Take Me To Your Leader 2015

We need more Great Leaders. 36 years ago, a gold-plated record was lofted into the cosmos with a greeting card for the first extraterrestrials who mig

Take me to your leader is a cartoon catchphrase, said by extraterrestrial aliens who have just landed on earth in a flying saucer to the first human they happen to meet. It apparently originated in a 1953 cartoon by Alex Graham in The New Yorker magazine. The cartoon depicted two aliens telling a four-legged animal ‘Kindly take us to your President!’

We need more Great Leaders. 36 years ago, a gold-plated record was lofted into the cosmos with a greeting card for the first extraterrestrials who might find it. The golden plaque, attached to the Voyager spacecraft, was etched with a medley of Earth sounds, from a baby’s cry to musical selections ranging from a Bach fugue to Chuck Berry’s upbeat “Johnny B. Goode.” Not long after the probe was launched, a psychic played by Steve Martin (The man with 2 Brains) on Saturday Night Live revealed that aliens had promptly delivered this urgent four-word response: Send more Chuck Berry.

Great Leaders are hard to find. Peter Drucker died peacefully in his sleep at home on Nov. 11 2005 at age 95, eight days shy of his 96th birthday. BusinessWeek, in its11.28 cover tribute called him …

THE MAN WHO INVENTED MANAGEMENT.

‘The world knows he was the greatest management thinker of the last century,’ Jack Welch, former chairman of General Electric Co., said after Drucker’s death.‘He was the creator and inventor of modern management’, said management guru Tom Peters. ‘In the early 1950s, nobody had a tool kit to manage these incredibly complex organisations that had gone out of control. Drucker was the first person to give us a handbook for that.’

Leadership is one of social science’s most examined phenomena. Being a leader today is very different from what it was 10 or even 5 years ago. Today’s workplace has a fast pace of change and many more demands. It also involves working with many teams usually across different time zones, etc. It’s a complex environment out there.

Has leading and managing moved beyond just commanding the troops to get it done? Well yes but don’t discount the highest quality leadership that is taught (yes taught) at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. It was founded in 1741 and has produced leaders-managers-policy makers for half of earth’s nations—including CEOs for both sides in many a major conflict. Leading From the Front authors and former Marine Corps officers Angie Morgan and Courtney Lynch declare,

‘The Marine Corps believes that all Marines must learn to lead. In order to survive the chaos and uncertainty of war, a Marine is taught how to be decisive, how to take care of others, and how to take responsibility for her actions.’

While there are a number of different leadership styles, the best leaders share some common traits, skills and leadership behaviours. Jack Welch is quoted as proposing these fundamental leadership principles (notably these principles are expanded in his 2001 book ‘Jack: Straight From The Gut’):

There is only one way – the straight way. It sets the tone of the organisation.
Be open to the best of what everyone, everywhere, has to offer; transfer learning across your organisation.
Get the right people in the right jobs – it is more important than developing a strategy.
An informal atmosphere is a competitive advantage.
Make sure everybody counts and everybody knows they count.
Legitimate self-confidence is a winner – the true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open.
Business has to be fun – celebrations energise and organisation.
Never underestimate the other guy.
Understand where real value is added and put your best people there.
Know when to meddle and when to let go – this is pure instinct.

The growing awareness and demand for idealist principles in leadership are increasing the emphasis (in terms of leadership characteristics) on business ethics, corporate responsibility, emotional maturity, personal integrity, and what is popularly now known as the ‘triple bottom line’ , abbreviated to TBL or 3BL, representing

Profit
People
Planet

In 2015 leaders will need to understand and respond to such huge attitudinal trends, whether they can be reliably accounted for or not at the moment. So here is my distilled vision of the qualities, behaviours and traits of great leaders:

Be The Trusted Leader. People do want to follow and accomplish great things. Whatever ethical plane you hold yourself to, when you are responsible for a team of people, its important to raise the bar even higher. Your business and its employees are a reflection of yourself, and if you make honest and ethical behavior a key value, your team will follow suit. All else being equal, a trusted leader will get more from his people and have a stronger following. Be someone your people can trust. It is important to remember that it takes a long time to earn trust; it builds over time. This is the basis of leadership integrity – the most important requirement; without it everything else is for nothing.
Be The Great Communicator. All the great leaders I know or have met, are brilliant at explaining things and communicating a vision. Communication is one of the fundamental leadership capabilities; communication is a two-way street with listening as important as speaking. Great leaders listen incredibly well as part of their communication skills. Knowing what you want accomplished may seem clear in your head, but if you try to explain it to someone else and are met with a blank expression, you know there is a problem. If this has been your experience, then you may want to focus on honing your communication skills. Being able to clearly and succinctly describe what you want done is extremely important. If you can’t relate your vision to your team, you won’t all be working towards the same goal.
Make More Leaders. Tom Peters said this year, that the number 1 job for leaders is “Employee development”. It is decidedly not an HR term; it is a reason for being, along with service to one’s customers: ‘Your principal moral obligation as a leader is to develop the skillset, “soft” and “hard,” of every one of the people in your charge (temporary as well as semi- permanent) to the maximum extent of your abilities. The good news: This is also the #1 mid- to long-term … profit maximization strategy!’ Great leaders don’t create followers, they create more great leaders. Encouraging your people to grow, to learn and to take on as much as they want to, at a pace they can handle. Always accentuating the positive (say ‘do it like this’, not ‘don’t do it like that’).
Be Strategically Focused. If you want to do big things, be more strategic in what you do and how you go about doing it. The 2015 leader need to be ahead of marketplace demands while maintaining other critical functions. You must take a hard look at where you actually spend your time, and where you should. Make an adjustment to be more strategic.
Exude Passion. Creating a business often involves looking forward and knowing where we are going. Especially in the beginning stages of a startup, inspiring your team to see the vision of the successes to come is vital. Make your team feel invested in the accomplishments of the company. Whether everyone owns a piece of equity, or you operate on a bonus system, generating enthusiasm for the hard work you are putting in is so important. Being able to inspire your team is great for focusing on the future goals, but it is also important for the current issues.
Have Inner Strength. There may be days where the future of your brand is worrisome and things aren’t going according to plan. This is true with any business, large or small, and the most important thing is not to panic. Part of your job as a leader is to put out fires and maintain the team morale. Keep up your confidence level, and assure everyone that setbacks are natural and the important thing is to focus on the larger goal. As the leader, by staying calm and confident, you will help keep the team feeling the same. Develop yourself, by reading great blogs, watching inspiring Ted Talks and taking advice from good people. Some of the best books for leadership can be found here and are not about business at all – they are about people who triumph over adversity.
Make Excellent Decisions. Making decisions is one of the fundamental actions of a leader; making quality decisions is much harder. Understand, reflect, and learn about your decision making process. Leaders need to make both quality and timely decisions. Getting things done yourself is great, but it doesn’t scale very well. If you want to do big things, it requires effectively getting work done through others. One needs to become very good at delegating. Finessing your brand vision is essential to creating an organised and efficient business, but if you don’t learn to trust your team with that vision, you might never progress to the next stage. Its important to remember that trusting your team with your idea is a sign of strength, not weakness. Remember PFR: Performance, Feedback, Revision.
Lead by Example: Excellence, always. A great leaders must always be seen to be working harder and more determinedly than anyone else. Having an effective appreciation and approach towards corporate responsibility, (Triple Bottom Line, Fair Trade) so that the need to make profit is balanced with wider social and environmental responsibilities. This means being very grown-up – never getting emotionally negative with people – no shouting or ranting, even if you feel very upset or angry. If you expect your team to work hard and produce quality content, you’re going to need to lead by example. There is no greater motivation than seeing the boss down in the trenches working alongside everyone else, showing that hard work is being done on every level. By proving your commitment to the brand and your role, you will not only earn the respect of your team, but will also instil that same hardworking energy among your staff. It’s important to show your commitment not only to the work at hand, but also to your promises. Always doing what you say you will do – keeping your promises
Creativity and Innovation (of which I have written about a lot this week). I use the term EPC (Explore, Play and Create Novelty). Some decisions will not always be so clear-cut. This is where your creativity will prove to be vital. It is during these critical situations that your team will look to you for guidance and you may be forced to make a quick decision. As a leader, its important to learn to think creatively and to choose which of two bad choices is the best option. Don’t immediately choose the first or easiest possibility; sometimes its best to give these issues some thought, and even turn to your team for guidance. By using all possible options before making a rash decision, you can reach the end conclusion you were aiming for.
Always Be Results Orientated. Great leaders spend their energy on the most effective activities to achieve the greatest outcomes. Remember, action orientation is good, but be oriented on the right actions. Don’t just be busy; be a busy leader who gets results. This means being decisive – even if the decision is to delegate or do nothing if appropriate – but be seen to be making fair and balanced decisions. Include the art of Fairness – treating everyone equally and on merit and being firm and clear in dealing with bad or unethical behaviour.
Be Good at Dealing with Conflict. The reality is that conflict is going to happen. People think things should be done in different ways. Learn how to successfully resolve conflict and harness the best ideas from your staff.
Create a Positive Attitude. You want to keep your team motivated towards the continued success of the company, and keep the energy levels up. Whether that means providing snacks, coffee, relationship advice, or even just an occasional beer in the office, remember that everyone on your team is a person. Keep the office mood a fine balance between productivity and playfulness.
Ask Great Questions. We’ve all seen it. You are in a meeting and someone asks a great question that unlocks a situation. If you tend to ask questions, make sure they are really good questions.

As a leader, your main priority is to get the job done, whatever the job is. Leaders make things happen by:

knowing your objectives and having a plan how to achieve them
building a team committed to achieving the objectives
helping each team member to give their best efforts

As a leader you must know yourself. Know your own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can build the best team around you. Skills alone do not make leaders – style and behaviours do.

The Voyager’s golden record carried greetings in 55 languages, including a folksy one in Amoy, a Chinese dialect, which was translated as:

Friends of space, how are you all?
Have you eaten yet?
Come visit us if you have time.

Perhaps help in the form of Great Leadership is on the way. If space aliens are benign, maybe their goal is to foster a cooperative conversation here on Earth.

Be Amazing Every Day.

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