The Secrets of Effective Leadership (PART 2)

In my opinion effective leadership is partially learnt, partially something that you’re born with, and very much something that you can improve upon by learning from others – what I like to call the ‘Secrets of Effective Leadership’. The following is part two of my blog series on ‘The Secrets of Effective Leadership’. Part one can be found here .

“Having the guts to not follow the herd”

Do you remember a time when you were confident that everyone else had it wrong, or that everyone else didn’t have the confidence to voice an opposing opinion? Humans love to follow the herd. We gain comfort by advancing in numbers. It’s not easy having the confidence to go against the grain, because you know that you if you’re singled out you may be put on the spot and be completely wrong. In my short career, I have observed that effective leaders have the guts to voice an opinion that is contrary to the masses. Even when they are wrong, their discussion and arguments in support of their view often benefit the rest of the group in some shape or form and are therefore value-added.

“Responsiveness”

It is not uncommon for a leader to be flooded by emails, voice mails and other requests. It’s tough keeping up with it all and not realistic to respond to it all in a timely fashion. What I’ve observed however is that effective leaders are responsive – even when they can’t find the time to respond they send a quick note back acknowledging the message and they provide an estimated time for a response. This ensures the receivers’ comments are valued, and generally a delayed response is not minded if the receiver knows when to expect a response. There’s nothing worse than not hearing back. Being responsive is an easy way to build credibility, trust and respect.

“Priority versus urgency”

Time management is such an important skill as one climbs the ranks – you’ve got so much more to do with so much less time. A former director of mine used to tell me that it was all about priority versus urgency. He was a firm believer in Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and would label every task with an urgency (high/low) and a priority (high/low). I admit that I’ve never read the book but he used to tell me that effective leaders would spend most of their time in the high priority/low urgency quadrant avoiding the temptation of constantly fire-fighting tasks in the high priority/high urgency box. He told me that ‘fire-fighting’ was addictive and often necessary but that it was the high priority/low urgency projects that would gain you the visibility and that would allow you to add value to the organization as a leader.

“Following through on a commitment”

There’s nothing worse then failing to follow through on a commitment – you lose trust from those that depend on you and you lose credibility; a leadership nightmare. Many leaders spread themselves too thin and take on too much. Quality is better then quantity in my opinion and effective leaders realize this and will not be afraid to say ‘no’ to a request knowing well that it may take away from the quality of executing on something else. Taking on too much is often the cause of why many leaders fail to deliver on commitments. It’s also a common reason for why leaders lose their energy and passion and even burn themselves out – which is doing no one any favours. Of course saying ‘no’ isn’t easy and it’s really about managing expectations in my opinion (i.e. managing your boss) – described in part three of this blog series to follow.

Stay tuned for part three…