19-Feb-09 10:00 PM CST

Seven Leadership Best Practices

The most successful organizations are enjoying their accomplishments as a result of good leadership.

When looking at an organization’s ability to attract, hire, retain and grow great people you can first look at the company leaders and discover that most successful organizations are enjoying success as a result of good leadership. These leaders know the importance of recruiting and retaining the very best people.

In this month’s column, I want to share with you what it takes to be a great leader. Practice these seven leadership best practices and I can assure you the best of success in all aspects of your business.

1. Lead with a Clear Sense of Vision

As the leader you need to be able to look to the future by identifying your company’s destination and translating it into clear objectives. Your vision becomes the company’s destiny. And that destination should be quite awesome and worth the effort.

Frequently clarify your destination -- with all of your people -- so that everyone knows where you’re headed. Everyone should understand the part they play in achieving it and how important their role is in helping the organization get there.

Success Behaviors: Look, listen and learn.

2. Encourage and Inspire People to Aspire

Serve and act as a positive role model and offer encouragement to people. Let them know they have potential, and that you are here to help them achieve their fullest potential. Make certain people are recognized for their efforts and that they feel appreciated. Make them feel that they are an important part of the organization.

Success Behaviors: Energetic with a sense of urgency, enthusiastic and even-keeled.

3. Acumen for Business

Understand your business. Know where you need to be with costs, services offered and customer satisfaction. Build your people to maximize their capacity, mark financial milestones and make tough decisions in a timely manner. Know the options and have a plan in place.

Success Behaviors: Achievement oriented, always prepared and on time and awareness of your marketplace conditions.

4. Develop Others and Yourself

You and your team need to be learning and growing – all of the time. Our industry’s technology has about a three- to five-year lifespan. Are you keeping up? World class organizations spend around 4 percent of revenue on training and developing their people. What is your budget? If it's less than 2 percent, you're probably running at a learning deficit. Are you making the time needed for improvement? What was the last lesson you learned, book you read or CD you listened to? What programs are in place to help your team members to better themselves? What one skill do you need to develop that would help you the most? What one behavior should you practice/adjust to help you the most?

Success Behaviors: Develop enduring, positive relationships; develop and promote an environment/culture of collaboration, coordination, communication, cooperation, camaraderie and celebration.

5. Designate a coach/mentor and seek and take good counsel

Determine the key skills and behaviors you need to improve upon and take action. Ethics, values and integrity build trust. Understand that at the core of every successful organization there’s a set of uncompromising core values or non-negotiables. They are defined by the organization, and they become the very fabric of the company’s culture. These values serve as the organization’s ethical and moral compass in all of their dealings with employees and clients. With a well-defined (and lived-by) set of ethics, values and integrity, there will be a strong sense of trust within the organization. That trust is the foundation upon which everything builds.

Success Behaviors: Everyone is treated with dignity; and every day serves as an example through words and actions.

6. Results and Action Oriented?

Seek ways to improve in all areas of your organization. Know which milestones need the most attention and find ways to improve and assure results in targeted areas. Don’t be afraid of the “P” (profit) word. Always have a set of priorities that focus on the now and on the future. Commit to SMART goals.

Success Behaviors: Realistic and relevant goals are written down and understood by all. Results in key areas are tracked. Roles are clearly defined.

7. Serves Others

Great leaders understand it’s not all about them, but about others. They pursue the success of their people and clients as if it were their own. They give of themselves for the betterment of others. Be confident, competent and yet serve with humility. Treat all people with dignity. Be generous with what you have been given, and give back with your time and resources.

It really boils down to these three things. A leader must be able to demonstrate integrity/trustworthiness, humility and generosity. These qualities will serve as the building blocks for long-term, enduring relationships--which, in fact, is what great leadership is all about!

Success Behaviors: Say thank you, often and mean it. Set a tone of service. Serve as an example. Serve others as you would like to be served. Share successes with everyone. Remember: It all starts and ends with the leader.

I assure you that if you consistently practice these seven leadership best practices, you will indeed harvest the potential of your organization, your clients, your people and you!

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