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 stumbled across this video while surfing Dr. Z’s Leadership Blog and thought you might like it. Although not really a “leadership” topic, I’m sure you’ll see the humor. Enjoy.
According to Wil Schroter of the Portland Business Journal, start-up companies do better when surrounding themselves with leaders. On that note, I couldn’t agree more! Part of the duties of a leader lay in resource allocation. In other words, this means finding the right talent mix to implement your vision. If you’re a young entrepreneur, don’t be afraid to build a team of leaders around you. Many small business owners make the mistake of hiring individuals at talent levels below their own. Why do they do this? Well, partly because they want to avoid what I’ll call “perceived competition.” Young leaders think that having too many cooks in the kitchen can be a problem. Although in some cases this can be true, leaders must surround themselves with other leaders in order to succeed. This is not only important for innovation, but also for the leadership process at all levels of your organization. The larger your business, the more leaders you need within it.
Additionally, in the article Wil alludes to the fact that leadership is a process, not a position (we talked about this in our introductory post). He says that, “leadership encompasses your approach and talents, not your title.” This is true. Within the leadership process, understanding your approach and your talents falls within the “leader” portion of the “leader,” “follower,” “situation” interaction cycle. One of the most important steps you can take as a young leader is to be aware of your approach to leadership, as well as your talents, and adapt that approach to each situation that you face within your organization. In some circles, this is called “situational leadership.”
Wil states that “in a perfect world, if everyone were acting like a leader, the potential of the company would be incredible.” I tend to disagree, but I can see his point. In my opinion, you can be sure that you need managers within your organization just as much as you do leaders. Management is required in order to help maintain your organization as well as to help implement your vision. Many excellent leaders cannot manage if their life depended on it. But, they have a vision, can communicate that vision, and can influence others to believe in that vision and implement that vision. This is one of the key differences between an administrator, or manager, and a leader. And, it is one of the reasons why leaders are so important. Remember: successful resource allocation requires a “talent mix,” not an overload of one personality type.
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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 
According to Wil Schroter of the 