"If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority."
— G.K. Chesterton to Alexander Woollcott
An Introduction to Leadership
People often ask me to share my ideas about leadership. Most people know leadership when they see it, but it is sometimes difficult to describe. I usually begin by sharing a definition: Leadership is the ability to influence others to enthusiastically pursue identifiable goals for the common good. Leadership has contrasting styles such as the two described below:
A good example of a power-based style is military leadership. When soldiers are in the battlefield, it is imperative that combat orders are followed. Soldiers do what they are told, when they are told and with no questions asked. That authority is clearly defined. A power-based approach doesn’t work too well, though, in most other scenarios, especially in the business world.
Service-Based Leadership Model
What I and other leaders find that works well in business (and in other areas of life) is a service-based style of leadership. Our organizational leaders practice “Servant Leadership” which is defined as follows:
Servant Leadership involves the skill of influencing people to work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good, primarily using authority while seldom resorting to power.
The Rewards of Leadership
What motivates or inspires someone to be a leader? Effective and successful leadership is rewarding. If you are looking to recruit, train and develop future leaders, here is a list of some meaningful reward and recognition incentives:
There is little debate that successful leadership has its rewards for leaders. Servant Leadership needs to be a business-practices model. This leadership approach succeeds by involving and empowering employees, resulting in a more enthusiastic and engaged workforce. This, in turn, allows the organization to reach its goals and helps promote the common good.
]]>
Use a Systematic and Strategic Approach in Today's Competitive Market
To find people in today’s competitive market, it helps to “win the day” by employing a systematic and strategic approach. It must be viewed as a competition, so it helps to have that systematic and strategic mindset.
What I mean by systematic is, company hiring managers should develop and use a regimented and expedited process. This approach will help remove gaps in the recruiting-steps process, making it more efficient. Otherwise you may lose people who you want and need, but who you lose because of the time it takes to hire them.
So, timing is a very important element and, then strategically speaking, you want to make sure that you’re sourcing candidates from a broad-sourcing spectrum. You will quickly know that you have really honed the design phase of the job specifications when you can make a decision quickly.
Again, knowing what you are looking for is really critical because then you can quickly spot “who” during the screening process. Time is the element.
Retain Talented Employees
First of all, retaining talent is more and more important in today’s economy because of the high demand for highly-qualified personnel. Effective compensation and quality benefits programs play a significant role in attracting and retaining qualified individuals for these highly-skilled jobs. It’s quite the package when you consider all the components---including compensation, benefits and the work environment.
But today, it’s also important that people experience a sense of feeling engaged, challenged, appreciated and rewarded in ways beyond these components. It’s well worth the time for businesses to talk about and really think through how they intend to show appreciation. In addition, it’s important that businesses decide how to align people’s strengths with challenges, so that they work on what they do best---which will increase the likelihood of the highest results.
Professional Development Helps Retain Valuable Employees
Returning to the retention issue, it is important that people are challenged. Employees want to grow and develop. They also want to take what they’ve learned, apply it and then be challenged to grow some more. This is the engagement that I’m talking about, which allows you to retain the best and, more importantly, allows you to really benefit from the investments you make. We are talking about the investments in training that, when combined with challenges, will reward you and your business as the person improves and reaches peak-career performance.
I believe that people learn better in shorter intervals and with topic-specific sessions----these learning sessions will also apply to what they’re doing at the time. I find that Web-based training, that offers choices for specific topics, is an important learning tool today.
In summary, it is very important to have a training support system that:
]]>