Six Pack of Successful Leadership

Six Pack of Successful Leadership

Every organization need strong leaders to succeed, but it takes more than an outgoing person to lead a successful team. Leadership skills must be built by communicating with team members and management, and through a commitment to the business.
The six elements needed to be a successful leader are:

1. A Defined Vision or Purpose - This means more than just writing a mission statement and posting it around the office. An organization's vision must exist on every level within the organization. From a big-picture standpoint it means having a corporate mission, goals, and objectives. At a departmental level it means having specific objectives that coexist with the values and goals of the entire organization. At a job level it means detailed job descriptions for every employee so they know exactly what is expected of them and how it relates to the overall corporate mission. Focusing on your vision and goals in this way allows you to understand the organization from a global perspective and then take it down to the smallest detail and to see how everything and everyone fits within that model.

2. Ongoing Team-Building Activities - Making people members of a team isn't enough. The team leader has to focus the group on working together toward a common purpose. This can be done in a thousand different ways, such as getting people together to discuss common problems and work on special projects, holding team meetings where participants are encouraged to offer suggestions and ideas, or planning softball games as external example of how members can work together as a team.

3. A System of Communication - To achieve organizational success it's crucial to have open lines of communication, among team members as well as up through the organization. The following are three ideas you can use to increase the effectiveness of your communication activities. One idea is to create a measurement system that defines on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis how much you sell, make, ship, etc. and tie it back to the budget for the year. Report that information every day to the employees and communicate it up to management. When people have actual numbers and see how they related to budgets and profit, it clarifies how their work effects the entire business. If there is profit-sharing in the organization, seeing daily reports on productivity and its effect on the bottom line will excite employees to work even harder. A second idea would be to hold a daily "quick huddle." Leaders should get together with team members at the beginning of every day or shift, for no longer than five minutes, to do three things: give them feedback on yesterday's performance; set goals for today: ask for feedback and find out if there are any questions or problems. Don't attempt to solve problems during the huddle. This is simply a time to identify needs that can be followed up on later. This is the most productive five minutes a leader can spend, and you'll get results immediately. The third idea is to hold efficient, informative meetings. People spend an enormous amount of time in meetings so it is crucial to convey valuable, concise information quickly. Before meetings, give everyone an agenda that defines the objectives of the meeting. And, within 24 hours, distribute minutes of the meeting with any assignments that were given or decision that were made. This constant flow of information will increase communication and enhance performance.

4. Enthusiasm - A leader needs to like what he or she is doing to be successful. That means being excited about the business - and communicating that to team members.

5. Positive Expectancy - Leaders must believe they can succeed at what they are doing and they must communicate that to the employees. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you say you can do it your followers will believe you.

6. A Commitment to Action - This one is as simple as a quote from W. H. Murray, "Until one is committed there is hesitancy, a chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation there is one elementary truth - the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. That the moment one definitely commits oneself then providence moves also. All sorts of things occur to help that otherwise never would have occurred."

CONTACT DR. MARKLINE

Charles K. Markline, Ph.D., CPCM

Dr. Markline is a business consultant specializing in Organization Development and Leadership Training activities. As part of a major cable televisions redesign project, reduced number of repeat service calls in cable company by 80%. Assisted organizations to become more customer-driven by improving operating and financial effectiveness as well as image and market share. As part of a major newspaper redesign project, increased revenue in redesigned newspaper outside sales department by over $750,000. (annualized). Serves as Human Resources Consultant to several Central Coast Cities and Counties. Negotiated employee contract between employees and management and developed and implemented long-term goals and objectives for city council.

Wrote Personnel Rules and Employee Handbook for central coast city. Developed computerized job placement service for community college. Developed work measurement systems and improved organization structures for county agencies. Authored articles on leadership, team building an communications in a number of nation-wide publications including Training and The Lakewood Report. A recent article, ãPygmalion in Leadershipä was selected for presentation and publication by the International Association of Management. Over twenty years of executive level experience as an officer in the United States Air Force and as a High School Administrator. Dr. Markline serves as an Adjunct Professor in Management for Allan Hancock College and Chapman, West Coast and Golden Gate Universities. He was selected as Graduate Instructor of the Yearä by Chapman University in 1996. Dr. Markline has his undergraduate and Masters Degrees in Business Administration and a Ph.D. in Leadership & Human Behavior. He is certified by the National Bureau of Professional Management Consultants as a Certified Professional Consultant to Management (CPCM).

Partial Client Listing:

City of Solvang
Lockheed Martin Services Group
Cuyama Joint Unified School District
Continental Cablevision
French Hosptial Medical Center
Valley Community Hospital
County of Santa Barbara
City of Arroyo Grande
Grover Beach Chamber of Commerce
TCO Insurance
Western Space and Missile Center
City of Santa Maria
Vandenber Federal Credit Union