It is, often, very hard for us to stay positive. This is especially true during times of challenge and difficulty. For some of us, periodic challenge and difficulty can be exciting. For most of us, however, challenge and difficulty, especially prolonged challenge and difficulty, can be exhausting. Positive thinking and action can not only help us get through the challenges and difficulties of leadership, but also can help us embrace challenges in life, which may lead us to totally shift our perspective. I cannot stress enough the importance of positive thinking and action as an antidote to challenge, and as a prescription for long-term success.
The modern concept of positive thinking roots in the study of the human mind. However, as it applies for our discussion in the context of leadership, positive thinking roots in the study of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS). Some of the bright minds of field include Kim S. Cameron, Jane E. Dutton, Robert E. Quinn, Robert A. Emmons, and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe to name a few. One of my favorite compilations in the field of POS comes from Robert A. Emmons on “Acts of Gratitude in Organizations.” Emmons concluded that the use of gratitude, a moral and positive emotion, leads to positive outcomes in the workplace. If I were a betting man, and sometimes I am, I would say that the use of gratitude leads to positive outcomes in most other situations too!
Kim Cameron’s work on “Positive Leadership” sheds light on the importance of fostering a positive climate, developing positive meaning, establishing positive relationships, and executing positive communication. According to Cameron, through implementing these four strategies a leader can transition into a positive leader. From my perspective, however, these strategies go beyond the scope of leadership to apply to each and every one of us and our every day lives. I cannot think of any situation where fostering a positive climate, developing positive meaning, establishing positive relationships, and executing positive communication would result in negative consequences.
However, let us not be fooled: positive thinking and action requires a lot of work. One exercise that I enjoy (brought to my attention by a university professor) is to challenge myself to think positively for as long as possible. Everytime I think negatively, I put a quarter into a jar. By the end of the week, how many quarters do you think I have saved in the jar? I suggest that everyone try that exercise because it forces you to be conscious of your thoughts and your actions. My only hope for this post would be that it leaves you with a positive attitude and inspires you to be, act, and live positively. It makes a difference.
As we have stated many time here at The Prime Leader, there is more than one way to effectively lead people. In fact, there are several commonly recognized leadership styles that can have a positive impact on a leader’s effectiveness. Learning the difference between the styles and determining which is best suited for you, and which is best suited for the situation that you face, is the first step towards becoming an effective leader.
First, it is critical that a leader carefully review their strengths and weaknesses. Leadership traits like communication, vision, strategy and the ability to motivate should all be carefully considered. Once a leader has a clear view of their abilities, determining the most effective leadership style is easy.
Laissez Faire Leadership: This leadership style is defined by the ‘hands off’ approach. Leaders who utilize this style typically have a team of highly trained and effective employees who do not need to be micromanaged.
Autocratic Leadership: Once popular, the autocratic leadership style has begun to experience a fall in popularity. This style advocates ‘laying down the law‘ and is sometimes likened to Medieval Europe and the feudal lords who ruled the land. Although this leadership style is often viewed as negative, it can be effective in certain situations.
Participative Leadership: Participative Leadership is quickly becoming the most popular leadership style. This style blends the ‘hands off’ approach with a degree of micromanaging, and when done correctly offers the best of both worlds. Employees realize that they must self-motivate and complete assigned projects and tasks on their own, but know their manager or ‘leader’ will be available to assist them with direction as needed.
It is interesting to note that some (maybe even most) people will not accept a new manager as a ‘leader’ until they have earned that title; therefore, effective leaders need to take steps toward modifying, and integrating, their leadership style appropriately into the various organizations that they operate (we’ll take a closer look at emergent leadership in a few weeks).
Great leaders take the best of various leadership styles and mold them to fit their particular needs and position. They also, some would argue, need to rigidly adhere to the style they have chosen (hopefully a blended style), allowing their employees to experience a level of certainty and reliability from their managers. In other words, if an employee took the same action twice he shouldn’t receive two different responses from his manager.
Leadership style is as much dependent on personality as it is theory. Carefully determining what style works best for you in a given situation is an important step toward becoming an effective leader.
It is a misnomer to believe that people are entirely ‘born’ to lead. Leaders typically work to develop traits that allow them to effectively lead those around them. Like any skill, these traits must be learned and practiced. While it is true that some have a better aptitude for learning these qualities, anybody can develop there the ability to lead.
The ability to make decisions – The best leaders have the ability to make decisions, even difficult ones. They can assess the situation and process the effect each of the possibilities will have. A good leader understands that failing to make decisions will negatively impact the effectiveness of their organization.
Risk Taking – true leaders are unafraid to take calculated risks. They realize that true success can only be obtained by taking chances. They also have the ability to determine the amount of risk involved in any given situation and the wisdom to know when a particular risk is too great.
Communication – All great leaders have highly developed communication skills. They are easily able to communicate their wishes and desires to others in an effective way. Through both spoken and written words, leaders are always clear and concise.
Integrity – True leaders live by the motto “integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. They are inherently trustworthy and strive to be open and honest in all of their dealings.
Education – Realizing the importance of continuing education is crucial for effective leadership. By remaining open to new ideas and concepts and by continually improving themselves, they will continue to develop, adapt and grow as the environment around them does.
Vision – Leaders always strive to look at the big picture. While closely watching the details and keeping their eye on the ‘prize’ leaders have the ability to continually move forward.
Motivation – Perhaps the most important quality of leaders is their ability to motivate those around them. They are able to impart their vision in such a way that their ideas become exciting and possible. This motivation serves to promote both their business interest and the personal goals of the organization. Charisma plays a large role in motivation.
Self-Awareness – The ability to look at themselves and clearly recognize their strengths and weakness sets leaders apart from those around them. They are able to take criticism of their faults well and constructively address them.
Team Building – Leaders can easily recognize the strengths of their employees and effectively divide them into teams that are more successful than individuals. Team building strategies are a proven way of increasing the productivity of an organization.
Strategy – The best leaders always have a clear plan of action and follow it to achieve their goals. In addition, the can recognize when a particular strategy is not working and will work to tweak their plan for maximum effectiveness.
True leaders utilize these qualities to help themselves and their employees to strive for the best and often to accomplish the impossible. Diligently working on these qualities is the first step towards becoming an effective leader. What are your top leadership qualities?
Have you ever wondered about the effectiveness of pay for performance programs? Maybe you’ve thought about implementing pay for performance programs at your organization, but don’t know where, or how, to start? In the most recent Academy of Management Annals a nicely-written empirical research article, titled Pay and Performance: Individuals, Groups, and Executives, was published that attempted to clarify this topic. Simply put, the authors attempted to understand three specific items related to pay for performance: the conceptual mechanisms by which pay for performance programs influence performance, specific programs used and whether or not they are effective, and the pitfalls of such programs upon implementation (Gerhart, B., Rynes, S., & Fulmer, I., 2009, p. 251).
To summarize, the research article, published in June of 2009, suggests that “the use and intensity of pay for performance programs is typically associated with better individual, group, and organization performance” (Gerhart et al., 2009, p. 298). However, the authors accurately advise that care and consideration must be taken when considering whether or not to implement such programs. The reason for their caution is in the limitation that one could confidently question whether the relationship between pay for performance programs and actual performance is concrete or rather just casual. The evidence seems to point in the former direction, but, according to the authors, there is a multitude of other research that supports the latter.
Regardless, before implementing any program within your organization, especially incentive programs, you must analyze whether or not that specific program is correct for your specific organization at that specific time (and, of course, long-term). The key is to understand your strategy and how the considered program fits within it. If you don’t have a strategy, then it’s going to be difficult to gauge whether or not that program is correct for you. At that point, you are simply a blind leader of the blind and we all know the result of that scenario (search my previous posts on “leadership quotes”).
I know many of you are probably sick and tired of hearing about “strategic plans” and “strategy,” but I can’t emphasize enough how important they are. Yet again we can see that without a strategic plan, it’s extremely difficult (almost impossible) to logically guide your organization. You can’t even properly implement incentive programs because you don’t have a long-term, high-level, strategy for how you want to handle human resources. Are you simply hiring to hire? Or, are people your most valued asset? If they are your most valued asset, how can you utilize them to become more profitable? The lesson here is that pay for performance programs can be effective. The question is whether or not you are truly prepared to consider implementing one.
References:
Gerhart, B., Rynes, S., & Fulmer, I. (2009). Pay for Performance: Individuals, Groups, and Executives’. The Academy of Management Annals, 3(1), pp. 251 – 315.
Firstly, to regular readers of The Prime Leader, I would like to apologize for not posting for the past few weeks. As I’m sure you are aware, working full-time, and studying full-time, can get rather difficult to manage. Add on top of those requirements posting to your blog and you can easily see how some time off could become useful and necessary from time-to-time.
I’d like to resume posting by discussing the significance of “envisioning” for a few moments. In industry, you hear a lot businessmen and women discussing the need to develop vision statements and mission statements for their organizations. Of course I am not going to sit here and argue against developing a vision statement and mission statement. If anything, I am going to be a major supporter of the concepts. However, how do most people, or organizations, actually go about developing vision statements and mission statements for their organizations? Do you think that their method is effective? Let me share a few of my thoughts with you.
Based upon my experience and inquiry, I’ve come to the conclusion that many people go about developing vision statements and mission statements in a manner that is somewhat backward. It seems as though this is especially true for small business owners. They first work toward developing brief sentences that meet the qualifications of a vision statement and mission statement, and then they loosely try to move their organization in the direction set by those statements. It’s almost as though they use their vision statement and mission statement in place of their strategic and business plan. This is, of course, the wrong approach.
In essence, what I am trying to say is that a statement cannot drive the direction of an organization. A leader, however, can do so. How? Well, she must FIRST envision. Envisioning is a concept that describes the act imagining the future. Its core meaning is to picture the future in your mind as it would play-out in reality. The core of envisioning goes much deeper than writing a statement down on a piece of paper. It’s actually imagining where you want your organization to be in the future, and then developing a written plan to get there. Part of that written plan, then, is your vision statement and mission statement. A vision statement and mission statement, alone, cannot guide your organization. A leader that “envisions” can.
What are your thoughts? Can you think of some examples of leaders that envisioned?
I found this video last night while surfing the net. The video features Eric Schmidt speaking at IBM’s Business Partner Leadership Conference in May of 2008. In his speech, Eric talks a lot about the future of technology around the world, as well as the future of technology in the United States. Although it is somewhat technical in nature, Eric’s speech is full of examples of leadership. Eric, himself, is a great example of leadership in the modern business world. I highly suggest that you take the time to view this video. It’s kind of long, but well worth the time. Let me know what you think.
When I was a senior in my undergraduate program, I enrolled in an advanced communications course called Professional Presentation Strategies. The course focused on teaching students how to approach effective communication through storytelling. For me, this was a novel concept. I always thought of storytelling as something that we did around a camp fire. However, the reality of the matter is that storytelling can be an excellent way to effectively communicate ideas to others.
Storytelling is not, by any means, a brand new concept. Storytelling has been a big part of human oral tradition for thousands of years. As a matter of fact, storytelling is particularly influential in my cultural heritage (and has been for a very long time). From my personal experience I can say that my parents are master storytellers. When I look back a generation or two preceding my parents, I find even more skillful storytellers. And, let me clarify for a moment: by storytelling I do not mean telling an embellished narrative for entertainment or any other purpose. What I do mean by storytelling is the ability to convey meaning through a description, account, or narrative.
As time has passed through the ages, we have relied less on oral tradition and more on writing to convey meaning. Through this transition, new generations have lost their natural human ability to craft and use story (I’ll include myself in this category). Storytelling is so much more than creative speech and leaders can use story to effectively convey meaning.
Take, for example, a leader that wants to communicate to his people that both ethics and integrity are required within the organization. Not only does he believe that ethics and integrity are required within the organization, but also he wants to make these two items cultural norms within the organization. He sends out a memo, which everyone reads, directly stating that fact. And, his actions complement his statements. How effective do you think this leader will be in his direct communication? Say that instead of communicating directly in the above manner, this leader decides to tell a story about why ethics and integrity are so important to him and why the organization should follow. Perhaps a story about Enron is told, and the hardships faced by its people due to poor ethical standars? Perhaps a story about an ethical organization is told to highlight the advantages? Perhaps some other story is told or a personal experience. How effective, in comparison to a direct communication, do you think this leader will be in conveying meaning? In influencing his people? How effective was the above story in conveying meaning? Influencing you?
Storytelling is an art. What do you think about this concept? Can you provide an example of how storytelling was used in your organization, or life, to effectively convey meaning? Did it work? Looking back in time, with storytelling as a frame of reference, have you used story to convey meaning to others and not consciously know it? Was it effective? I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Here at The Prime Leader, we’ve talked a lot about some of the more popular topics related to the study and practice of leadership. For this post, however, I’d like to focus on a more fundamental topic of leadership studies – communication and, more specifically, the ability to convey meaning. Although the ability to convey meaning is a major topic in the study of communications, those who study and practice leadership tend to neglect it (not because they don’t understand its importance, but because other topics tend to dominate the field – and, in many ways, rightfully so). Nevertheless, I find it key to continually revisit some of these more unique and less talked about aspects of leadership.
Most of us would agree that messages communicated by leadership need to be communicated effectively. Why? Well, because if messages are not communicated effectively, they can be completely lost. If messages are lost objectives will, without question, be botched. What can be more fundamentally devastating to an organization than botched objectives? Without the ability convey meaning, the leadership process is completely ineffective. If your organization (or team, or whatever it happens to be) is frequently failing to meet its objectives, and exceed expectations for that matter, revisit communication in the leadership process.
With that said, how do we, as leaders, properly convey meaning? We should:
Make Messages Memorable
One way to properly convey meaning is by making messages memorable. In order for a message to be memorable, it must have the ability to be summarized briefly. It should provide guidance regarding how individuals are expected to perform, what rules bind them, and what organizational and cultural norms apply.
Communicate Consistently
Another way to properly convey meaning is by communicating consistently. If you deliver a message to a subordinate and then change your mind (thus delivering a second message) – then maybe even a third - is it really possible to effectively convey meaning?
Time Messages Appropriately
Another way to properly convey meaning is by timing messages appropriately. An improperly timed message will undoubtedly be lost. A common rule is that key messages should be communicated either earlier-on within a discussion or late within a discussion (as those tend to be the freshest in the mind).
Choose the Proper Communication Style
Finally, in order to properly convey meaning one must deliver a message in the proper communication style. Some messages can be more influential if communicated in person. Other messages may be more effective in written form. Adjust your communication style according to your objective.
In conclusion, the ability to convey meaning is an important part of the leadership process. A leader that can communicate effectively, and that can convey meaning, is one that will be more successful and influential. The next time you intend to communicate an important message, take a step back and ask yourself: “am I about to communicate memorably, consistently, at the right time, and with the right communication style?” If you utilize these checks before you deliver a message, you will likely communicate effectively and properly convey meaning.
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It is, often, very hard for us to stay positive. This is especially true during times of challenge and difficulty. For some of us, periodic challenge and difficulty can be exciting. For most of us, however, challenge and difficulty, especially prolonged challenge and difficulty, can be exhausting. Positive thinking and action can not only help us get through the challenges and difficulties of leadership, but also can help us embrace challenges in life, which may lead us to totally shift our perspective. I cannot stress enough the importance of positive thinking and action as an antidote to challenge, and as a prescription for long-term success.
It is a misnomer to believe that people are entirely ‘born’ to lead. Leaders typically work to develop traits that allow them to effectively lead those around them. Like any skill, these traits must be learned and practiced. While it is true that some have a better aptitude for learning these qualities, anybody can develop there the ability to lead.
Have you ever wondered about the effectiveness of pay for performance programs? Maybe you’ve thought about implementing pay for performance programs at your organization, but don’t know where, or how, to start? In the most recent Academy of Management Annals a nicely-written empirical research article, titled 
When I was a senior in my undergraduate program, I enrolled in an advanced communications course called Professional Presentation Strategies. The course focused on teaching students how to approach effective communication through storytelling. For me, this was a novel concept. I always thought of storytelling as something that we did around a camp fire. However, the reality of the matter is that storytelling can be an excellent way to effectively communicate ideas to others.
