Leadership Rocks

[mightyventures]

If you own your own business, you’re probably a natural-born leader. Now that doesn’t mean that you show up every day in a new Tahari suit or Jimmy Choo shoes. Leadership can be messy, can lack glamour, and can get down and dirty at times. (So no matter what you’re wearing, keep a pair of beat up jeans in your desk for those roll-up-your-sleeves and dive in days.)

A leader is someone whom people choose to follow, and although leadership is an ability all of us are born with, many of us have to cultivate the ability in order to make it effective. Not everyone in charge is a leader, that’s just the reality of life. Sometimes entrepreneurs are amazing leaders; sometimes they aren’t. The inherent tension of leadership is the challenge of just doing things your way or soliciting and incorporating the suggestions of your top lieutenants. The price of leadership is high. You have to make the big decisions, take the big risks, put your neck on the chopping block, and guide people who may be difficult or uncooperative. Leaders also struggle with the inherent tension between their innate desire to lead and their fantasy of letting the reins go now and then. Heck, let’s admit it—some days it’s nice to just follow. However, the follower pays an equally high price, though it can be hard to see. Followers don’t have the benefit of seeing the big picture, they don’t see the business with the 360-degree view that leaders strive for. And that’s the most fascinating view in business.

[Fergal]

Christine, have you any tips or suggestions on how to develop leadership skills.

[scifi]

Good points here ..well I would also like to add a line of my own- I think that there is difference between leaders & managers ..it may be possible that leaders can good managers but managers can not be always good leaders,!!!!:)

[freelancewriting]

I missed this forum for some days already... Fergal asked a very nice question, "how to develop leadership skills?"

My mom told me, a good leader is also a good follower. Development of leadership skills might involved trainings from experts and following their advices to succeed.

[kguru1979]

Leadership get strengthened within anyone only by the way of severe work practices. Everyone who act either as a member or a leader are exposed to learn hot to develop leadership qualities. When a member and leader interact between each other, there emerges a scope of learning leadership skills which both the ends has to utilize and learn.

I am a member of the website BNET (http://www.bnet.com/) and this website is really serving me as an excellent guide for developing leadership skills. This website is also providing guidance in all other major social aspects. An excellent website to surf.

Even there are lot of video speeches by excellent professors available about leadership skills... Check it out...

[Fergal]

Nice site Guru, I've bookmarked it, thanks for sharing it with us. I found the article on the importance of explaining things well for successful leadership, very interesting. Especially the three main tips;

Define what it is.
Define what it isn’t.
Define what you want people to do.

[kguru1979]

Really it is a very useful site. Coming to the point Leadership Skills, BNET in one of the articles is suggesting the following to improve leadership skills.. I am mentioning the points only and detailed descriptions are given in the site.

1. Understand the Various Kinds of Leadership Required
2. Acquire and Refresh Your Leadership Knowledge
3. Build Your Self-awareness
4. Apply the Skills You Have Learned

I can say, these are the excellent steps to acquire leadership skills...! For detailed explanation of each steps, members can CLICK ON THIS LINK (http://www.bnet.com/2410-13058_23-68756.html?tag=content;col1)

Hope readers will get benefited out of this content...!

[Mynameis...]

Leadership is hard thing to achieve. Most of the time, it's born innate in the person and this person can develop it more & more through practice. Someone may argue that a person is not borned leader, but actually the contrary is true, since a person who has a noble & elite characteristics is able to enhance them. Moreover, a regular person may have the ability to lead but don't have the potentials to do it, and clearly he won't be better than that who has natural characteristics of a leader.

[Fergal]

The most important thing for leaders to remember is that they should lead by example. People look up to leaders and observe their behaviour, so it is vitally important that they practice what they preach.

[chrisdina]

I give u The 5 P's of Leadership :



Pay Attention to What’s Important

Time management courses, strategy books, and management gurus all will tell you that there’s not a lot that’s really important. Your job as a leader is to concentrate on what’s most important so that it gets taken care of. Then let the rest of the stuff take care of itself.

Praise What You Want to Continue

Praise is your best training tool. In technical terms, praise is a positive consequence that follows a positive action. It’s a reward for something done right. Use praise to get people to continue to do things or to take positive action. That’s where it’s best used

Punish What You Want to Stop

Punishment is the mirror image of praise. It’s a negative consequence that follows negative behavior. It follows a principle stated : "the good shall be rewarded and the unjust shall be punished in proportion to their deeds."

Pay for the Results You Want

Pay is one of the tangible ways you can reward people for doing good stuff. It’s another form of praise in visible, tangible form. Don’t limit your thinking about pay to just money, though. Pay people with time off, recognition, choice assignments, small gifts, and special bonuses to encourage the behavior you want.

Promote the People Who Deliver Those Results

This one just makes sense. The problem is that lots of organizations forget about it. They maintain reward and promotion systems that reward the old behavior, even while they’re trumpeting the new behavior in memo’s, meetings, and executive retreats.


Pay Attention to What’s Important
Praise What You Want to Continue
Punish What You Want to Stop
Pay for the Results You Want
Promote the People Who Deliver Those Results

not too heavy, isn't it... :)

[Fergal]

Good points there Chrisdina.


...Promote the People Who Deliver Those Results

But only if you are confident that you can do the job you are promoting them into. Just because someone is good at the job they are doing, doesn't necessarily mean that they have the ability to do a job they might be promoted to. Beware of The Peter Principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle) - "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence" or employees get promoted to their own level of incompetence.

[OllieMcPhee]

I favour situational leadership models...

We all know that blanket leadership techniques will only get us so far, there are always individuals who won't fit the model.

I quite liked Ken Blanchards "Situational Leadership" book (ISBN: 13 978 0787 939 670).

[magician661]

If you want to set an example for others to follow, may we suggest the following check-list?

1. Test the waters: find out what people think about your style of management. This could be a real eye opener, and the key to making changes to your leadership style. Employ a 360 degree approach wherein you receive feedback from your team members and peers. Let your team in on the objective behind the survey. A relaxed and open environment will help draw out their honest opinion.

2. Listen hard: when your team members speak to you about all their work related worries, hear them out. You could convey empathy, suggest alternatives and create harmony within the team. GREAT LEADERS ARE GREAT LISTENERS!!!!!

3. Connect: take complete responsibility for how you are heard. Always rephrase your message to make it sound positive. Effective communication is a fine art.

4. Be a people’s person: an integral part of developing leadership skills is to learn to respect your team’s capabilities. Let the team members take decisions on certain issues. Trust them with their work; don’t be a watchdog.

5. Lead by example: your team must believe in your integrity, and that you really mean what you say. Be prepared to put your money where your mouth is. It works like a charm!

6. Share leadership: distribute tasks among group members depending on the situation and individual strengths. You become a better leader by involving more people in the leadership process.

7. Evaluate your success in tandem with that of the team: your prime responsibility is to ensure success and development of the team. Focus on building their skills as this will enhance motivation and team performance. Remember, their success is yours too!

[OllieMcPhee]

another quick thought...

should a good business leader have major or minimal involvement in socialising with a team?

Referring to Ken Blanchards situational leadership model from a previous post...

This Knowledge Gene brings out the main points...
My Interpretation of Situational Leadership (http://www.knowledgegenes.com/home.aspx?kgid=2328&nid=58)

Click the 'More Text' tab at the bottom of the linked page... then navigate the content with the map boxes

Magician661:
You make some solid points...(and some scary ones, asking what your team thinks of your style!) i'd quite like to see a knowledge gene on your representation of what makes a good leader.

[johndale]

Being a leader should be a good follower as they say. You should be humble in learning new stuff too.

[scifi]

Some people say that leaders are born, Others say that Leaders are created and there is a third school of thought too that says leadership is a quality that is cultivated in an individual.....I think this third school of thought more often goes with practical conditions prevailing today...

Leadership is not a single quality or an attribute of individual personality..It is in fact a set of qualities or attributes that combines to make a Bigger Attribute Or Quality called LEADERSHIP..This is something you can not get in a period of time but it is something that you acquire over a period of time.....:)

[Boypomy09]

It seems as the Leadership promo does not work properly on Veteran Soldiers.

I have a Veteran 4/5 XP. Attack 73. Hes 6/5 XP after. A 73 attack is a 2 XP fight on its own, isnt it ? So with Leadership he should get 4 ?

[Fergal]

It seems as the Leadership promo does not work properly on Veteran Soldiers.

I have a Veteran 4/5 XP. Attack 73. Hes 6/5 XP after. A 73 attack is a 2 XP fight on its own, isnt it ? So with Leadership he should get 4 ?

Sorry I don't understand your post. Can you please explain it?

[stephenmatty]

oh i liked this line : )
If you own your own business, you’re probably a natural-born leader.
maybe here is something for you all to try ,have a look .

[SummEr101]

oh it does. But leaders should also be good followers. They should know how to listen not only to give rules and instructions because you are a leader. Im sure leaders knows this well.

[edblogger88]

Let’s suppose an individual is lacking emotional intelligence, which is an important trait that effective leaders possess. Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage and recognize emotions in others and oneself. This trait is made up of several abilities, one of which is adaptability. Certainly, emotional intelligence can be learned. You can seek honest feedback and guidance from your coworkers in order to improve these skills. Further, you can improve emotional intelligence by keeping cool, calm and professional under high stress. Leaders with low emotional intelligence could make poor decisions under high-stress situations.

leaders are evidently born, but leaders can always be made. Anyone can be a leader in an organizational setting. Individuals that want to be leaders should concentrate in polishing their leadership skills or developing new skills. It takes practice and experience to learn the trade.