Posts Tagged personality
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?
Finding Leaders in the Darndest Places
Some of our greatest leaders were swindlers and thieves. Why aren’t today’s youth given the same chance?
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”~ John Quincy Adams
As I sit to write this article I find myself being reminded of a young lady (though she would never call herself that) whom I know. She’s a classic anti-leader. In fact, her leadership qualities are so strong that she could easily be the next Pierre Elliot Trudeau if she so desired.
It’s wonderful when you have a group of students come forward and volunteer for leadership roles in your school. It’s great to see them express their ‘type A’ personalities in such a positive way. However, they always tend to be from one or two social groups and don’t represent a good cross section of the school population.
There are leaders among every group of students. Think of it this way, someone has to make the decision of what to do Saturday night when everyone else is sitting on the fence saying “I dunno, I’ll do whatever man.” For various reasons, these students will not take on formalized leadership roles in their schools, perhaps they don’t feel they are good enough, they don’t know anyone else in ‘that circle’, or they just don’t see themselves as a leader.
Develop Your Leadership Profile – How to Find the Leader Within You
Ponder the following questions before you read this article: Am I an effective team leader? Do I want to lead? Do you have to have a certain title or job description to lead? Are men or women better leaders? Are leaders born or made?
But wait a minute what is a leader? There are thousands and maybe millions of books, articles, and essays, written on the topic of leaders and leadership. Ask 10 people to define essential characteristics of a good leader and you will get 10 different answers. A leader is someone who has followers. They follow the leader because s/he influences them or has an impact in some way.
The terms leader and manager are often confused. A leader has a vision and a longer- term view. A leader charts the course the manager pilots the ship (executes the task.) A wonderful distinction is in the timeless Stephen R. Covey work 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The essence of the Covey distinction describes the manager in the jungle directing his team to cut down the trees. They are making great progress. The leader climbs up the tallest tree and shouts “wrong jungle.”
Women as Leaders
Women continue to be underrepresented in the top leadership roles of many organizations. The nutrition and dietetics industry, dominated by women, is hungry for RD leaders. Many women shun the role of leader and leave it to others. Do you want to lead? The term “glass ceiling” coined by the Wall Street Journal in the 1980′s describes the barriers that appear to prevent women from rising to the top of organizations. This clever yet damaging term has left too many women believing it was not possible for them to become senior leaders. If you believe the glass ceiling is holding you back it will. Women can choose to point the finger, blame others, or take responsibility for changing the situation