Successful Leaders Are Inspired
I used to have a little male doxie dog that was as fast as a greyhound. I also had two female doxies and the male ran the females ragged. Talk about a leader, this little dog eared boy would take off running the length of the house with the females trying to catch him. As kids it was a game we called follow the leader. This little dog was much more high-spirited then we were, but then he had those girls to inspire him. Soon the females would be yapping and carrying on but they were never successful in catching him. If they got to far behind he would circle around and run right in front of their noses. It inspired the female’s to try even harder.
I got to thinking, a successful manager is like that little dog eared leader of mine. They stay in front of the pack and if the pack slows down, he/she is right there letting them know they have to work harder to keep up. He/she never expects the pack to be in front because that would mean he/she would have to push them and it is always easer to pull than to push. From the leader’s point of view it is clear sailing because the pack is behind him/her and in front is only the challenge of the project. A good one knows the pack will support him/her when the going gets rough.
Where does a successful leader come from? Society breeds followers not leaders. Social rules are a test for a person to be one It’s the unspoken rules which determines his/her aptitude and ultimately points him/her in a suitable and accepted direction. Out of the masses only few true leaders emerge. A person with charisma, strength and determination who is willing to grasp the challenge at hand and wrestle it into submission. Leaders were the white knights of old and now only one out of hundreds, are willing and able to take on the task as very little consideration is given to an individual and his/her true creative possibilities.
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A Leader’s Mood – The Dimmer Switch of Performance
In response to a discussion on the effect of a leader’s mood on the performance of a team, a participant in a recent leadership workshop made this heartfelt and realistic remark: “I cannot see how I am expected to be in a good mood for four quarters in a row.” The point is well taken. But can you afford, as a leader, to even entertain this thought? All the research on employee performance points to the contrary. There is a concept in French which goes like this: “Noblesse oblige”. It means, roughly, that wealth, power and prestige go hand-in-hand with certain social responsibilities – in other words, the twin side of privilege is duty. And it is a privilege when we have the opportunity to lead a team of people, but with it, come many responsibilities, chief of which, some leadership pundits would contend, is managing moods.
In Leadership That Gets Results, Harvard Business Review, March 2000, Daniel Goleman cites research which shows that up to 30% of a company’s financial results, as measured in key business performance indicators, such as revenue growth, return on sales, efficiency and profitability, is determined by the climate of the organization. And what is the major factor that drives the climate of an organization? It’s the leader: roughly 50% to 70% of how employees perceive their organization’s climate is attributable to the actions and behaviors of their leader. A leader creates the environment that determines people’s moods at the office and their mood, in turn, affects their productivity and level of engagement. Witness the number of times you may have driven home with an internal glow, reliving a positive encounter with an upbeat and supportive boss, perhaps savoring a bon mot about your performance that he or she left with you on a Friday afternoon. How great it made you feel and how eager you were to get out of bed on the following Monday morning and get back to the office and give that man or woman the very best that you had to offer. That’s the “afterglow” that lingers and gives you renewed energy to be more productive, to bring your finest talents to work.
And think about the obverse of the afterglow – the aftermath, or bitter aftertaste. This is what Susan Scott, in “Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One Conversation at a Time”, brilliantly calls The Emotional Wake. That’s what lingers with you after being the recipient of some acrid remarks from a leader in a negative mood. How did that affect your determination to overcome any difficulties in a project, to keep your heart fully engaged in the process, to want to continue to give that person your very best game?