Character: Is It Necessary In Leadership? (Part Two)Learn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Character: Is It Necessary In Leadership? (Part Two) article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Word count: 838 Summary: One element of leadership that many leaders ignore or neglect is character. Is it a necessary ingredient in leadership? The author answers the question with the challenging observation that character can actually drive leadership results. Character: Is It Necessary In Leadership? (Part Two) By Brent Filson In the first part of this two part article, I talked about the importance of character in leadership. After all, the best leadership involves the people bonding with the leader in deep, human, emotional ways. The passive way of looking at character is that the bonding won't happen if the people are confused about or disdain your character. But there is also an active way of looking at character: You can use aspects of your character to actually promote results. Your best character traits can be turned results-multipliers. Here's how. By the way, the results I'm talking about don't necessarily have to be organizational results. Many leaders have used my processes in their lives outside their organizations, with teenagers or with their spouses, for example, and not simply as a 'leadership' process. Who you are as a leader should be intertwined with who you are as a person. If your leadership is not your life, you diminish both your leadership and your life. To begin with, select any one of the character traits you identified in Part One. We will focus on ways to use that trait to get increases in results, however you define those results. For example, the trait 'always ready to forgive' can be a results driver, because it enables you to clear the air with the people you need to help you get results. After all, if you're always ready to forgive slights and perceived slights, you avoid blame shifting and finger pointing — both impediments to organizational results. Epictetus (AD 55–135), another stoic philosopher, said, 'Small-minded people habitually reproach each other for their own misfortunes. … Those who are dedicated to a life of wisdom understand that the impulse to blame someone or something is foolishness. … The more we examine our attitudes and work on ourselves, the less we are apt to be swept away by stormy emotional reactions in which we seek easy explanations for unbidden events.' Although one's relationships in leadership are predicated on results, the most effective results-producing relationships arise when these relationships ultimately have nothing to do with results, when people respond to you not just as a leader but simply and profoundly as a human being. Get your values and your character right and the rest of leadership is a matter of details. After all, freedom isn't just in what you make happen, it's also in what you let happen. Furthermore, have the character trait you are acting on be a solution to your audience's needs. Put the character/solution into the soup of a results-challenge and then simply observe what cooks up. In other words, in a situation calling for results, act on the character trait you want to emphasize — in this case, being always ready to forgive — and observe the results. Of course, with this trait, your effort won't work unless there are hard feelings in the air, but finding someone exhibiting such feelings shouldn't be difficult — if you're leading well. If your leadership challenges don't lead to some people feeling overburdened, you're not challenging them enough. Take action with a group of people or an individual. You might say something like, 'I know we've had hard feelings, and if there's blame to be handed out for causing them, you can look to me. But, as the first step in going after the new results, let's start with a fresh slate.' When focusing on this particular character trait, it's important to avoid setting up conditions. Saying, for example, 'If I do this, I expect you to do that' depreciates the trait. Character should exist without conditions, in you and for you, regardless of outside influences such as other people's opinions. Otherwise, they wouldn't be lasting character traits, but changeable sensibilities. When we're dealing with character and results, we can't expect to force the results. Let them grow naturally out of the interaction. It's like putting a seed crystal into a supersaturated solution. Given the proper solution and the right tension, you get an organic eruption of crystals. That's why I emphasize that you should understand and acquire the power of being be an observer. Focus on putting the trait into action as a solution for the needs of your cause leaders in order to increase results. Remember, the trait of always being ready to forgive is just one of many you can work on. No matter which trait you're developing, use the process I've just described to manifest it for results. In the long run, the important thing about leadership is not what we achieve but who we become in our achievements. A focus on our character, not only for the sake of character itself but also for the kinds of results character engenders, will make that becoming a treasure of our lives. 2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
|
More Articles:1. The Dripping Faucet in Every Organization By Leanne Hoagland-Smith Each day millions of workers spend 8 hours or more at their respective jobs with many contributing to the dripping faucet within every organization. This faucet much like the leaking kitchen or bathroom faucet’s steadily waste drops of a previous resource – water – every minute of every day until fixed. Yet, the dripping faucet is considered a minor annoyance until the drips become steadier. During this time, thousands of gallons of water are wasted costing the owner probably more money than … 2. The Truth About Performance Reviews By David Meyer Now that it is January, many of you are putting together, or have just finished putting together your annual Performance Appraisals for your staff. Feedback on performance is certainly one of the most critical aspects of personnel development and one that deserves to be taken very seriously. But after 25 years of managing people I am going to finally confess how I feel about the whole process. I HATE Performance Appraisals. I hate giving them. I hate receiving them. Whew! I feel better… 3. Management Development - Micromanagement Works! Ever been told not to micromanage your people? Because it irritates them and is a waste of your time, their time and leads to bad habits? Well it's all true. If you micromanage your people in all that they do, it will drive you and them nuts. But there is a way that micromanaging brings huge benefits to your management performance.Getting into the detail of everything each of your people does, will really damage your relationships with them. Sure, there are times where their hand needs to be he… 4. The Fastest Way To Revenue The more you need the money, the more narrowly you have to focus on customer needs and agendas. I learned that the hard way, struggling for several years before finally seeing the light and making a permanent change. In 1983 my fledgling company was among several that were trying to market a sales training program to one of America's largest sales organizations. Back then, The Brooks Group consisted solely of a part-time secretary and me, though I was closely counseled by my mentor who had tuto… |
||||
