Doing this means you will have a company overflowing with people of good character and competence which flows to the bottom-line at the end of the day. As a leader in the workplace you know that you and your team are going to be given tasks in the future, that’s pretty much a given. Many organizations are now training their staff to manage projects in house as part of a leaner approach to achieving strategic goals and so it follows that if your organization doesn’t have a Project Management Office (PMO) then there is a good chance that at some stage you and your team members will find yourselves managing internal projects. You and your team must now coordinate these complex project tasks with your already full daily schedule.
Whatever your circumstance might be now and in the future,
as a leader you have a responsibility to prepare yourself and your team so that
you are able to take on these task and demanding daily schedules in a competent
and professional manner to yield effective and efficient results. To that end
it is important that once you accept the responsibility that comes with
leadership, you and your staff continue to strive to achieve that professional
competence.
Leaders can assist themselves and their team to reach these
levels of professional competency by employing some simple principles:
1.
Recognize and understand your own strengths and
weaknesses and engage in self-improvement,
2.
Pursue and accept responsibility,
3.
Lead by example in the beginning. Learn to
switch leadership styles as group dynamics and the task complexity change,
4.
Make sure the tasks you delegate are understood,
you manage and follow up to see they’re accomplished,
5.
Know your team members and be interested in
their welfare as much as is practical, build Rapport (Tip: resistance means a
lack of rapport between two or more
6.
Develop the leadership potential of your team.
Delegating where practical creates frequent opportunities to understudy the leader,
7.
Gather the facts and make sound and timely
decisions,
8.
Train your staff as a team and employ them up to
the fullest extent of their capabilities, and,
9.
Keep your team informed about what’s going on. If
your company leadership team is leading by example then you should be getting
quarterly “State of the Company” briefings.
Remember your team needs to consist of people who “get the
job” that is they understand the jobs role and responsibilities; your staff
need to “want the job”, that is they truly like what the job encompasses, and
lastly, they should have the time and mental and physical capacity to do the
job. Engaging and mobilizing your staff will give you as a leader a chance to
coach and evaluate your staff and how their competency and self-confidence is developing.
Some of the benefits are:
- Retention of top staff,
- Healthier happier staff due to less stress,
- Improved productivity,
- Goals and objectives are achieved with minimal or no supervision,
- Greater cooperation and willingness demonstrated,
- A sense of pride and purpose is evident amongst the team,
- Improved ability to succeed under pressure,
- Increased emotional intelligence,
- Growth in confidence in your team,
- Improved listening and communication skills,
- Improved innovation and creativeness, and
- Dependable, reliable and competent staff,
Tip: I’m a big fan of using as fewer tools and processes as
possible to get as much done as possible and I’m also a big fan of the power of
MS Outlook and its ability to manage my commitments to others, Tasks & To-do’s
and people related information and contact history. This is an ideal desktop
application to set up and put into action your plan to implement these 9
principals daily for maximum cause and effect.
Thomas
J Watson (1874-1956) of International Business Machines now simply known as
IBM once said and I quote;
“Nothing so conclusively proves a person's ability to lead
others as what one does from day to day to lead oneself.”
In addition to the nine principles above you have a
responsibility to build rapport and develop relationships that are based upon
respect which is easier said than done. You must work to identify with the
group and resist the perfectly natural temptation to become part of the group.
The difference is, becoming part of the group inevitably leads to a loss of
respect. Respect is achieved by professional integrity – what you say and do
and fairness.
Each task and each team present different challenges and
requires experience, skill and engaging all the senses to apply the principles
above effectively, evaluate the results and make the necessary adjustments.
Still want to be a leader? ...well crack on, the benefits
far outweigh the alternatives! Good luck.
Resources: FM 22-100, ADF Leadership Handbook, ADF
Leadership theory & practice, Training for Leadership – John Adair,
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