The Discipline of Leadership Excellence

By Dr. Peter Chee & Brian Tracy

This is the 1st chapter of ITD World's 12-part newsletter series: 12 Disciplines of Leadership Excellence.

The world has irrevocably changed

These days, our society is experiencing a pressing need for leadership. We need those who have the vision, courage, and the ability to chart new seas and break new grounds.

Leadership is the ability to elicit extraordinary performance from ordinary people and make them follow you. The best leaders today are those capable of motivating others to follow their direction and vision - in a voluntary way.

When it comes to leadership, there are 2 main types:

1. Transformational leaders. These are pathfinders and visionaries that motivate, inspire, and empower people to reach new levels of growth.
2. Transactional leaders. These are the ones who get things done with and through others.

Leaders are made, not born

Nobody comes into the world as a natural leader. We can only become one if we make up our mind and try our best to learn the necessary skills.

You are what you think you are. Your self-concept determines your performance. You can become a much more effective leader by changing your self-concept - the way you think about yourself as a leader.

Select leaders to emulate

The starting point of leadership is thinking about the leaders you know and admire - and how you may emulate their behaviors. In no time at all, you will actually begin to imitate their qualities - and become a better leader yourself.

By studying great leaders of the past and present, you have a much higher chance of developing leadership qualities. The more you learn about what constitutes effective leadership, the more likely you will internalize the same values and behaviors. These will then be externalized in your actions.

A Sense of Mission

As a leader, you must come up with qualitative goals - only those are capable of exciting others to reach higher levels of performance. Nobody gets permanently inspired about raising the share price or making more money. But we do if the goal is to bring a product/ service to those who need it, to become the best in a competitive field. Just look at the thousands of people who get caught up in an election, working long hours for little or no pay!

An inspiring mission gives a clear sense of direction to every person in the organization - and unifies them all together. As an example, IBM is one of the biggest industry leaders in business history. One of their goals is to give the best customer service, and everyone in the company is dedicated to that vision.

Apple is committed to producing products that people love. Zappos is dedicated to making customers happier than any of its competitors. These goals are qualitative and emotional - they excite and inspire people. Everyone thinks and talks about them all the time. This mission unifies all employees in a common cause.

If you are going to be a leader, sit down and think through about the mission or the overarching purpose in your area of responsibility. Your determination to be the best is the starting point of your rise to the top levels of leadership.

Take Continuous Action

When you study the life of Napoleon, Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa, or Alexander the Great, you find that they were incredibly active men and women. They did not wait for things to happen - rather, they launched their ideas strongly and forcefully.

Leaders are both entrepreneurial and innovative. The word 'entrepreneurial' comes from the French word - meaning to undertake or to do. Entrepreneurs continually try new things. They fail fast, learn quickly, and keep moving forward. They do not analyze things to death.

The Quality of Courage

Courage is one of the most important qualities of leadership - it enables leaders to launch into new endeavors with no guarantee of success. It inspires people to rally around the banner of the leader.

Below are some keys to developing the quality of courage:

• Boldness. Whenever you feel like hesitating or backing away from a challenge, you instead force yourself to go forward. To develop courage, practice boldness - even when you don't feel like it.
• Patience. No matter how tough it gets, stay the course and hang in there. If you refuse to give up, the sun will eventually break through the clouds and good things will happen to you.
• Taking calculate risks. Leaders get all the information they can, which then enables them to make informed decisions. They consider the worst possible outcome before taking action - but then they dare to go forward.

The Leader as Strategist

Leaders are good planners - they have learned how to do strategic thinking. Strategic thinking means taking the long view and carefully considering what you are doing - as well as the different potential outcomes. Leaders continually ask: "If we do this, what is likely to happen? How willy my competition respond? What will the market do?".

A key element of strategic thinking is to concentrate your forces. Identify clearly the strengths of yourself, your people, and then focus on where they can make a major difference, where you can gain a significant competitive advantage in the market.

You must also give thought to the WPO - Worst Possible Outcome. What's the potential WPO in terms of changes in market demand, interest rates, staff makeup, and your competitors' actions? Think these things through so that if things change unexpectedly, you are already prepared with a backup plan.

Look for Opportunities

Much leadership is situational. Many leaders rose to the top because a situation created a great opportunity, and they recognized it as such. Because they acted quickly and effectively in a period of turbulence, they were then promoted into leadership positions.

In every case, it is adversity that uncovers great leaders. Whenever you face an adverse situation, remember that it can be an opportunity to demonstrate you have what it takes to be a leader.

The Ability to Inspire and Motivate

The average person in the workplace operates at less than 50% of capacity. Leaders are those who can draw that 50% of additional capacity out of their people - and get them to contribute far beyond their previous levels of performance.

One way to inspire people is to arouse enthusiasm - by being enthusiastic yourself. If you are tremendously enthusiastic personally, those around you are much more likely to feel the same way.

Another way is through commitment. Leaders are all in - they are 100% committed to the success of the business. That personal level of commitment will stimulate your people's own commitment.

Leaders also empower others via encouragement. If you really believe in your own leadership capabilities and those of the people that report to you, you will accomplish results far beyond imagination.

Last but not least, leaders inspire loyalty by being loyal to their companies and their people. Loyalty is the cement that binds an organization together. It is vital to the success of any team.

Integrity: The Essential Quality of Leadership

Integrity, trust, and credibility are the foundations of leadership. Leaders stand up for what they believe in. They keep their promises.

Leaders always err on the side of fairness, especially when other people are unfair. As a matter of fact, the true mark of leadership is to determine how fair you can be - when those around you are treating you in the opposite way.

Now it's time for some Action Exercises

1. List 3 differences in the people you manage that make your job more challenging.

2. List 3 leaders, living or dead, who you most admire and whose qualities you would most like to emulate.

3. List 3 business goals you have that are motivating and inspiring to your people.

4. Identify 3 ways you could demonstrate even greater courage in your day-to-day work and activities.

5. Determine 3 ways in which you benefit from strategic thinking and carefully considering what might happen before you take action.

6. Select 3 things that you could do with your staff to motivate and inspire them to higher levels of performance.

7. List 3 qualities you want to develop, or 3 behaviors that you can practice, that will make you a more effective leader.

Stay tuned to our upcoming newsletter to delve deeper into the 2nd discipline: Clarity.

Wish to scale up your Leadership skills for Sustainable Growth? Get for yourself a paperback handbook now - written by Dr. Peter Chee & Brian Tracy.

More opportunities for Leadership Excellence

At ITD World, we believe that leadership is a competency that can be learned and mastered. We also believe that leadership is influence and through the behaviors and habits developed in our training programs, you may have a better chance of increasing your influence and leadership effectiveness.

This September, we are hosting a special once-in-a-year event - Global Leadership e-Summit (GLS). At this conference, leaders from all over the world are gathered together to network and share insightful experiences in leadership during crises.

In collaboration with ITD World, 5 MEGA GURUs will be there to host the event and help attendees scale up their leadership skills.

Learn more about the Global Leadership e-Summit (GLS) 2020 here: https://itdworld.com/global-leadership-esummit-2020/

For more tips on leadership and management during crises, explore our in-house leadership & HR solutions - provided by the TOP GURUs in the world.

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