If your organization expects to grow, you’ll need to attract, develop and retain quality leaders. One of the highest costs an organization has is replacing leaders, so ideally once a leader is hired, you’ll want to keep them. I was reflecting recently on why leaders tend to leave an organization, apart from finding a better opportunity. I never mind losing a leader to an opportunity I can’t match, but I don’t want to lose them because of something I did wrong.
If an organization wishes to be successful today, it must learn to think outside the once considered normal lines of leadership. Research after research has been done and book after book has been written on the subject of leadership being as much these days about the informal aspects of leadership as it is the formal aspects of leadership. In addition to a set of rules, policies and procedures, for a leader to be successful today, he or she must engage a team to help accomplish the vision of the organization. In an informal leadership environment, the way a leader leads is often more important than the knowledge or management abilities of the leader. That may have always been important, but now it is critical.
Here are 5 examples of how a successful leader must lead in today’s environment:
Obviously, when you address the principle of letting go, which could also be called delegation, it opens a huge question for those wired as completers. The question is: HOW? How do you let go of responsibility when you are wired so heavily towards not doing so?
Here’s a way to discipline yourself to increase creativity on your team or in your organization…especially during times when money is tight.
When you are ready to make a purchase, ask yourself this question:
Do you ever struggle to complete a project?
You have a goal, you may even know what needs to be done for the goal to become a reality, but you never seem to accomplish the necessary tasks that will bring you success. Your dreams remain simply dreams and you remain frustrated with yourself.
Sound familiar?
Let me share a quick tip to help you avoid this scenario.
Many of us, perhaps even most of us, work better under a little pressure.
Earlier this year I wrote about writing a life plan. (You can read that series of posts HERE.) I’ve found that setting a deadline for the specific action steps in a plan like this helps me be more productive…
If I have a major project I need or want to complete I will:
I recently posted on the need for leaders to delegate and some steps to doing so. (Read those posts HERE and HERE) Following this post, I asked a supposed leader in an organization for a decision from his organization. It appeared to be a minor decision. It certainly would be in our organization. I have held leadership positions in larger organizations, and it would have been a minor decision in either of those places. This leader, however, had to pass the decision up a chain of command. We eventually received a yes answer, but it took a great deal of time through several layers of people to get there. By the time we got the answer, I didn’t need it anymore. (True story.)
Tweet Years ago I was working in retail. I was in college, but serving in a junior management for a large department store. I was responsible for ordering the basic…
Tweet In my leadership experience there are two kinds of leaders. There are those who are willing to lead leaders. And there are those who will only lead followers. Some…
Inactivity rarely produces anything…
Waiting on God doesn’t always mean doing nothing…
Jesus said, “My time has not yet come” (John 2:4)… He was in a time of waiting…yet He continued to act on what He could do…
Do what you know to do today…
Take initiative towards change you know you should make…
In Joshua 3 they had to get in the water before it started to part…You may have to get in the water first, before you start to see results…
Create action…it is often then God begins to reveal the destination He is taking you towards…
What action do you need to take today?
You are a leader. You worked hard, experienced some sense of success and now you like where you are in your career. You have finally figured out the system, got the right staff or team, and there are no current problems. Life is comfortable.
