The Leadership Bridge

The Leadership Bridge
By Kenneth Strong

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it. - Marian Anderson

As a leader you will always be challenged with blending the wants of the organization and the wants of employees. Here is where the conflict lies; every organization has a fundamental desire to succeed and employees want to be successful in their work. Organizations use strategic plans, operational plans and human resources plans, however these planning tools hardly ever take into consideration the staff skill to carry out the organizational plans.

Here is where you come in you must become the bridge that spans the gap between the organizations goals and visions with your individual role of leading your section and department. You must effectively lead even if you dont have all the information needed to complete your tasks or if you dont fully understand the directives of your managers.

So what do you do to ensure your assigned task is completed on time and within acceptable company standards? You start by remembering that people support best what they help to create.

That means having each member of your team understand the requirements of the assigned task, time line of completion, resources available, why this assignment is important to the company, why they have been selected to be part of the team and what their role will be on the team.

Leadership begins with a complete understanding of the task assigned. If you dont have a complete understanding then your team members will not. It starts with you. Next you must assess the available human resources and select the best suited members to be on your team.

Kenneth E. Strong, Jr., MS, is co-founder 0f http://www.greateststrategies.com a web based community devoted to educating, supporting and developing life-long learners.

Mr. Strong has been a Health Care executive for 30 years. Mr. Strong received a Bachelor of Science in Health Services Administration from Providence College and a Master of Science in Health Care Administration from Salve Regina College He has had articles published by the American Geriatric Society and has spoken on a variety of topics for the American College of Health Care Administrators and the New England Not-for-Profit Providers Conferences. Mr. Strong has also served as Adjunct Professor at Stonehill College. He is also an evaluator for the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission and a certified Retirement Housing Professional. He is certified by Walden University as an online instructor and certified by Langevin Learning Services as an Instructional Designer/Developer and Master trainer. He is the author of http://www.greatnursinghomestrategies.com newsletter.

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Leadership Skill Training

Leadership Skill Training
By Stephanie Tuia

Quality leadership is a positive asset that is needed in every organization. Observe any successful club, committee or team and you will find a capable leader in each of these organizations. What makes a successful leader? Why do some leaders inspire confidence and have an innate ability to motivate while other leaders are mired in mediocrity?

Most successful leaders have received good leadership training as they have advanced in their careers. Here are three ideas that each organization can utilize to train their employees to become successful leaders:

The Individual Leader -There is a common notion that some people are born leaders. They are born with the skills and charisma that attracts others to follow them. That may be true, but that concept does not preclude anyone else from being a leader. Many people acquire leadership skills with time and experience. For example, a new employee might start a job at the bottom of the company and move up in time as they gain expertise and experience. The employees familiarity and understanding of the business gives them an edge for opportunity and promotion. Many organizations prefer to promote leadership roles from within their company, instead of betting on an unknown commodity.

The Collective Organization - Every member of an organization can serve an important role. An organization functions because members fulfill different roles that enable them to thrive. An organization will have a division of leaders and followers. Both parties serve together to fulfill the purpose of the organization. It is important that members be given opportunities to work together, build relationships, trust, and confidence in order to fulfill the mission of an organization.

The Training Provider - During grade school, I held a leadership role in our academic honors society. I, along with three other student leaders attended a leadership training camp at the start of the school year. At the camp we listened to motivational speakers and participated in a variety of activities, one of which was participating in a ropes course. The purpose of the course was to promote comradeship among our small group. Each individual in the group was able to contribute. Some of the brawnier members contributed strength, while some of the brainier members contributed ideas and strategy. The objective was achieved through communication, teamwork and a well-executed plan.

You didnt captain the high school football team to the state championship? You didnt create and head the grade school recycling program, saving thousands of old-growth trees? Despair not, with a little direction and the right resources you can still become an effective and capable leader.

Stephanie Tuia is a Client Account Specialist with 10x Marketing.

For information on professional Leadership Skill Training, visit CMOE

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The New Leadership Is A Sacred Calling

The New Leadership Is A Sacred Calling
By Brent Filson

You can greatly improve your job and career performance when you embrace leadership as a sacred calling.

The global marketplace is creating historic changes in human circumstances as broad and deep as those originated by the Industrial Revolution. But one significant change that observers are overlooking involves leadership.

From the outset of the Industrial Revolution, order-giving has been the standard of leadership. The word order comes from the Latin root meaning to arrange threads in a woof. In the Industrial Revolution's early years, workers were ordered or ranked like threads in a woof of textile production lines.

But globalization is creating a need for new leadership. Instead of ordering people to go from A to B, the new leadership has people want to go from A to B.

This simple, even simplistic, difference illuminates an enormous leadership opportunity. Clearly, people who want to are more competitive than people who are simply responding to orders, given their skills are commensurate. Your arousing want-to in others can be accomplished most effectively when you see your leadership as a sacred activity.

Sacred is commonly defined as being devoted or dedicated to a deity or some religious purpose. But the emergence of the global marketplace has necessitated a new meaning for the sacred. The sacred I speak of is not connected to any principle exclusive to a particular denominational religion. If it were, it could not be applied universally throughout the global market's interplay of many languages, cultures, and religions. Instead, the sacred aspect of leadership is based on the undeniable fact that all humans everywhere are interconnected through their relationships in profound, practical ways. The sacred flows from the wellsprings of those deep, human relationships.

Paradoxically, this ew leadership has been manifested since time in memorial. After all, when people needed to accomplish great things, a leader had to first gather them together and speak from the heart. In that gathering, in that speaking, in that sharing something truly sacred was established.

To examine the sacred, we must understand the stuff that leaders' activities must be made of: results. If you're not getting results, you won't be a leader for long. Results come in countless forms and functions. But one thing all results share is they are the outcomes of the relationships people engender to take action.

The word elationship comes from a Latin root meaning to carry back. To be involved in a human relationships is to both give and get. Such relationships are best realized in leadership when you engage in what I call the Leadership Imperative. The Imperative states: I will lead others in such a way that we together not only accomplish our needed results but we grow professionally and personally.

The Leadership Imperative is the rough, organizational equivalent of the Golden Rule that most religions, in one form or another, urge; but don't confuse it with a guide for conduct exclusively; it's also a way of getting great organizational results. When people understand that your leadership will improve their lives, their jobs and their careers, you'll establish a sacred bond with them, and they'll be more likely to be motivated to accomplish extraordinary things for you.

(An important tool for actualizing the Leadership Imperative is a methodology I've been teaching to leaders worldwide for nearly a quarter of a century. See my website for my information on the Leadership Talk.)

In our time, order leadership has held sway in all sectors of business and government. However, order leadership has nothing sacred to offer. Orders are sent, orders carried out or not. Deep, human, sacred connections are superfluous, even antithetical, to giving orders. And because order leadership can't get the consistently great results that the new leadership triggers, the order way of leadership is destined for history's scrap heap.

Don't be put off or discouraged if you can't immediately see the sacred in your leadership today. First, align your words and actions to conform to the Leadership Imperative. When you do, you'll see the sacred in the very practical necessities of your daily life. It's been there all along, waiting for you to find it and realize it. You may be in a bureaucracy that at first blush seems to have nothing to do with the sacred. But I submit that no matter what organization you're in, what job you hold, you'll get the best results when you work to manifest the sacred in your leadership. In fact, the sacred is the true reality of what you do, where you do it.

When you're realizing the sacred calling of the Leadership Imperative, everyone you encounter, every challenge you face, is invested with special meaning that can boost results.

The exigencies of the global economy are demanding a change in the standard of leadership. Your understanding and realizing the new leadership but also its sacred dimensions will notably advance your job and career performance.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

2006 The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. and for more than 21 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: 49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results, at http://www.actionleadership.com

For more about the Leadership Talk ==>http://www.theleadershiptalk.com

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Exploring the World of Servant Leadership Nu Leadership Series

Exploring the World of Servant Leadership - Nu Leadership Series
By Daryl Green

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why would a leader want to be a servant? You work hard to be on the top. Why should you even care about these employees? Isnt Servant Leadership just another management fad? Lets explore this matter closely on servant leadership. Outstanding leaders are concerned about their followers needs. Many employees observe the actions of their managers. Are they selfish? Do they possess an unselfish vision? Here are things to consider if you want to gain employee loyalty:

Place your employees needs before your own.
Provide a vision that employees can embrace.
Conduct your day-to-day operations in an ethical manner.
Model the habits that you want your employees to follow.
Communicate regularly to your employees.
Walk employees spaces so that they know you exist.
Reward your employees on achieving organizational goals before you reward yourself.

Employees want to follow a leader they respect. Hackman and Johnson, leadership experts, argue that followers are more inspired to be productive when they believe that a successful task completion will generate a valuable goal. Much of the concept of Servant Leadership is derived from a religious context. Winston, a leadership guru, notes the paradox of Jesus teaching is that whoever is to be first, must be last. Jesus philosophy is contrary to the worlds conventional wisdom. I think this would explain how some individuals are living a very confused lifestyle. They become takers. True leadership is about giving, however. Do you have the courage to serve? Start today and change your organization for the better.

References:

Johnson, C. & Hackman, M. (2000). Leadership: A Communication Perspective. Waveland Press.

Winston, B. (2002). Be A Leader for God's Sake. Virginia Beach, VA: Regent University.

(c) 2006 by Daryl D. Green

Daryl D. Green has published over 100 articles in the field of decision-making (personal and organizational), leadership, and organizational behavior. Mr. Green is also the author of two acclaimed books, Awakening the Talents Within and My Cup Runneth Over. He is a columnist, lecturer, professor, and management consultant. Mr. Green has a BS in engineering and a MA in organizational management. Currently, he is pursuing a doctoral degree in strategic leadership. For more information, please email Mr. Green at pmla@att.net or visit his website at http://www.darylgreen.org.

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Optimizing Good Leadership: Avoiding Egoistical Leaders Nu Leadership Series

Optimizing Good Leadership: Avoiding Egoistical Leaders - Nu Leadership Series
By Daryl Green

Any committee is only as good as the most knowledgeable, determined and vigorous person on it. There must be somebody who provides the flame. Lady Bird Johnson

Elisa is a certified genius. She holds several college degrees (engineering, philosophy, etc.). Shes a team leader in a small organization. She routinely talks down to her staff. Elisa, however, feels that her staff appreciates her wisdom. Elisa is wrong. Her ego has made her the enemy of many employees. Elisa doesnt understand why new employees are not sent to her organization.

Does Elisa sound like one of your co-workers? Does she sound like you? Dont make the mistake of placing your technology before your people. If you should do so, expect to fail sooner or later. Lets take another history lesson. Follow me to the founder of the scientific movementMr. Frederick Taylor. Mr. Taylor was a brilliant consultant, but he was ignored by the key decision-makers in his time. How could that have happened? This is the question that Taylor probably asked himself before his death. Before the scientific management approach, American factories were simply inefficient and uncooperative in nature. Factories paid laborers based on output. Managers had no work performance standards for workers. Taylors philosophy provided appropriate work performance standards and wages for labor. Whats the problem with Mr. Taylor, then?

Lets explore Taylors leadership character. Wren and Greenwood, authors of Management Innovators, admit Taylor possibly wasnt the best salesman for his philosophy. Taylor was often arrogant, somewhat caustic, and inflexible about implementing his ideas. He was a well-known curser and often showcased it on the wrong occasions. Some would argue that his contributions outweigh his character flaws. This is true if you operate on a worldview, not a practical perspective. His Quaker-Puritan background couldnt hide the inner man. His personality didnt endear him with his clients. Despite his wealth and fame, the last five years of his life were hard. On March 21, 1915, Taylor died with unfulfilled dreams.

Finally, although Taylors contributions are significant, he missed the mark of modeling the way. Leaders need a good attitude with followers. Dont treat followers as your inferiors. As a matter of fact, leaders should treat everyone with dignity. Leave your arrogance at home. Mr. Taylor did not. Grow your relationships. Start today!

References:

Wren, D. (2005). The Evolution of Management Thought. Hooboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Wren, D. & Greenwood, R. (2005). Management Innovators. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

2006 by Daryl D. Green

Daryl D. Green has published over 100 articles in the field of decision-making (personal and organizational), leadership, and organizational behavior. Mr. Green is also the author of two acclaimed books, Awakening the Talents Within and My Cup Runneth Over. He is a columnist, lecturer, professor, and management consultant. Mr. Green has a BS in engineering and a MA in organizational management. Currently, he is a doctoral degree in strategic leadership. For more information, visit his website at http://www.darylgreen.org

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How to Think Strategically in a Government Environment Nu Leadership Series

How to Think Strategically in a Government Environment - Nu Leadership Series
By Daryl Green

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Warren G. Bennis

Why doesnt the federal sector engage in more strategic thinking in its operations? Clearly, the average American can witness strategic thinking in a war or other military combat. As a manager with over 17 years of management experiences, I have seen various types of organizational structures. Clearly, the federal system is an intriguing investigation for any organization behavior expert. In a bureaucratic structure, large organizations control employees by giving leader legitimate power and standardizing work processes. Bureaucratic leaders influence employees primarily on their legality of authority and the right to issue commands.

Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel, who are leadership experts, denote strategy as a plan, pattern, position, or direction. On the contrary, it is my theory that bureaucracies are often shortsighted in strategic thinking. Dont get me wrong. Bureaucracies have plenty of plans and consistency. However, they fall short on focus.

Let me expand on this concept. Wacker, Taylor, & Means, authors of The Visionarys Handbook, argue that intrinsic worth disappears as a measuring stick when circumstances change. In the federal environment, politics are high stakes. The top power positions change between 2-4 years.

How does an organization maintain a consistent vision when the key leadership change as often as changing an automobile tire? Therefore, any long lasting change flows upward until it reaches the right champion and the right climate. Leaders need to possess vision and think strategically even in a federal system.

References:

Bass, B. (1999). Bass & Stogdills handbook of leadership. New York: The Free Press.Mintzberg, H. Ahlstrand, B. & Lampel, J. New York: The Free Press.

Wacker, W., Taylor, J., & Means, H. (2000). New York: HarperBusiness.

Wren, D. (2005). The Evolution of Management Thought. Hooboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

2006 by Daryl D. Green

Daryl D. Green has published over 100 articles in the field of decision-making (personal and organizational), leadership, and organizational behavior. Mr. Green is also the author of two acclaimed books, Awakening the Talents Within and My Cup Runneth Over. He is a columnist, lecturer, professor, and management consultant. Mr. Green has a BS in engineering and a MA in organizational management. Currently, he is a doctoral degree in strategic leadership. For more information, visit his website at http://www.darylgreen.org

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Leadership 101 How An Effective Leader Creates An Innovative Culture

Leadership 101 How An Effective Leader Creates An Innovative Culture
By Daryl Des Marais

An effective leader in a retail organization will have a summary of specific behaviors and rewards that they are looking to implement. These leadership behaviors will create a culture that other employees look to, and follow behavior models that create a culture of rewards. This will be a direct benefit if certain behaviors are met that create the results that the entrepreneur wants to implement.

The behavior/rewards that are implemented may or may not be the original desired result. If they are not aligned to the initial desired result then the retail owner may need to rethink what is creating the situation that causes it to be out of misalignment. If the behavior results are greater than anticipated, the model should be defined and duplicated quickly before other competitors are privy to the model knowledge. If the desired behavior/result is less than anticipated, then the retail owner needs to determine if it was the design of the system that was ineffective, or the implementation of the system by the people implementing the system wasn't effective. Once this is determined a solid action plan must be taken with measurable goals and deadlines.

In the first instance if the desired behavior was not achieved due to ineffective systems, then the retail owner must look at changing the system. He can research past successful business models in this industry or try to use innovative tactics from other industries.

In the second instance, if the desired behavior was not achieved due to the implementation of the system then the retail owner needs to look at the way the system was implemented. Was it an ineffective time to implement the system? Was the system not created by understanding what all the different possible results may be? Was the system not the right system? Once this is assessed, then the retail owner needs to look at the people implementing the system?

In the third instance, did the people implementing the system not have the right skills? Were the people fully aware of how the system was supposed to work? Did all the people in the system have the same level of knowledge and were they all on the same page? Did the people understand what the desired result to be was in the system that was given to them? Did the people have empowerment to redesign the system if necessary?

Once these three pieces have been assessed, and the weak link is determined a re-evaluation of the leadership model must be made. Things may be adjusted to the model by using the same team and saving valuable hiring costs. The most effective entrepreneurs or retail owners understand that if circumstances change they can quickly change parts of this system to develop effective leaders in the organization.

Leaders that will follow the current system to the desired result and change behaviors or design if necessary. The most successful entrepreneur such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates understand this. These people are more interested in finding people that are empowered to implement innovative styles that are specific to the culture or system without wasting time taking things along a path that does not lead to creating value for the organization.

http://www.usabusinessgrowth.com/coaches & Growth Secrets. Mr. Des Marais has assisted small businesses with expansion and growth for over 20 years. His expertise is in expansions, turnarounds and business development.He has been a consultant and held positions in some of Americas and Canada's fastest growing companies and led teams to top ten and #1 positions in Canada. He can be reached at (604)-338-6719.

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