In the movie “Speed” they could not slow down or the bus would blow up. If you are a motivated and driven manager or leader you may feel this way about your goals and your own personal success. Nothing can slow you down and you will run over anyone who gets in your way.

The problem with this is two key important factors you need to help you reach your goals and achieve your vision of success are your employees and your colleagues. Not only do you need them now, but you will need them in the future. Run them over and you have a bumpy ride and will find few allies in the future.

Keep Your Employees On Your Bus

It does not matter how good of a manager or leader your are, your success is directly linked to the success of your employees. In fact you should coach your employees because their success is your success. Without them you will have a hard time meeting your goals or vision of success.

Rule #1 – Don’t throw your employees under your bus, get them onboard.

If you want to get your employees onboard there are three essential things you need to do.

1. Care About Your Employees – Many employees feel their manager does not care about their issues. To show you care about your employees sit down and talk with them. Engage them just as you would a friend to find our if they have any issues with their work, their co-workers and anything else. You must take care of the basic needs of your employees. This will show you care and it will open and enhance communications.
2. Develop a Relationship With Your Employees – Your employees don’t have to be your best friends, but you should have a good relationship with them. Sit down and ask about their family and learn what is going on in their life. You will learn things that will help you better manage and understand them and it develops that essential bond of trust.
3. Show Your Employees You Appreciate Them – The number one complaint employees have is the feel their work is not appreciated by their boss or their company. You should give honest praise to your employees when they do good work so they will know that their work is appreciated. It raises their morale and their productivity.

You want to inspire, encourage and empower your employees. To help get your employees onboard and keep them there learn “What Makes Employees Happy” and “Ten Things Your Employees Want”.

Don’t Run Over Colleagues

In the same way you need to get your employees on your bus to reach your goals and vision of success, you also need the help of your colleagues. Getting fellow managers and leaders onboard gives you people who can advise you and come to your aid when you need it.

Rule # 2 – Don’t run over your colleagues on the way to your destination.

Your colleagues also have goals and ambitions as well as a long memory. If you use them and abuse them they will remember and be less likely to help you now and in the future. Engage your colleagues to build a network of support for your journey.

Thank them when they give you help. Acknowledge them when their work benefits you. Build solid working relationships with them so they will be there when you need them. Having a network of colleagues onboard will help speed you to success.

Stop the Bus, Get Out and Engage

Take the time now to stop your bus, get out and engage your employees and your colleagues. Get them onboard and your bus will run smoother and you will reach your goals and your vision of success.

When you take the time to do this your employees and colleagues will be more likely to stay on your bus, work harder, give you more loyalty and extra effort as well as the positive energy you need to fuel your bus for a successful ride.

To learn more about how you can do this read “Management By Walking Around MBWA”. It will show you how to get out of your bus drivers seat and build the relationships you need to reach your goals and your vision of success.

It is what you do that makes you successful. That is why these 20 leadership principles are mainly about actions. To be a successful manager you must get up out of that chair and show leadership. If you want to drive performance for the business and success for you and your team, you need to learn to be a better leader.

20 Leadership Principles for Managers

Show Leadership

• Leaders should always lead by example. You can not expect employees to do what you say if you do not do it yourself.
• Leaders must be an active participant in the work being done. Don’t just give your employees marching orders and say “Go do it”. Get out there and help. Make sure the work is getting done the way it should.
• Leaders must establish a clear vision for the future. One that aligns the work being done to meet the needs of the business.
• Leaders must establish shared values and ethics at all levels. Leaders are trustworthy, honest, dependable, and motivational. Leaders are not uncooperative, egotistical, irritable, and demanding. Leaders must show these values and demand them from employees.
• Leaders must always consider the needs of all stakeholders. This includes customers, owners, employees, and vendors. All of these groups that have a stake must be kept informed and involved.
• Leaders must consult and delegate well. Consult with others and to make sure you are clear on the objectives. Fully inform an employee of the goal and objective and then delegate it to them. Follow-up and be sure the job is getting done.
• Leaders must create and implement a strategy to reach the goals and targets of their team. Without a plan you are like a ship without a rudder.

People Oriented Team Approach

• Leaders must inspire, encourage and recognize the accomplishments and the contributions of their employees. Every employee wants to know that their contributions are appreciated.
• Leaders must create an environment that promotes honest and open communications without the fear of retribution.
• Leaders must train and coach their employees and monitor their work so they can help the employee when needed. Invest in training your employees and you will reap the benefits of better work and more productivity.
• Leaders must set challenging goals and targets for their employees. Bored employees are not as productive as those who are not challenged.
• Leaders must build trust with their employees and eliminate the fear if employees fail to meet requirements. If they do fail leaders find our why and take action. Do they lack training? Were they unclear of the goal of objective?
• Leaders must provide employees with the resources they require and the freedom they need to get the job done. Employees then must be held accountable and responsible because they have no excuses.
• Leaders must use terminology their employees can understand. Break down complicated terms and processes so employees will have a full understanding of what they are doing or what you are talking about. Ask them for feedback so you are sure they understood.

Established Processes and Systems

• Leaders must be proactive to address issues before they become problems. Don’t be a reactionary leader. Look for issues and deal with them.
• Leaders must understand and respond to changes. Objectives and goals change, new tasks and new responsibilities always come. Change is a natural part of business and leaders must properly communicate this change and how it effects their employees.
• Leaders must demand that employees follow established procedures for getting the work done. Do not accept deviations from the process. There is only one way to do something and that is the right way. Deviations create errors and poor products.
• Processes and systems can be improved so leaders must always look for ways to do the work better. The employees are often the ones who give the best feedback on ways to improve a since they do the work. If a change improves the process, make it the established procedure and demand that it be followed.
• Leader must foster an environment of continuous improvement and eliminate waste. Reports that are not needed, complicated processes with too many steps and other wastes of time and productivity must be eliminated. Encourage employees to always look for waste and ways to improve the work being done.
• Leaders must use a defined process improvement model (PIM) such as PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act).
  Plan – Establish the objective or reason for improving the process.
  Do – Implement the new change to the process on a small-scale.
  Check – Monitor and measure the change to see if the process has improved.
  Act – Determine if the new change is improvement, then implement it or try again.

Summary

As managers we do lead. By applying basic leadership principles you can improve your team, your results for your company and yourself. Leadership is not a title it is the principles and the actions you take. There are many more good principles and skills to becoming a better manager and a better leader. Explore, search, learn and go lead.

There are three rules I ask all of my team members to follow. They address the heart of many problems I see in cross-departmental and cross-team relationships. During each new hire orientation I explain these three rules and why I think they are important.

Never Say “It’s Not My Problem”

When someone approaches you with an issue that needs to be resolved, never say “It’s not my problem”. Even if the issue is not related to your work or your team, try to help out. Embrace the concept of “One Company, One Team”. Their problem is our problem and together we can solve it.

Some IT teams and departments wall themselves up in their own little worlds. If something is not part of their work, then want nothing to do with it. They are to concerned with their own career and image so they avoid lending a hand when issues arise outside of their own little world. They are short-sighted,  self-serving and hopefully purged from the company before they cause damage.

If  you can not help with the problem then try to find someone who can. If it means taking time away from your present task, go to your team leader or manager and explain the need for help. Cooperation between IT teams is essential in building a world-class IT organization. A problem for one, is a problem for all.

Never Say “It Can’t Be Done”

When someone approaches you with a task that sounds impossible, never say “It can’t be done”. Impossible tasks are done every day by people willing to find alternative methods of dealing with them. Team brainstorming is a good way to tackle a problem like this when no answer seems workable.

Problem-solving skills are among the most valued in IT. Seemingly insurmountable problems can be solved by looking at them from different angles. Difficult problems are often not solved by the first or second solutions. Two heads are better than one, and in some cases twenty are needed.

Team oriented approaches are the best approach to large problems. Break the problem up in to smaller tasks with one or two leaders overseeing the work. Crisis teams or A-Teams are useful in circumstances such as these. A dedicated group of your best talent, well skilled in many areas. Such teams can make miracles happen when others say it can not be done.

Never Say “I Don’t Care”

Those three little words speak volumes on the character of the person that says it. This person is interested solely in themselves and if an issue does not touch them, they could care less. Put the shoe on the other foot and this person will be running up and down the halls screaming for help.

The concept of One Company, One Team means we are all members of the same team. Every team member should care about a problem or issue. Our success is tied to the success of others. When one person or one team succeeds, we all do.

If you don’t care you should. Your deeds and your actions are what people will remember. If your answer is “I do not care”, they will never forget it. You will stamp yourself as a negative, self-serving individual and before long nobody will want to work with you.

A Positive Outlook Builds Strong Teams

These three rules all have the common theme of a positive outlook. When you or your team tackle and solve impossible tasks you build morale, you build a stronger team, you prepare them for even more challenging tasks that will come in the future.

You only need to look at history to find many examples of how a dedicated team of individuals banded together and overcame insurmountable odds. Great companies are built by great teams. Great teams are built by inspirational leadership.

Finding people on Twitter who share your interests can be challenging with all of the “noise” that comes from Twitter. IT leadership consultant Chris Curran has helped out by creating a list of CIOs on Twitter. Chris runs a blog on business and CIO dashboards so he has taken the list and put it up in the form of a dashboard.

The list is broken down into 21 different categories based on the industry the CIO is part of. Currently the list contains over 85 CIOs and Chris is looking to add more. He provides a RSS feed you can subscribe  to so you can be updated when more are added.

Response to the list has been positive with several CIOs stopping by asking to be added to the list. So far today seven new CIOs have been added to the list. Thanks go out to Chris for taking the time to provide this service.

Visit the CIO Twitter Dashboard and also read some of Chris’s excellent posts on his blog. Read this post Are There Any Real CIOs in the Twitterverse? where he explains his search for CIOs on Twitter and why he created the CIO Twitter Dashboard.

“Leadership” is often seen as the role of upper management. In fact managers have management leadership roles. Their reign of influence is not as vast as upper management, but the skills needed to lead at the manager level are similar. Most of those in upper management positions were once managers. So learning these skills will not only make you a better manager now, but they give you the skills needed to take on a leadership role in the future.

1. Communication Skills

Communication skills ranked highest by most respondents and another recent survey of recruiters ranks it as one of the more decisive skills when a company hires a manager. To be a great leader or manager, you must be a great communicator.

Communication skills can be broken down into three areas.

Speaking Skills

Leaders need to clearly communicate their message each day. Both the sender and receiver must have a clear understanding of the information that results from the communications. This means you must be able to convey your thoughts and ideas effectively.

Common mistakes in speaking are the message is too long or unorganized. Your communications must be short enough to not lose the attention of the receiver and organized so it is clearly understood. It is important in one-on-one communications to ask for feedback to ensure they understand what you are communicating.

Listening Skills

A common complaint in many organizations is “My boss does not listen to me”.  It is important when someone is speaking to you that you give them your full attention. When someone comes to your office to speak with you, put down everything you are doing, turn to them and give them your full attention.

It is important to ask questions from the speaker and to be sure you have a clear understanding of what they are communicating. The speaker may not be skilled in communications so you may need to pull out clarifications of key points to make sure you understand the message. “So what you need is …”, “So I understand this …”, “So what you are telling me is ….” are examples of clarifications.

Written Skills

Emails, memos and reports are all forms of written communications skills. They can be a very effective and efficient means of communications provided they are done correctly.

One of the biggest complaints about written communications, in particular email is too much information is given. Apply the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle to all forms of written communications. In most instances you should be able to communicate an email message in three to five sentences.

For more information read the two articles in our Leadership Skills series, Leadership Skills Communications Part 1 and Leadership Skills – Communications Part 2.

2. Be Results Oriented

As a leader you must be able to set goals and determine priorities that lead to results. Leaders who produce results not only drive value to the business, but increase their value to the organization. You need to have a “can do” attitude about showing results.

To be results oriented you must first know what the expectations or goals are. Once you know this you need to lay out a plan to reach the goal or the desired results. You are at point A and need to get to point B. Your plan should have specific steps to reach your goal. This type of planning with an action oriented, can do attitude and with constant communications and feedback with those involved will yield results that show you can lead.

You should use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-framed) goals.

• Specific – clear about what, when, where and how on your goal.
• Measurable – goals must be measurable so you know your progress and when you have reached them.
• Achievable – goals should be ones you know can be achieved.
• Realistic – goals must be realistic. While you may think you can do anything it is important that you do not set goals you can not do or you lack the resources for.
• Time-framed – goals need to have a time frame. A clearly set start, with milestones so you can measure progress and a end for the expected results.

3. Basic Leadership Skills

Leadership is often defined as “The ability to influence a group’s behavior, attitudes and actions toward the achievement of goals”. Good leadership skills include the ability to inject huge doses of enthusiasm into a team or individual, and be very energetic in driving others forward.

Leaders need a vision and to be able to clearly share that vision with others. Leaders must delegate responsibility, but must be accountable. Leaders must be able to influence others, not by rules or force, but by persuasion.

Leaders establish a direction and align others to reach a common goal. While leaders are often defined by actions and behavior, their personality is a key part of their leadership. Leaders should be driven towards excellence not just in themselves, but in others as well.

Leaders are innovative and challenge the status-quo. Leaders ask what, when, where and why. Leaders have an eye on the horizon and have a long term perspective. Leaders focus on the people and inspire trust.

4. Strong Teamwork Orientation

For IT projects and initiatives to succeed teamwork is not only vital, it is a requirement. Team oriented leadership delivers results by building a team of people with diverse skills to complete the task. A team oriented leader must reach out to others who can give help and bring them on-board to meet a common goal.

Nobody is an island and no leader is successful without being committed to teamwork. It is not about the person and should include others in the decision making process and the implementation of processes and procedures. It is about organizing, supporting and being an active participant.

Leadership itself is about teamwork. Not standing on the hill and directing, but getting down in the trenches and helping others get the job done. Words are not enough. Leaders who show active participation help build trust and confidence in the team which leads to the overall success of the project or initiative.

Teamwork should be a company wide philosophy. Read the article One Company, One Team – How To Deal With “It’s Not My Problem” for a better understanding of how important teamwork is to the company and to each person.

5. Ability to Influence or Persuade People

It was once thought the art of persuasion was only needed by people in sales. IT leaders must often “sell” their ideas to others and having the skills to do this can be the difference between success and failure. If you have a project or initiative you want to be successful it will take the help of others and often these people must be persuaded to give you the help that is needed.

Influence and persuasion is not using fear or threats to get what you need. It is not using your authority to demand something be done. It is often a give and take situation, much like a negation. It helps to be a charismatic leader, but a reputation of achieving results can help get others on-board so they help and share in the success.

Leadership Skills Lead to Success

You do not have to be part of management to be in a position that requires leadership. Teams have leaders, projects have leaders, work groups have leaders. In situations where no clear leader has been appointed one can step up and take on a leadership role to help drive a project or initiative to success.

Whether you are a manager, leader or want to become one improving on and learning new leadership skills will benefit you for years to come. The key to improving your soft skills, technical skills, professional skills and leadership skills  is to commit yourself to improvement. For more information read the article “How to Improve Your Professional Skill Sets For Little Money”

You should not ignore weaknesses and you should continue to try and overcome them. But do not become so obsessed with them that you ignore the strengths.

Leading with strength will take you from the negative environment of leading by fear to a positive environment that is beneficial to both you and your team members. Leading with strength is about building up, not tearing down. It is a far more effective method of improving your team and yourself.

Key Strengths

There are five key strengths that you should develop or improve that will allow you to start leading with strength.

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is the physical and psychological energy we feel when we are doing something we love. It is the positive feeling you get about a new project or new challenge. It is one of the most important strengths you can have. When times are tough this enthusiasm can carry you through the tough times. Often we feel our enthusiasm is slipping away. We just do not feel the energy that we once had. At this time it is important to go back to the well from which you draw your enthusiasm and fill it again. If you do not burn out is just around the corner.

Personally I love challenges. Nothing gets my enthusiasm going more than a new challenge or a job that is critical and must be done right away. As soon as one comes up I can feel the energy rising to meet the challenge.

Curiosity

Curiosity is our perceptions of not only things in the external world, but in our internal world as well. Curiosity enlivens our mind and keeps us from becoming bored with our work and our life. It is your drive to know more and to leverage your knowledge in innovative and important ways. Our curiosity keeps us in the flow of the work where we feel like we can do it forever.

The strength of curiosity can be applied in your work by seeking to use your knowledge to improve what you are working on. How can we do it better? How can we do it cheaper? How can we bring a better value to the business with this project? This requires you to focus on new things that keep your curiosity enlivening.

Optimism

Optimism is an emotional strength that allows you to interpret your problems as transient, limited to the situation at hand and controllable. In a highly competitive or stressful environment (such as IT) you can over think a problem or situation.

People can begin to doubt their optimistic strength which can lead to pessimism. When you noticed you are trapped in this loop of over thinking a problem distract yourself in whatever way works best for you. Get up and walk around or go interact with others on a topic not related to the problem. This will help you break the cycle of over thinking and keep your optimism from being drained.

Gratitude

Gratitude is the most potent of the these five key strengths. Gratitude should be done regularly, but randomly and it must be genuine. Nothing can come off worse than gratitude that is not sincere. This is why it is an important strength.

To have genuine gratitude towards others and for things in your life provides the affirmation team members seek and the personal affirmation that we all need to maintain a positive attitude which also relates to our strength of optimism. Gratitude has a powerful positive effect on those your work with and for yourself personally. People who have no gratitude can find it difficult to be optimistic.

Appreciation

Many of us find it easier to give appreciation that to receive it. Has anyone ever asked you “Can’t you take a compliment”? We often find it difficult to accept affirmation that is coming towards us, but in reality we need it. On the other side showing appreciation is vital particularly in team situations. Research has shown the number one reason people leave their job is because they do not feel that their work is appreciated.

The ability to give positive feedback to your team members is very important. Team members want to hear is that they are doing a good job. They need that affirmation from management and research shows that 65% of those surveyed said they had received no appreciation for the work that they do in the previous year at their work.

Using Your Strengths

Once you have established your strengths you need to apply them to your work. Do not try to jump in and use every strength at once. Rather take small incremental steps in applying them. By nature the human mind is resistant to change and our minds will resist too much change at one time.

Take the Kaizen approach of slow, but continuous improvement. Pick a strength and slowly start to apply it to your life and your work. While many of the five strengths listed here may sound alike, each serves a specific purpose and when blended they can lead to a much more positive work environment for yourself and your team members.

Leaders who lead with strength build positive relationships with those they work with and those who work for them. They also take these positive strengths and apply them to their personal life. Excellent leaders lead with strength, not by fear.

These types of responses point to a lack of unity and shared vision. Some people and even entire teams or departments are so concerned with their own success they fail to see that their success is tied to the success of others and the success of the company.

They may just be defensive in nature, unwilling to take risks or want to avoid additional work. Regardless of the their reason it is unlikely you will be able to argue them out of their negative attitude. You need to get them to understand that their success is dependent on the success of others and the success of the company. This will require a change in the culture and a new vision for the company.

One Company, One Team

To change these attitudes you must change the culture. One of the best ways to do this is for leadership to implement the vision of one company, one team. This requires breaking down the walls that people and departments build around themselves.

People must understand they need to work together at all levels for their company to be successful. You can not have a world-class company or department with such negative can’t do attitudes. A unified mentality can tie employees together and create a sense of pride that nurtures an organization into a great workplace.

It starts with leadership developing a vision for the company as a whole. One that brings unity among employees, departments, and teams within the company. This vision provides a direction and a plan for the company to grow and evolve to the next level of organizational success.

One company, one team should become the new mantra of your company starting with leadership and working down through every level. This type of mentality will lead to employees, teams and departments actively seeking proactive ways to drive value to the business and promote new levels of cooperation.

If we are truly one company and one team when any one of our team members are in trouble we all are at risk. By replacing the negative and defensive culture of “It’s not my problem” and “It’s not my job” with a vision of cooperation and company wide teamwork, you create a culture of shared responsibility for the success of the company.

By nature human beings are resistant to change. It will not be easy to change an entrenched culture of only looking out for yourself or your department. To take your company to the next level you must get rid of the culture that breeds a “It’s not my problem”, “It’s not my job” type of negative attitude.

It reminds me a piece I saw a few months ago and clipped.

The Tale of Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody

This is a story about four people: Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it.

Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did.

Somebody got angry because it was Everybody’s job.

Everybody knew that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Somebody wouldn’t do it.

And Everybody blamed Somebody because Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

These are troubling times for companies and for employees. This is the time for leaders to rise to the challenge and ensure their employees that all is well.

Leadership is the special quality which enables people to stand up and pull the rest of us over the horizon. -James L. Fisher

As managers part of our job is to keep our departments running as smoothly as possible. We all know that employees who are under stress are less productive and more prone to make errors. From a business prospective it is sound management to ensure a productive environment continues in the workplace.

This is why during these tough times managers need to be strong leaders. To ensure the stability and productivity of our departments, we must stand up to the challenges we face and lead. These are tough times to lead in, but I feel at this time more than ever that strong leadership will bring us through these tough times.

How to Lead During Tough Times

Everyone experiences tough times, it is a measure of your determination and dedication how you deal with them and how you can come through them.
– Lakshmi Mittal

Now more than ever employees will look to management for leadership. They want to be reassured their job is safe and that their company is safe. While none of us can predict the future, each of us has the responsibility to try and ease those fears.

Hold a meeting with employees to go over these issues. Explain honestly how your company is doing. Ask for feedback, in particular to root out any rumors that can be laid to rest. When employees do not hear from leadership, this lays fertile ground for every type of rumor to flourish. Rumors left unchecked can destroy morale during a time when it is needed the most.

The thing most employees are worried about in relation to your company is how safe their job is. If your company is being hit hard, this will be a tough sell. While you may not be able to disclose everything, you can help by ensuring them that every effort is being made to maintain current employment levels.

Use as an example how your company or department has been through tough times in the past. Let them know that despite how bad it seems now, things will get better. Share stories that project a positive future. This will give your employees hope and help build morale.

How NOT to Lead During Tough Times

Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself. – Thomas Watson

These are also the times that separate true leaders for pretenders. If employees are looking to management for leadership and what they see is more uncertainty this will feed their fears.

Do not go around talking about how tough things are. They assume, whether rightfully so or not that you know more than they do. If you show a lack of confidence in the future, they will assume the worst is still to come.

Keep your own concerns about your job security and financial future to yourself. Remember your job is to paint a positive picture, not spread your own brand of negativity among your employees.

Lead by Example

Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.
– Albert Schweitzer

Leaders often lead by actions and attitude more than words. Carry on with work as usual. Find positive things that are going on in the company and highlight them. You want to show employees that the company is moving forward, not grinding to a halt.

Leaders need to be visionaries. This is a good time to share how you envision improvements in your department and your company. You want to show how the future will fulfill their needs, wants and goals.

Leaders must be committed to action. Become more engaged in the day to day operations. Show that you are working to improve not only the department or the company, but the employees as well.

Lead With Compassion

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. – Leo Buscaglia

We are reminded now more than ever that we are all human. You need to connect with your employees on a personal level. Perhaps some one on one sessions will be helpful if you notice poor performance or high levels of stress.

This is a good time for coaching employees for improvement, not just as employees, but on a more personal level. Sympathize with their concerns, but do not feed their fears. As managers we all have techniques for dealing with stress. Share these with employees or contact HR for assistance.

Think of team building exercises that will give employees something else to think about other than troubled times. Take them out or bring in lunch. Pick an activity outside of the company. Ever consider a bowling league? It is really a teamwork exercise that takes place outside of the confines of the office and allows employees and management to interact in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Acknowledge your employees, in particular their accomplishments. Take time to ask how their day is going, to spend a few minutes to see if there is a problem you can help them with. Walking around with a frown and troubled look projects fear. A smile and projecting a positive attitude will go a long ways towards alleviating stress.

Summary

During these hard times we must step up and lead. While your initial goal is to maintain productivity and relieve stress, ultimately showing leadership in times of trouble will pay dividends down the road.

Employees will remember when the times were tough that management and the company stuck by them. This will build trust in leadership and loyalty among employees.

I’m sure there are some of you who are facing far more serious situations than I am. Regardless of how hard times are for your company, strong leadership in times like these is desperately needed.

“Tough times never last, Tough people do.” – Robert Schuller

A leader must be the one to stand up and say this needs to change and this is how we are going to do it. They should lead the strategy, planning, development and implementation of change.

Why Change Is Needed

Change is vital to growth and expansion. It gives your company a competitive edge and gives your departments and reports a spark of energy. Without change it is impossible to grow. To grow one must improve. To improve one must change.

As an example let’s look at Jack Welsh. He took GE and turned it into one of the largest and most admired companies in the world. One of the key elements to his success was to drive change in the organization. He encouraged his colleagues to never stop thinking about the need for change. He advised his managers to make whatever changes were necessary to improve and to constantly re-examine and rewrite their agendas.

As a leader you must understand how important change is and how you can drive change. You must learn how to manage change so it is effective, positive and beneficial to your company, your departments and your people.

Change Is Normal and an Opportunity

Change is a normal part of business and can happen over a period of years or even hours. We must get everyone to understand that change is normal and it must happen. Change is necessary to grow your business. Change will happen with or without you. It is better for you to control the change, rather than have change forced on to you.

Change is also an opportunity for improvement. Great leaders are able to recognize when an opportunity for change comes and seize on it.

Let’s say your company has been using the same process for shipping for 10 years. With the cost of fuel at all time highs so are shipping costs. This is not a time to accept the status-quo. This is an opportunity for change that can improve your shipping department and reduce costs.

Changes are usually made to improve how something is done. This requires you to research the change, look for all possible solutions and alternatives and develop a plan for change. Change without a plan is often mistaken for innovation. Innovation is part of change, but alone it is not change. Change without a plan is like a ship heading into a fog bank. You do not know what is out there.

Leaders Must Drive Change

Leaders must be the driving force behind change. Leaders coordinate the development of the improvements and help put them in place. Leaders must be the ones who recognize change is on the way and prepare their people for it. Leaders must see change as a competitive advantage and leverage it for maximum effect.

Keys to Driving Change

• Recognize the need for or opportunity for change and act on it.
• Stand up and call for change. Explain why it is needed and what the results will be with and without the change.
• Be engaged in the strategy, planning, development and implementation of the change.
• People are the biggest roadblock to change. For a change to be effective the people must know why there is a need for change, what it means to them and why it is good for them.
• Change does not have to involve expense. The best changes are improving the way something is done. A change in a process or how a service is delivered only requires one to examine the steps in the process and improve them.
• Change is about improvement. To work smarter not harder, deliver a better product, raise customer satisfaction or gain an edge over the competition.
• Change should be positive.
• Change is not a quick fix.
• Change is best made with small incremental steps, not complete overhauls.

Change implemented in this manner is the most effective and the least likely to cause disruption to the business or the services it provides. Change should improve the people, products, services or other support structures of your company.

The management landscape is littered with the remains of powerful change technologies, approaches and programs that have faltered and then fizzled, only to be replaced by the next Holy Grail. Change is not hard. It does not always require new training or new technology.

What change does require is leaders who embrace it. Almost always it is leadership that produces change. Leaders cannot sit upon their throne and delegate change to the minions. They must be down in the trenches, working with the people to establish a real and effective change.

Leaders Help People Change

Most people are resistant to change. Change is new and can be intimidating. People have a whole bag of fears on why they are resistant to change. They are comfortable with the way things are and want to keep it that way.

Leaders who have stumbled in their attempts to drive change in their organizations may have failed to understand the dynamics of workplace behavior and why employees tend to dig in their heels. Since change is inevitable, leaders must help their reports adapt to change. They should ease their fears and reassure them that change is a good thing.

This is best done by not springing changes on people. Change should be discussed ahead of time if at all possible. Let people know it is coming and why it is needed. Give them time to accept it. Have meetings and explain the change. If training is needed get them the training well before the change so they can develop the skills needed.

In Summary

Change is part of life and part of the business world. Change is needed for a company to grow and become better at what they do. Change can come at any time or can be gradually phased in.

Change must be well planned, tested and everyone involved notified of the change. Change without a plan will not be as effective. Do not change for the sake of changing. Change should show a real impact in an area.

Leaders must drive change within their company, their department and their team. Change will come whether you want it to or not. You had best be in front of the change instead of being rolled over by it. It shows you are ahead of the game and not playing catch up to the competition.

Leadership requires that you help your people change. You must explain to them what the change is, why it is happening, and how they and the company will benefit from it. Put their fears to rest by helping them through the change. Provide training well in advance if it is needed. The better you prepare your people for change, the more likely the change will be effective.

Change is good. Change is growth and expansion. Change is an opportunity. Change is getting ahead of your competitors. Change is about improvement. Properly done leaders can use change to transform their departments and their company.

Great leaders are usually great communicators. No leadership skill can compensate for poor communications. Great communicators use their skills to persuade others to follow. They are able to present their vision and plan in a clear and concise manner.

In the first article in this series, Leadership Skills – Communications Part 1 we looked at the role of the speaker. Now we will examine the listener and learn how knowing who you are communicating with is almost as important as what you say.

The Listener

Communications Are Heard With the Ears

To communicate effectively the listener must hear what you are saying. Your voice should be loud enough to be heard, but not overbearing. Shouting is not an effective form of communications. It turns on the emotional barriers of the listener and will make effective communications difficult. You should speak using a normal tone of voice, only changing it to make an emphasis to a point.

If you are unsure of how well your speech is being heard you should practice by recording yourself talking. Rehearse a speech and record it. Do this first in private to look for obvious flaws in your speech patterns. Then record yourself as you actually give the speech or communicate with someone. You may be surprised at how you think you are speaking and how you really are.

Communications Are Interpreted In the Mind

You may be speaking from the heart, with well formed words and in the right environment. But does the person or are the people you are speaking to understand what you say? You should know the interpretation level of those you are communicating with. Do not use words or jargon they do not understand. You are not trying to impress them with you command of language, you are trying to effectively communicate with them.

Communications Are Justified In the Heart

Just as your communications began in your heart, the words end up in the listener’s heart. Consider how the listener will feel about what you say. If you are speaking to someone you know well, you may know how to talk to them. If you are speaking to a person or group of people you have never met, you should find out as much about them as possible.

You want to understand what their core values and principles are. You also must understand that how they perceive you will determine how they will interpret what you have to say. This goes back to your heart and your core values and principles. If your reputation gives the listener a sense of trust, they will be more likely to believe and follow what you say.

In Summary

Great leaders are great communicators. They base they communications on a sound foundation of principles and values. Their mind possesses the ability to use words and build sentences to clearly and effectively convey their message. They are able to say what they mean without getting tongue tied because the first two elements are aligned.

Great communicators understand the circumstances and the environment they will be speaking in and tailor their message to fit. They know how to control their voice and the tone of their speech so listener hears what they have to say. They understand the interpretation level of the listener and use the correct words. They understand the core values of the listener so they can speak to their heart.

Communications is a skill. Like any skill it must be developed. How well of a communicator you become depends on how you develop the skill and how committed you are to improving. Read books, listen to and watch good public speakers. Get feedback from others on how well you communicate.

Communications is vital to leadership. You will need it to inspire trust, loyalty and commitment to individuals and groups. You will be able to persuade others to follow you. You will be able to present your plan or vision in a clear and concise manner. Your credibility as a leader will increase if you can effectively communicate your message.

Great leaders are not born great, nor are the skills they possess given to them. Great leaders are not made so by a title or promotion. Leadership is a discipline that must be learned and worked on. This series will continue with other leadership skills required to become a great leader.

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow by John C. MaxwellRead more about this book…