There is no shortage of articles on what makes a great leader, and most focus either on innate personality traits such as maintaining high ethical standards, having strong personal discipline, and essentially being a person that others want to emulate, or practical behaviors like leading by example and demanding quality results. Other ideas that crop up in the leadership literature include difficult-to-define ideals such as the ability to motivate others and the ability to exemplify a personal or corporate vision.
Taking an Action Imperative view on leadership, the following ideas are the most relevant. We can call these three key points vision, innovation, and relentless improvement.
- Effective leaders focus on the big picture, understand their vision and set goals to reach it. They carry out those goals themselves while ensuring that others do the same, using objective performance indicators.
- Good leaders encourage risk-taking and innovation, but expect real results, not just idle experimentation. They delegate and empower others by giving them responsibility and the freedom to carry out their work in the way they choose.
- Excellent leaders keep everyone moving forward by setting new and higher goals for themselves and their organizations rather than resting on their laurels and maintaining the status quo.
© 2011 – Rick Pay – All Rights Reserved
Authors: Paige McKinney, Rick Pay
You’ve really got “concise” down cold. And yet there is always a practical nugget in each of the points or statements you make in each blog. You wouldn’t be a pragmatist by any chance, would you?
I think I resemble that remark!
I am most interested in my client’s success and try to provide practical solutions to their problems.
Thanks for reading!
Rick