TODAY'S MESSAGE

Bipity Bopity Boo…You’re a Leader!

by Lynn Giuliani

There was no boot camp, recipe, or help in anyway to provide us the tools to become leaders. In fact one day we are an employee and the next day we are a leader! Becoming a confident trusting leader takes time because learning to have confidence and trust in yourself and others is not a rapid process. In today’s ever moving, fast paced world we often think that there is a fast track method for everything. When it comes to leadership it takes time, patience, commitment, and frankly hard work!

So how does one succeed and become a true leader? It is done one simple step at a time. Here are a few ideas to help you in that journey.

• If it takes a hundred days or a thousand you must begin the journey. Strive to make trust and confidence in others an integral part of your personality. You must do this before you can ever inspire someone else.

“Trust men and they will be true to you. Trust them greatly and they will show themselves great.”
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

• Effective leaders strive to insure that the majority of the input that they offer focuses on what is conducive to the development of goals in all areas of life. Successful leaders strive for long-term change through providing input that allows their team members to continue to develop and grow personally. A team is always made up of the talent within its individuals. Personal growth and development is more then just a process of learning; it implies expression of new knowledge and skills in the quest to achieve a worthwhile common goal. Leaders therefore need to instill a high level of confidence and trust along with solid work habits with their team members. They must: offer new meaningful ideas and information; help team members relate new concepts to their own situation; work with team members to develop new habits and attitudes that incorporate these new ideas.

• Highly effective leaders know that talent creates its own opportunities. Desire and passion are the catalyst and developers of talent. They combine to create opportunities and abilities. Effective leaders possess passion that can be transferred to others.

• Becoming a better role model is an integral part of leadership.

• Effective leaders are clear thinking. They use crystallized thinking to determine exactly where they stand now and where they want to go. Only when leaders have examined themselves are they ready to examine and develop a course of action for their organization. Using crystallized thinking one takes action on their clearly defined goals and objectives. These leaders ask themselves questions such as the following:

• What do we want?

• What are we striving for?

• What is the end result we seek?

• Why do we want it?

• Why do we not already have it?

• Is it due to lack of skill, resources, capabilities, motivation?

• Can we obtain it?

• What is the likelihood based on our current circumstances, of achieving our goals?

• How can we measure it?

• Whom will it affect?

• Whom will it benefit?

• Will the goal or objective benefit only the leaders or the entire organization? It’s customer’s? Stockholders? This is a key question.

• Where will it lead us? Answering this question requires considerable leadership foresight.

 

The Five Pillars of Leadership

Pillar 1, Crystallizing Your Thinking
The process of creating your own statements of vision, mission and purpose are the primary steps.

Pillar 2, Developing a Written Plan of Action
This is a perfect point of reference, a reminder of the organization’s objectives. A written plan for achieving both business goals and personal goals is essential. A written plan also helps spot conflicts between personal and business goals which can sabotage one’s overall success. Set a deadline for achieving each goal. The deadline alerts us in advance of those areas we need to refocus or reposition our energies on.

Pillar 3, Creating Desire and Passion
This third pillar supports the development of sincere desire among you and your team members to achieve personal and organizational goals. We are all born with the desire to achieve. Successful leaders develop a genuine driving passion for this achievement both personally and professionally.

Pillar 4, Developing Self-Confidence and Trust
When successful leaders learn to trust their team leaders to perform adequately they have mastered the key factor in putting any organizations plan into action. This kind of confidence in your team on a firm foundation of personal rapport grows rapidly as one shares knowledge and experiences. Personal interaction with team members reinforces confidence and trust by providing a clear understanding of team member capabilities, of progress made and of goals already achieved. As a result highly, effective leaders develop within themselves the attitudes of trust and confidence for their team members.

Pillar 5, Fostering Commitment and Responsibility
This leadership essential sets you apart from mediocrity. Ironclad commitment and a sense of ownership and responsibility is what will set you apart from the average or the majority. A leader needs to ask themselves this question. Have I accepted the personal responsibility for the success of my team? If the answer is yes begin the journey!

 

Here's to your success!

 

Lynn Giuliani

www.progressionsinc.net

Call Lynn at 360 319-6776 or email her at lynn@progressionsinc.net

She will gladly help you with your sales success through individual sales coaching, classroom training or custom designed programs.

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* Featured Book of the Month*

 

*Featured Book *

Leadership and Self Deception
by Arbinger Institute

Praise for the Book

Amazon.com
Using the story/parable format so popular these days, Leadership and Self-Deception takes a novel psychological approach to leadership. It's not what you do that matters, say the authors (presumably plural--the book is credited to the esteemed Arbinger Institute), but why you do it. Latching onto the latest leadership trend won't make people follow you if your motives are selfish--people can smell a rat, even one that says it's trying to empower them. The tricky thing is, we don't know that our motivation is flawed. We deceive ourselves in subtle ways into thinking that we're doing the right thing for the right reason. We really do know what the right thing to do is, but this constant self-justification becomes such an ingrained habit that it's hard to break free of it--it's as though we're trapped in a box, the authors say.

Learning how the process of self-deception works--and how to avoid it and stay in touch with our innate sense of what's right--is at the heart of the book. We follow Tom, an old-school, by-the-book kind of guy who is a newly hired executive at Zagrum Corporation, as two senior executives show him the many ways he's "in the box," how that limits him as a leader in ways he's not aware of, and of course how to get out. This is as much a book about personal transformation as it is about leadership per se. The authors use examples from the characters' private as well as professional lives to show how self-deception skews our view of ourselves and the world and ruins our interactions with people, despite what we sincerely believe are our best intentions.

Get it on Amazon.com

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TODAY'S ACTION PLAN

Support your team by investing time in each employee. Seek their input. Encourage their contributions toward company growth.

 

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