In this first post, I share my thoughts with you on what has worked for me in assessing whether a leader has the ability to 'Lead People and Manage Things'. What I've found is that most successful leaders share a few things in common.

This is a long post...but I promise to keep subsequent posts short and to the point! In fact, it's an article I wrote some time ago. Here it is...

Many people in leadership positions struggle with
understanding what makes a great leader. While billions of dollars are
spent annually on leadership development, high performing leadership is still
in short supply.

Organizations have responded to the demand for effective
leadership with a steady stream of education and training resources,
which seem to be plentiful, (for example, Amazon.com has over 9,000
references on leadership), yet most attempts at building high
performance leadership are either far too complex or too simplistic to
be of any practical use to leaders who need to make things happen. So
what does work?

While successful organizations focus on three
imperatives: aligning strategy & people; developing world class
leaders; and building world class teams, when we look at what
successful leaders personally do to succeed, we find that they
concentrate on building their capacity around what we call five key
facets of leadership:

Focus -
Authenticity -
Courage -
Empathy -
Timing

Focus

Effective leaders stay focused on the outcomes they wish
to create, and don't get too married to the methods used to achieve
them. They provide this 'outcomes focus' for their organization by
emphasizing the mission, vision, values and strategic goals of their
organization and at the same time building the capacity of their
organizations to achieve them.

This capacity building emphasizes the need to be
flexible, creative and innovative and avoid becoming fossilized through
the adoption of bureaucratic structures, policies and processes. It
also means letting go of lines of business, products and programs that
don't support the focus.

Authenticity

Leaders who are authentic attract followers, even
leaders who are viewed as being highly driven and often difficult to
work for. Simply put, they are viewed as always being themselves.and
therefore followers know what to expect from them and can rely on them,
come thick or thin.

Authenticity provides the leader with the currency to
obtain 'buy-in' from key stakeholders, because it builds and maintains
trust. Authenticity is the bedrock upon which the other facets are
built.

Courage

The challenges facing leaders today are immense, and
require great courage to overcome. Leaders are constantly being
challenged by others, be it their own team, customers, the public or
stakeholders. Standing firm in the face of criticism, yet having the
courage to admit when they are wrong, are hallmarks of courageous
leaders.

Also, shifting an organization from being
introspective to becoming customer focused requires courage when people
pay lip service to the new direction...it means calling people on their
bluff.

Empathy

Effective leaders know how to listen empathetically.thus
legitimizing others' input. By doing so, they promote consensus
building, and build strong teams. They coach others to do the same, and
so create a culture of inclusiveness. They tend to be great listeners
who capitalize on the ideas of others, and provide recognition for
these ideas, yet they don't get bogged down in overly complicated
dialogue.

While they create learning organizations that place a
high value on dialogue and continuous feedback, they know when to take
action, when to 'fish or cut bait', which brings us on to the fifth
facet...

Timing

The one facet that can make or break a leader is in
knowing when to make critical decisions and when not to. All of the
other facets must be viewed as subservient to getting the timing of
critical decisions and actions right. There is a need to be focused,
authentic, courageous and empathetic, but get the timing wrong on
critical decisions and everything else stands to be nullified.

Great leaders move with appropriate speed. They don't
believe that everything must be done immediately...they know how to
prioritize, and how to get their team to prioritize. As well, they
engage in timely follow-through to ensure actions that are committed to
happen in a well coordinated and timely way.

Is that all it takes to be a great leader? These facets
of high performance leadership are not exhaustive. Just as one would
look at the facets of a diamond, upon closer observation other facets
become observable.

Any person can aspire to being a great leader by
commencing with these facets. If you are in a leadership role,
regardless of your position in your organization, start by asking
yourself the following key questions:

Key Questions
1. How focused am I?
How much of my time do I spend communicating and inspiring people about
our mission, vision and strategic goals? How much focus do I create in
my organization? How married am I/my organization to methods that have
outlived their usefulness?

2. Am I viewed as authentic? Do people see and hear the real me? Do I wear a mask at work, and remove it when I leave each evening?

3. How courageous am I when my values, vision and goals are challenged? Do I stand firm and only change my position when I know that I am wrong?

4. How empathetic am I?
Too much/too little? Do I create enough opportunities for open and
candid dialogue? Do I ever find myself getting bogged down in consensus
building, or leading my team to false consensus? Is there a feeling of
inclusiveness and engagement amongst the members of my organization,
and with other stakeholders, including customers?

5. Do I make and execute decisions in a timely fashion? Do I know when to 'fish or cut bait?' - do I demand well coordinated and timely execution of strategy from others?

What can you do to create a high performance leadership
culture? Asking these questions in a candid way will open up many
possibilities for you, your organization or your clients...if you have
the courage to do it. Building and sustaining a high performance
leadership culture takes time, patience and a clear focus on the vital
few characteristics that leaders can develop naturally and
authentically.

Listening to what people expect from you as a leader,
and then responding empathically, in a timely fashion, will move you
dramatically towards mastering these five key facets of high
performance leadership.

Above all, you need to TAKE ACTION.