Leadership in the workplace, where we all spend (or invest) most of our time, is critical. Whether you are a leader or manager in a business or someone working for a 'boss', I believe you will find this post informative.
How do we define leadership in business? Is it different from leadership in general? The short answer is no. Leadership in the workplace is simply a combination of general leadership qualities and skills (as in my previous post) and sound business practices and approaches. Whether you are a leader or someone aspiring to be one, you can follow the steps below, each working with the other, toward the perfect management environment.
Step one is to pick the right business. Not all businesses are created equal. The first step to leadership success is to own, manage, or work for the right business with the right economics working in its favour. This is how you get ahead from the start. Warren Buffet says that when a leader with an good reputation meets a business with a reputation for poor economics, it is usually the business’s reputation that remains intact. Therefore, when you are selling your most valuable, and rapidly depreciating, asset - your time - make sure you pick a company that will appreciate it in return while supporting you in reaching your dreams, potential and purpose. You want to be inspired and do what you love every day. So how do you pick the right company? You pick it just like someone planning to invest hard earned money would. In other words, you pick a company that is economically successful. See my Value Investment Blog posts to understand my thinking regarding how you achieve this.
Step two is to pick the right people for the job. If you are not a manager then you can add these ideas to the previous point, i.e. pick the right business, because they will help you pick the right environment to work in. Finding the right people requires looking for integrity, intelligence, energy, and someone who loves the business (a passion for the business). Warren Buffett warns that without integrity someone's intelligence and energy will kill you (figuratively). John Demartini says that finding the right person for the job is all about finding the person who's values match the job description. When a potential employees' values match the job description, they will be self disciplined, focused, reliable, enthusiastic and productive in their position. Your greatest ally in picking the right people for the job is conversation. Through conversation you can understand the person's passions and dreams. If the person's dreams and long term goals match that of both the job and the company you have a winner. Ask the person how the job would fulfill their values and how the vision of the company would fulfill their dreams.
Step three is to delegate authority to the point of abdication. Delegation of authority is a requirement for many reasons, one being for your own sanity. Managing too many tasks will lead to too many balls in the air, and if you drop one, you drop them all. The second most important reason is to allow your people to run things in order for them to achieve. Your managers can focus on just one job and thus achieve mastery and success performing that job. Empowering them will leave them with a sense of pride and achievement which will make them happy, enthusiastic, inspired employees.
Step four is to motivate your workforce. Once the excellent business is found, the right management is in place, and you have delegated authority, you have to start motivating your people to be all that they can be, so that the business, the manager, and the employees can be as productive as possible. If there is a single skill that a manager should be great at, it is motivating others to achieve. There are a number of tenets that will serve you well toward motivating others:
How do we define leadership in business? Is it different from leadership in general? The short answer is no. Leadership in the workplace is simply a combination of general leadership qualities and skills (as in my previous post) and sound business practices and approaches. Whether you are a leader or someone aspiring to be one, you can follow the steps below, each working with the other, toward the perfect management environment.
Step one is to pick the right business. Not all businesses are created equal. The first step to leadership success is to own, manage, or work for the right business with the right economics working in its favour. This is how you get ahead from the start. Warren Buffet says that when a leader with an good reputation meets a business with a reputation for poor economics, it is usually the business’s reputation that remains intact. Therefore, when you are selling your most valuable, and rapidly depreciating, asset - your time - make sure you pick a company that will appreciate it in return while supporting you in reaching your dreams, potential and purpose. You want to be inspired and do what you love every day. So how do you pick the right company? You pick it just like someone planning to invest hard earned money would. In other words, you pick a company that is economically successful. See my Value Investment Blog posts to understand my thinking regarding how you achieve this.
Step two is to pick the right people for the job. If you are not a manager then you can add these ideas to the previous point, i.e. pick the right business, because they will help you pick the right environment to work in. Finding the right people requires looking for integrity, intelligence, energy, and someone who loves the business (a passion for the business). Warren Buffett warns that without integrity someone's intelligence and energy will kill you (figuratively). John Demartini says that finding the right person for the job is all about finding the person who's values match the job description. When a potential employees' values match the job description, they will be self disciplined, focused, reliable, enthusiastic and productive in their position. Your greatest ally in picking the right people for the job is conversation. Through conversation you can understand the person's passions and dreams. If the person's dreams and long term goals match that of both the job and the company you have a winner. Ask the person how the job would fulfill their values and how the vision of the company would fulfill their dreams.
Step three is to delegate authority to the point of abdication. Delegation of authority is a requirement for many reasons, one being for your own sanity. Managing too many tasks will lead to too many balls in the air, and if you drop one, you drop them all. The second most important reason is to allow your people to run things in order for them to achieve. Your managers can focus on just one job and thus achieve mastery and success performing that job. Empowering them will leave them with a sense of pride and achievement which will make them happy, enthusiastic, inspired employees.
Step four is to motivate your workforce. Once the excellent business is found, the right management is in place, and you have delegated authority, you have to start motivating your people to be all that they can be, so that the business, the manager, and the employees can be as productive as possible. If there is a single skill that a manager should be great at, it is motivating others to achieve. There are a number of tenets that will serve you well toward motivating others:
- Motivate people through leading by example. Provide people with a reputation and example to live up to and ensure that you serve your people. A serving leader is someone that focuses on their team rather than power, domination, or self-interest.
- Praise people for their achievements all the time. From the smallest to the biggest achievement, ensure that you praise people and ensure you do so on a grand scale.
- Be careful to criticize. Warren Buffett calls it: praise by name, criticize the category. When you have to criticize make sure that you criticize the category, not the person. And if ever you have to criticize a person be sure to precede the criticism with praise first.
- Don't try and win arguments. The wise leader knows that to win an argument you have to loose and argument.
- Encourage people to come up with solutions and ideas. When people have the opportunity to solve a problem, to rescue the situation, it motivates them to greatness and it will energize them for a long time to come.
- Be supportive of other peoples unique hierarchy of values. Don't try and force your wants and needs on other people. Take the time to understand theirs and support them in it. If its important to them it should be important to you. Support them and they will support you.
- Allow people to make mistakes, don't you make mistakes? Admit it, we all make mistakes so why would you not allow your employees to make mistakes. Mistakes can result from a lack of understanding, a lack of training, a lack of equipment, a lack of motivation, etc. These are all things that you can pay attention to and help resolve for your employees.
- Use the magic words please and thank you, they will take you beyond were you thought possible.
- Be patient and take time to motivate. Use the fire them up before you fire them out mentality to always take the time to motivate more.
- Learning every day. Benjamin Franklin said that the school of life is in session every day, so learn as much as you can.
- Manage yourself for inflation. Stay ahead of the curve, keep increasing your value by training and expanding your thinking.
- Don't tolerate dishonesty. Dishonesty and negativity will poison your entire team.
- Remember that everyone has a mission, everyone has a purpose and help them achieve it. Peoples mission or purpose is an expression of their highest values or priorities. Identify what their hiearchy of values is, i.e. what is really important to them. Then help them set their goals and help them work congruent to that and watch how you automatically electrify and energize their lives.
- Communicate often about everything. Start by communicating your vision, your values, and how important people and their values are to the organisation. Don't stop communicating and praise while you communicate.
To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!' — Lao-tsu
Be Extraordinary!
Myles
Myles
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