the problem in writing.
2. Get as much information as you can especially from
the people who will be most affected by the decision.
3. Do not go into information overload.
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