16. Generations Baby Boomers 1946-1964 Generation X 1965-1976 Generation Y 1977-1989 Millennial 1989-today
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29. LEAD WITH INTENT BY ARNE PEDERSEN From the sands of Medina Ridge in Iraq... ...to the boardroom in Corporate America... ...Arne Pedersen shares some of his secrets to success in Leadership for business and life.
Editor's Notes
Know yourself and seek self-improvement As a leader, you need to know who you are including your strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, you need to seek self-improvement. Don’t frustrate yourself or your employees; leaders must focus their self-improvement on further improving their strengths and how to better manage their weaknesses. If you don’t know yourself and seek self-improvement, you will not garner the respect needed as a leader from anyone. Be technically and tactically proficient As a leader, you must know your job. Knowing your job includes knowing the industry and market segment that your company is in. It means knowing the products and services that your company sells. It means knowing and understanding business well enough to enable you to make reasonably intelligent decisions. Also, you need to understand the company, market segment, and industry politics and how to work and live in these environments. I want to make it painfully clear that you, as a leader, are not supposed to be the expert. Individual contributors are the experts. That’s what they do and they enjoy it. They need leaders who know the subject and can have an intelligent conversation. If you don’t know enough about it, have them teach you. You will be amazed at the connection you make and the respect you earn. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions In order to grow as a leader, you need to continue to seek more or different responsibilities. This will help you to grow and stretch you both personally and professionally. Leaders want responsibility. Leaders always take responsibility for their actions and those of their employees. This requires understanding loyalty, which is undergirded by beliefs, values, and norms. Make sound and timely decisions Leaders make decisions every day. Those decisions must be sound. In other words, leaders need a model by which to make decisions. This helps to be disciplined in gathering information, analyzing it, charting prospective courses of action, and making the final decision. We will learn more about this in a later chapter. Timely decision-making is important as well. It can help avoid costly mistakes in human capital, capital, other tangible and intangible resources, and time. It can launch or sink a company. Leaders must understand timing in all their decisions. Set the example As a leader, you have expectations of your employees. You communicate them both verbally and non-verbally. The communication style that is most effective is non-verbal. If you expect your employees to do, you had better do it as well. If you don’t, you’ll be thought of as a phony. Know your employees As a leader, you must know your employees. They are people with skills, knowledge, experience, families, emotions, etc. They come from diverse backgrounds and communicate in a variety of frames. They are at various levels of maturity both personally and professionally. You must connect with your people in order to know them. As a leader, you must also look out for the well-being of your employees. They are demanding and trusting you to do so. The ultimate outcome is a stronger and better team. Keep your employees informed As a leader, you need to trust your employees with the information needed to do their jobs and to keep them focused. Unless you are bound by confidentiality or timing constraints, keep your employees informed. In the absence of information, people will make it up from their own frame of mind. This promotes anarchy and reduces the effectiveness of leadership. Develop a sense of responsibility for your employees As a leader, you must look at your employees as your responsibility. During the time of their employ under your leadership, you have the responsibility to help advance them in their career. You read that correctly! You own the responsibility! Keep in mind the balance of the employee having responsibility to act on the opportunities and the coaching you provide. Ensure that the task is understood, supervised, and accomplished As a leader, your most important job is to communicate, communicate, and communicate. This is said three times not because you need to say the same message three times. Rather, you must understand the frame from which each employee learns and communicates, and communicate the message in a relevant way to them. Once they have received the message, you need to remove hurdles for them, keep them accountable, and celebrate successful accomplishments with them. It’s a great opportunity to connect and grow in your relationships with your employees. Train and inspire your employees as a team As a leader, you have people reporting to you. While these are individuals, they must also learn to work together as a team. Developing and implementing training for them as a team, will help build the necessary espirit de corps you need to lead your team. When your employees work together as a team, they solve problems together as a team, build businesses together as a team, and grow personally and professionally as a team. This leadership nirvana will enable you to focus on strategic planning. Deploy your employees in accordance with their capabilities As a leader, you need to know your employees’ strengths and weaknesses and how they fit together on your team. Trying to force people into roles that don’t play to their strengths and the strengths of the team will result in frustration for all parties and you will lose people. Putting them in the roles that play to their strengths as individuals and as a team will promote the harmony, goodwill, and discipline of the team. Your employees will have the opportunity to learn and grow in a positive environment.
T he leader asks for information and recommendations, however, he still makes the decisions. H e simply gets advice from employees before making the decision. T his style is appropriate for many leadership situations.
T his style is appropriate when dealing with mature employees who support your goals and are competent and motivated to perform the task delegated. W hile you are always accountable to your superior for the results of any task you delegate, you must hold your employees accountable to you for their actions and performance.
