Leadership is more than learning the characteristics and habits of effective leaders. Truly effective leaders ensure the organization has clear direction and an infrastructure which will enhance the probability of the organization successfully achieving their vision. Additionally, the best leaders know how to fit the people they have into the positions and functions which will allow each employee to become more effective in accomplishing what is needed from their position; so that the organization will continue to move efficiently in the direction of the organization’s vision.
The best leaders also develop a culture of hiring and keeping the best talent available. This means that leadership encourages an environment of continual development of current employees and constant recruiting for potential new employees. This will allow the organization to have trained employees and a people bank of potential new employees so that they are not held hostage to the adage, “anybody in this job is better than nobody.”
Once a leader has filled all the function with the best people, a great leader will allow the great people to improve and create great processes to get the jobs done in the most effective and efficient ways possible. The great leaders allow their people to constantly improve on how best to get the excellent results needed to keep the organization moving in the direction of achieving the corporate vision and mission.
Great leaders understand that it is the people in their organization who ultimately determine if the world will view them as great leader. One way for a leader get the best from their people is to make sure each employee knows exactly what is expected of them and upon what they will be measured. People want to know the expectations and whether-or-not they are achieving what is expected. Performance metrics are a great way to check on the leading indicators and determine if the organization is on track, or if not, what needs to happen to get it back on track.
Leadership becomes a disciple of creating and maintaining the road upon which their organization can achieve the level of excellence. Yes, the individual leader needs to be passionate about achieving the vision and mission of the company by continually planning and adjusting to keep the organization at or moving toward excellence. And, yes, the leader needs to communicate the direction and progress of the organization in the quest of attaining the vision. But, no, the leader does need to be certain personality type. The leader needs the passion to achieve the vision and a roadmap in how to create an excellent organization to get the organization to where the leader needs it to go. The best leaders have a relentless pursuit of excellence.
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