We have started the year with a multi-part series of feature articles on how to analyze and improve your organization. The full list of topics can be found
here.)
Now that you figured out what to do, how to do it and how to best utilize your resources to make it happen, you have to exercise the most important skill of a manager. You have to motivate the people in your organization to work toward the common goal. There are as many ways to do that as there are managers. As far as I'm concerned, however, the only really effective way is to LEAD them.
What Leadership Is
Leadership is an essential quality in a manager. It is how you get your team fired up and willing to follow your plan. Leadership is a skill that can be learned like any other skill. Leadership is a skill that can be improved with practice.
What Leadership Is Not
Leadership is not magic. It is not a gift that some people have and others don't. It is not standing back and telling others what to do . It is not belittling or demeaning others who don't do what you tell them to do.
Getting Better As A Leader
The Internet contains a wealth of information on how to improve your skill as a leader. Here are a few for starters from my
Leadership Resources Page:
-
The Best Leader I Ever Knew points out that being a leader is very different than being the boss and lists eight traits that make a leader stand out.
- In From Manager to Leader Leslie Kossoff explains the difference between management and leadership and details a step by step plan for anyone to become a leader.
- This interview with Management Guru Oren Harari on his leadership book "Beep! Beep! Competing in the Age of the Roadrunner", discusses the changes leaders will have to make to succeed in the future.
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