LEADERSHIP QUALITIES EXPECTED OF MANAGEMENT

Qualities critical for a leader's relationship with his/her people are quite different to conventional skills and processes:

Examples of highly significant leadership qualities

• integrity
• honesty
• humility
• courage
• commitment
• sincerity
• passion
• confidence
• positivity
• wisdom
• determination
• compassion
• sensitivity

leadership, What it  entails

1. Prior to expecting anyone to follow, a leader first needs to demonstrate a vision and values worthy of a following.
2. A given type of leadership inevitably attracts the same type of followers. Put another way, a leadership cannot behave in any way that it asks its people not to.
3. In other words, for people to embrace and follow modern compassionate, honest, ethical, peaceful, and fair principles, they must see these qualities demonstrated by their leadership.
4. People are a lot cleverer than most leaders think.
5. People have a much keener sense of truth than most leaders think.
6. People quickly lose faith in a leader who behaves as if points 10 and 11 do not exist.
7. People generally have the answers which elude the leaders - they just have better things to do than help the leader to lead - like getting on with their own lives.
8. A leadership which screws up in a big way should come clean and admit their errors. People will generally forgive mistakes but they do not tolerate being treated like idiots by leaders.
9. And on the question of mistakes, a mistake is an opportunity to be better, and to show remorse and a lesson learned. This is how civilisation progresses.
10. A leader should be brave enough to talk when lesser people want to fight. Anyone can resort to threats and aggression. Being aggressive is not leading. It might have been a couple of thousand years ago, but it's not now. The nature of humankind and civilisation is to become more civilised. Leaders should enable not obstruct this process.

Fundamental Leadership Principles

Jack Welch, respected business leader and writer is quoted as proposing these fundamental leadership principles (notably these principles are expanded in his 2001 book 'Jack: Straight From The Gut'):

1. There is only one way - the straight way. It sets the tone of the organisation.
2. Be open to the best of what everyone, everywhere, has to offer; transfer learning across your organisation.
3. Get the right people in the right jobs - it is more important than developing a strategy.
4. An informal atmosphere is a competitive advantage.
5. Make sure everybody counts and everybody knows they count.
6. Legitimate self-confidence is a winner - the true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open.
7. Business has to be fun - celebrations energise and organisation.
8. Never underestimate the other guy.
9. Understand where real value is added and put your best people there.
10. Know when to meddle and when to let go - this is pure instinct.

As a leader, your main priority is to get the job done, whatever the job is. Leaders make things happen by:

• knowing your objectives and having a plan how to achieve them
• building a team committed to achieving the objectives
• helping each team member to give their best efforts

As a leader you must know yourself. Know your own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can build the best team around you.

However - always remember the philosophical platform - this ethical platform is not a technique or a process - it's the foundation on which all the techniques and methodologies are based.

Plan carefully, with your people where appropriate, how you will achieve your aims. You may have to redefine or develop your own new aims and priorities. Leadership can be daunting for many people simply because no-one else is issuing the aims - leadership often means you have to create your own from a blank sheet of paper. Set and agree clear standards. Keep the right balance between 'doing' yourself and managing others 'to do'.


Build teams. Ensure you look after people and that communications and relationships are good. Select good people and help them to develop. Develop people via training and experience, particularly by agreeing objectives and responsibilities that will interest and stretch them, and always support people while they strive to improve and take on extra tasks. Follow the rules about delegation closely - this process is crucial. Ensure that your managers are applying the same principles. Good leadership principles must cascade down through the whole organisation. This means that if you are leading a large organisation you must check that the processes for managing, communicating and developing people are in place and working properly.

Communication is critical. Listen, consult, involve, explain why as well as what needs to be done.
Some leaders lead by example and are very 'hands on'; others are more distanced and let their people do it. Whatever - your example is paramount - the way you work and conduct yourself will be the most you can possibly expect from your people. If you set low standards you are to blame for low standards in your people.

"... Praise loudly, blame softly." (Catherine the Great). Follow this maxim.
If you seek one singlemost important behaviour that will rapidly earn you respect and trust among your people, this is it: Always give your people the credit for your achievements and successes.

Never take the credit yourself - even if it's all down to you, which would be unlikely anyway. You must however take the blame and accept responsibility for any failings or mistakes that your people make. Never never never publicly blame another person for a failing. Their failing is your responsibility - true leadership offers is no hiding place for a true leader.

Take time to listen to and really understand people. Walk the job. Ask and learn about what people do and think, and how they think improvements can be made.

Accentuate the positive. Express things in terms of what should be done, not what should not be done. If you accentuate the negative, people are more likely to veer towards it. Like the mother who left her five-year-old for a minute unsupervised in the kitchen, saying as she left the room, "...don't you go putting those beans up your nose..."

Have faith in people to do great things - given space and air and time, everyone can achieve more than they hope for. Provide people with relevant interesting opportunities, with proper measures and rewards and they will more than repay your faith.

Take difficult decisions bravely, and be truthful and sensitive when you implement them.

Constantly seek to learn from the people around you - they will teach you more about yourself than anything else. They will also tell you 90% of what you need to know to achieve your business goals.

Embrace change, but not for change's sake. Begin to plan your own succession as soon as you take up your new post, and in this regard, ensure that the only promises you ever make are those that you can guarantee to deliver.

If it's not clear already, leadership is without doubt mostly about behaviour, especially towards others. People who strive for these things generally come to be regarded and respected as a leader by their people:

• Integrity - the most important requirement; without it everything else is for nothing.
• Having an effective appreciation and approach towards corporate responsibility, (Triple Bottom Line, Fair Trade, etc), so that the need to make profit is balanced with wider social and environmental responsibilities.
• Being very grown-up - never getting emotionally negative with people - no shouting or ranting, even if you feel very upset or angry.
• Leading by example - always be seen to be working harder and more determinedly than anyone else.
• Helping alongside your people when they need it.
• Fairness - treating everyone equally and on merit.
• Being firm and clear in dealing with bad or unethical behaviour.
• Listening to and really understanding people, and show them that you understand (this doesn't mean you have to agree with everyone - understanding is different to agreeing).
• Always taking the responsibility and blame for your people's mistakes.
• Always giving your people the credit for your successes.
• Never self-promoting.
• Backing-up and supporting your people.
• Being decisive - even if the decision is to delegate or do nothing if appropriate - but be seen to be making fair and balanced decisions.
• Asking for people's views, but remain neutral and objective.
• Being honest but sensitive in the way that you give bad news or criticism.
• Always doing what you say you will do - keeping your promises.
• Working hard to become expert at what you do technically, and at understanding your people's technical abilities and challenges.
• Encouraging your people to grow, to learn and to take on as much as they want to, at a pace they can handle.
• Always accentuating the positive (say 'do it like this', not 'don't do it like that').
• Smiling and encouraging others to be happy and enjoy themselves.
• Relaxing - breaking down the barriers and the leadership awe - and giving your people and yourself time to get to know and respect each other.
• Taking notes and keeping good records.
• Planning and prioritising.
• Managing your time well and helping others to do so too.
• Involving your people in your thinking and especially in managing change.
• Reading good books, and taking advice from good people, to help develop your own understanding of yourself, and particularly of other people's weaknesses (some of the best books for leadership are not about business at all - they are about people who triumph over adversity).
• Achieve the company tasks and objectives, while maintaining your integrity, the trust of your people, are a balancing the corporate aims with the needs of the world beyond.