Since corporate executives navigate firms on behalf of investors who have sunk their personal fortunes into the corporation, it is logical to expect that these same investors want the best leaders in charge of the firm. To set yourself apart as you try to join the ranks of executive management, you must discover the right combination of persona, action, and results.

According to Ulrich, Zenger, and Smallwood, authors of “Results-Based Leadership:”

“Being capable and possessing the attributes of leadership is terrific, but capability must be put to appropriate, purposeful use.”

Capability is a loaded concept. Your capacity to translate skill into results will create positive or negative impacts in the organization you lead. How do you gauge your own capability?

In truth, leadership by personality alone will fail you at some point in the future. The desire to lead is admirable, but the absence of results does not inspire investors. This article provides three questions and reflective answers that can help you to decide if you can lead in this new century.
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Q: Do I have the right combination of personality and ability to manage human capital effectively?

A: Make an inventory of all the qualities that you think an effective leader should have. Think about values, personality traits, competencies, specific behaviors, and outcomes people might give an effective leader in a 360-degree survey. Each company develops its own leadership framework, emphasizing certain desirable leadership qualities over others. Develop your own inventory by emphasizing strengths and building on weaknesses. Then target your goals to managing for a firm whose leadership model matches what you have to offer and what kind of leader you aspire to be.

Q: Can I inspire and motivate the people of any organization to new levels of success, including achievement of short-term and long-term goals?

A: This is a tough question that merits consideration. When you are in charge of defining direction for a firm, employ the right strategies to use human capital to the fullest potential. If you can lead using shared responsibility, people will be more likely to give their best effort. With each person maximizing their contribution, the organization as a comprehensive team will reach higher levels of success. The leader will also have to steer the organization through various changes, including periods of growth and difficulty. The leader will have to continuously get results from workers. Consider what you will personally do to inspire and motivate others over long periods of time.

Q: Can I help the organization to grow and change with the market?

As a leader, you can harness the skills and information offered by the people under your command. Can you make the right business decisions at the right time? This involves knowing when to take risks, when to ask for outside help, and when to fall back on safer courses of action. When you make decisions, think about how you will explain them to the organization. Think about how you will maintain the trust and confidence of your workforce. Think about how they will continue to give you results. You will have to change to the market and lead people to change with the market. If the organization’s workforce is aligned with its goals, the results will be achieved.

Being a leader is challenging, especially being responsible for millions in corporate assets. The decision to pursue executive leadership is a big one. Books like “Results-Based Management” will provide certain clues to effective leadership. Your ultimate test will be accepting a position and testing your mettle against the challenges of people in a dynamic organization.

–    motivational talks
–    threats
–    fear
–    intimidation
–    ridicule
–    tough, new performance standards
–    elimination of 10% of the lowest rated performers
–    sending the group to team-building sessions
–    more training
–    bed checks (the boss snooping around at 5:30 to see who is still there)

There are pitfalls with all of the so called “motivators” in the list above and even though they may provide a short-term, surface level push, there is no sustainable positive effect from these measures or dozens like these.  These are traditional, conventional wisdom answers to age-old situations.  They are also completely ineffective.  Workers can look busy, and can report impressive weekly activity reports, check marks can make it look like projects are getting done, but until some fundamental problems in the work place are addressed, there will be little if any sustained motivation.
First of all, a few words about motivation.  People can’t be externally motivated.  Anyone with parenting experience can tell you unless the motivation comes from within, as soon as the person who administers the reward is gone, so is the motivation.  So why isn’t a paycheck a motivation?  It is; people will show up for work everyday to get the paycheck.  But is that all there is to work?  Everyone involved would like a little more than a personal appearance.  The company would like more than a physical presence and the employee longs for meaningful work.  A person will perform at peak levels, only if their heart is in the game.
At this point, if you find yourself saying “I’ll motivate those lazy slackers” read on, this is more for you then anyone.  Leadership is very complicated but very simple if you can grasp the concept of servant leadership and that by sharing power, you gain more power.  This is the black belt lesson of leadership.
So how does this work?  By holding onto power and trying to control every aspect of a group or an organization, a person starts losing the ability to manage many details and aspects of the position.  There are not enough hours in the day to do everyone’s work, to look over every shoulder and still attend to the managerial/leadeship responsibilities.  Efforts to be overly controlling will backfire.  More things get out of control because there is only one person who is able to make all the decisions.  By sharing power or giving it away, there is more capacity to do the things that enable the people on the team.  Employees start taking ownership and if they see that the manager or leader has confidence in their abilities to get the job done, their energy and enthusiasm will rise.  Leading by example is a powerful technique.  This is not to suggest that the leader delegates all the tasks and then leaves for the golf course.  Again, the team looks at behaviors and if the boss is out on the golf course, guess where they think they should be.  Accountability is a strong component of this style of leadership.  What gets measured gets done.  It is an old adage, but it still remains true.  Weekly activity reports that are short (no more than 5 bullets, one sentence per bullet) will report on the activities of the past week and three bullets for next week’s plan is sufficient.  And these reports go to the entire staff, because sometimes you can snow the boss, but the co-workers are hip to what’s going on.  Maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect and openness so that these reports can be respectfully challenged.  They also serve as a means for keeping on track.  If the activities reported do not match the direction of the team, intervention can be implemented for a course correction.  Now here’s the list of things that will work to get the team re-focused, re-energized and re-motivated:

–    profit sharing or gain sharing
–    ownership of work
–    making certain that people are in the right jobs for their skills, interest, education and experience
–    rewarding creative responses to problems
–    relaxing the dress code
–    accommodating flex hours
–    trusting people to do their jobs and holding them accountable for progress
–    good project management skills
–    repeatable processes
–    removing roadblocks to progress
–    making certain everyone has the tools, knowledge and training to do their jobs
–    allowing people to stretch into other jobs as their interests and time allows
–    job rotation
–    mentoring
–    learning from failures
–    subordinate reviews
–    democratic leadership when appropriate
–    leading by example
–    giving people a few hours a week to experiment
–    setting aggressive yet achievable goals
–    providing six month, paid sabbaticals every five years
–    allowing people to design their jobs and job descriptions
–    360 reviews
–    post mortems for projects: what worked, what didn’t and lessons learned
–    celebration of project completion
–    rewarding job-related creativity and innovation

Would you want to do your best if you had the environment that has the elements listed above?  If any workplace is going to bring out the best in workers, it is this kind of nurturing, encouraging and rewarding setting.  So get going and integrate these behaviors for your company, organization and team and stand back and watch workers perform miracles.

Why makes someone a great leader? Why is one person better to work for than another?

First, leaders have attributes—inner qualities that either help or hinder them as leaders. Characteristics such as personal integrity, confidence, creativity and energy help make an effective leader. Such attributes are likely to be a core part of a leader’s nature: the makeup of where their comfort zone lies. To a degree, such qualities can be developed by those who want to be leaders; however, such development may present challenges where there is a large gap. For example, those who have low self esteem could find it demanding to overcome this trait in becoming a good leader. Again, creativity may be hard to acquire, although this characteristic may also be developed.

Second, leaders have skills which add power to their abilities. In contrast to attributes, skills can be learned and therefore it is in a leader’s best interest to increase his or her skills based on the kind of leadership needed. For example, business leaders need the skills to build organizational capability, build teams, and provide tools and infrastructure to unleash productivity. Religious leaders need the skills to create a cohesive group where the values of the community are put into practice. Leaders of charitable organizations need skills in fund raising. Leadership training is available in a wide variety of settings for those who aspire to such a career or calling.

A leader’s first job is to define reality. What’s the goal? What needs to be done? A leader takes fantasies, dreams, wants and needs, and infuses those under her with the vision and motivation to make them a reality. It has been said that no wind favors him who has no destined port. In contrast, a leader is one who knows where she wants to go, gets up, and goes. The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have never been; to blaze a new trail to the end of the journey.

It takes courage to be a leader because he is the one who takes risks, who points the way through a sometimes murky and uncertain path towards the triumph of achieving the goal. Courage is built not by shrinking from the fear of failure, but by meeting such anxiety head on, and gaining strength, courage and confidence each time there is success. On the other hand, failure is not the end of the road. For a leader, it is not a failure to fall down; only to stay down. Therefore no matter how hard the loss, defeat shapes the leader as well as victory. A leader can’t be afraid to take a big step when needed. One can’t jump over a canyon using small steps.

A good leader inspires others with confidence in him; a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves. When such a leader isn’t afraid to tackle a difficult problem, those following will be inspired to tackle hard problems themselves. Leaders take action while others hesitate; but the ones who hesitate may well realize what is possible when they see the leader in action.

An effective leader cannot say one thing and do another. If a leader is hard working and energetic, those who follow will be similarly encouraged. The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards she sets for herself. A good leader does not inflict pain, but bears pain, both for the sake of the goal and for those who are helping to achieve it.

It’s impossible to lead the charge from behind; a leader must get out in front and point the way. Leadership is action, not position. One can become a leader in name only, but the real leader is the one who trudges through the mud, climbs the mountain and reaches the top. Leaders don’t force people to follow, because true leadership is about motivation and not compulsion. People are more easily led than driven. Instead, leaders invite people to jump on the bandwagon—as long as they agree with the destination.

There are different styles of leadership which, though they contrast, can be equally effective in getting things done. To some degree, the style depends on the objective. For example, military leadership in time of war differs strongly from the kind of leadership needed to manage a charitable foundation. In some instances, a leader needs to coordinate the task at hand like a symphony: each member has his or her part to play and is told exactly what to do at the right time. In many other circumstances, a leader needs to unleash the creativity of his people, much like someone who runs a jazz band. If people are told what to do and not how to do it, they will often surprise their leader with imagination and resourcefulness. The leader’s job may simply be to ask challenging questions, and let the team figure out how to get the job done.

The last responsibility of a leader is to say thank you, for in the final analysis, a leader is simply a servant with a mission. If the mission is accomplished well, the leader and those led will have formed a bond as important and exhilarating as achieving the goal.