ArticlesReader.com Menu
Newest Articles
Most Viewed Articles
ArticlesReader.com RSS
Submit Article
Login
Signup
Search the articles

Articles Main Categories
Advice
Animals
Automobiles
Business
Career
Communications
Computer Programming
Computers
Entertainment
Environment
Family
Fashion
Finance
Food
Health & Medical
Home & Garden
Humor
Internet Business
Internet Marketing
Legal
Leisure & Recreation
Marketing
Other
Politics
Reference & Education
Religion
Self Improvement
Sports
Technology & Science
Travel
Writing
Subscribe
Receive alert message from us when new articles submitted to our site for free.

Enter your name

Enter your email

Syndicate

















Related Products
Home::Leadership

The Best Managers Are Leaders Too

Author : John Wright
I was flying home several months ago from a management-leadership program I was teaching for a company in Phoenix, and I struck up a conversation with the gentleman next to me on the plane. During the conversation, I asked him if he considered his boss to be a good manager, and he said, “Yes, he is.” I then asked him if he thought his boss was a good leader, and after thinking a moment, he said, “No, he isn’t.”



This man was not alone in the way he thought. According to a survey by the marketing information company TSN, “Less than one-third of all supervisors and managers are perceived to be strong leaders.” As a result, increasingly larger percentages of our workforce are disengaged. According to the survey



• 40% of workers feel disconnected from their employers



• Two out of every three workers do not identify with or feel motivated to drive their employer’s business goals and objectives



• 25% of employees are just “ showing up to collect a paycheck”



There is a tremendous opportunity for managers and supervisors to set themselves and their companies apart from their competition. So what does it take for a manager to be “perceived as a strong leader?”



THE FIVE “C’S” OF LEADERSHIP



Character



People will not follow someone for long if they can’t trust them. Not long ago a well known CEO was “ousted” after a probe into a personal relationship with a female executive at the same firm. “The board concluded that the facts reflected poorly on his judgment and would impair his ability to lead the company…his actions were inconsistent with our code of conduct.” Leaders have to be trustworthy to produce sustainable results.



Caring



The old cliché is true: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” When Lou Holtz was coach at Notre Dame, the second question he used to ask every player before being selected to play after “Can I trust you?” was “Do you CARE about me, your teammates, and Notre Dame?” If a player had a selfish motive for being on the team and didn’t care enough to put the team interests first, he didn’t want that young man on the team. He also said if the young man didn’t believe that he could trust the coach and feel cared about in return, he shouldn’t want to be on the team. Leaders show they care about their team personally and professionally.



Commitment



There’s a poster on the gym wall in Clint Eastwood’s movie Pretty Baby that says “Winners do what losers won’t do.” Leaders are like that also. They DO things poor managers won’t do. Arguably, one of the greatest business leaders of our time was Sam Walton. What was his number one rule for business success? COMMIT to your business. “Believe in it more than anybody else. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don’t know if you’re born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it.”



Confidence



Leaders know where they are going and demonstrate by their words and actions that there is no doubt that they will arrive. Furthermore, they make you want to go with them. They instill confidence in you as well. They get you to believe in yourself and your team and to see yourself as winners before it actually occurs. In his book Reagan on Leadership, James Strock lists Ronald Reagan’s accomplishments while in office and concludes “Above all, Reagan restored America’s belief in itself.”



Communication



Leaders have crystal clear compelling visions and communicate those visions repeatedly. In his book Leadership, the first principle Rudolph Giuliani shares is his insistence on his routine morning meeting. “I consider it the cornerstone to efficient functioning within any system…We accomplish a great deal during that first hour, in large part because the lines of communication were so clear.”



In addition to letting people also know clearly where they stand, leaders are also exceptional listeners. In his book Team Bush – Leadership Lessons from the Bush White House, author Donald Kettl discusses how President Bush “makes sure he listens” to his top advisors. The lesson? “Make sure you get unfiltered information. Top managers need all sorts of information, good and bad…especially bad. This is why it is crucial to have a mechanism in place that insures a steady stream of information from all quarters.”



Managers that develop these qualities will create an environment where their team will willingly do what they would not otherwise do.


Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com





John Wright is a speaker and trainer for High Impact Leaders Management Training, www.high-impact-leaders.com. He specializes in leadership and management programs for all levels throughout organizations. He can be reached at 1-800-872-7830 x107.





Spam emails More free articles

Related articles


  1. Recommended Books on Leadership and Team Building
  2. The Sink Or Swim Approach To Leadership
  3. Quality Leadership
  4. Make the Most of Your Mentoring Relationships
  5. Wanted: A Dictionary-Perfect Leader
  6. The Top 10 Questions for Socially Responsible Leaders
  7. To Be An Effective Leader, Do A Check-up From The Neck Up
  8. 3 Aspects of Developing Leadership Skills
  9. Teen View of Leadership From Around the World
  10. 10 Attributes of Effective Strategic Leaders!
  11. Lessons In Leadership: What Not To Do... From A Canoe!
  12. Who Is Randy Gage and Why Is He One of My Mentors and Heroes?
  13. Why Not Lead With Emotions?
  14. A Lasting Leadership Lesson: How One Leadership Talk By George Washington Saved The Revolution
  15. The Power of the Leader Within - The Keys to Martial Arts Life Mastery, Key#1
  16. Give Your Valentine A Very Special Gift - Empowerment
  17. Leadership: Wisdom of the Ages
  18. The Seven Secrets to New Age Leadership
  19. Precious Moments
  20. Lead People...Manage Things
  21. Leadership and Change in a Holographic Universe
  22. Get What You Want - Negotiating Skills for the Timid!
  23. To be, or Not to be (Average)?
  24. The Leader Within
  25. You Make The Difference
More related feeds
A Coach’s Handbook For Sales Managers
Too many sales managers are bosses, technicians or even bullies. They kill team spirit, arouse mediocrity and suck the energy out of companies. The results are poor morale, loss of talented people and low performance. Effective leaders ...

Managing developers (?)
I won’t try to characterize those styles here; it would take us too far afield. But I think the best managers don’t want to manage: they want to lead. In fact most leaders probably don’t think about it much, at least at first, ...

Health care silence
“What the parties think the voters are going to be voting on is who is going to be the best manager of the economy over the next couple of years, because the next couple of years are going to be pretty bumpy,” Maslove says. ...

Subsidize the Bad Managers and the Gullible Poor
Problem is government wants to subsidize the rich too. Zach Barron, of Boston writes, "Unfortunately, I don't think our elected leaders or the public at large (the public elects them) understand that the linchpin of a successful free ...

So You Want A Career in Management: Enjoy the Perks !
Perhaps the best comment of all, however, is “You’ll have to simplify this so the board of directors will understand it.” That probably means that you’ll be able to understand it too. It’s important to consider the impact of the notes ...

Targeting employers
You were, however, a team leader in your last job in the industry. You know the nuts and bolts work. You did get some exposure to management, and you do have the essential knowledge, because team leaders are de facto managers in sales, ...

Boston Red Sox Versus Tampa Rays 2008 ALCS Preview And Prediction
  Advantage: Let’s be honest, these are two of the best managers and ego massagers in the game today. They both do things "out-of-the-box" at times and are both calculating with their usage of players. ...

Leadership: the Magician or the Warrior
McCain, as someone who forcefully asserts for results, best typifies the heroic “I” type of leader, who leverages personal influence to impact results. The downside can be too much drive and not enough relational connection. ...

Reflections of relational, situational and change leadershipx
As Raelin says, “since the multifaceted, dynamic organizations of the modern era require nimble and behaviorally complex managers, leaderful managers are needed to perform a variety of leadership functions and vary them with the ...

Obama, Dems peddle bogus 'Free Choice'
And having their names, addresses, phone numbers and positions regarding unionization known to union leaders and company managers alike helps eliminate threats and intimidation exactly . . . how? You want threats and intimidation? ...

 


 

2007 articlesreader.com - All Rights Reserved