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A few leaders have a natural charisma and are born to lead. The majority of us have to work at it. This two part article will give you the secret twelve rules to successful leadership. Enjoy! 1 ~ Set the Tone for the Company Everyone in your organization is watching you - looking for signs, evaluating your mood, listening to what you say and how you say it. This is the way people in a company try to find out what's happening upstairs. If you, the leader, are positive, optimistic, encouraging, open, and an effective communicator, you will be establishing the tone and example for the entire company. They will follow your demeanor and reflect it. And likewise, if you do not talk, keep your door closed and are always irritable and negative, the staff will start reflecting those emotions. 2 ~ Always Have a Plan with Realistic Goals Once you have established a can-do attitude with open communication, you must present a plan that has realistic goals. It is important for the staff to become a team that pulls together. There must be reasonable and possible goals set. Goals that the organization feels they can actually meet. Those goals may be difficult, but you must always be realistic when setting them. 3 ~ Ensure Everyone Knows What is Expected of Him or Her and Keep them Informed. In previous articles, we discussed the concept of Talent Balancing™ and how to discover the additional talents of your staff. By using Talent Balancing™, you may end up assigning new and different responsibilities for some people. Make sure that teveryone is aware of these changes. Your staff should always be totally aware of their responsibilities, priorities, time objectives and company news. 4 ~ Provide Staff with the Tools Needed to Do the Job It is essential to always provide your staff with the best tools available to do their tasks. It's very frustrating for the staff not to be able to accomplish their goals because they have poor or obsolete tools. 5 ~ Always Delegate and Monitor — Never Micro-Manage Each member of the organization must be aware of the responsibilities given to their co-workers, so that their efforts will not be impeded. As the leader, you must monitor your team's activities via written reports, verbal updates, presentations, etc. NEVER, NEVER micro-manage a project you've given to someone else. In a recent survey, this was the major complaint from workers about their bosses. 6 ~ Be Inclusive — Involve Staff in Decisions and Listen to their Input The team that has helped to forge the plan and create solutions to the key problems will be much more effective in implementing the plan than the group which is simply given the plan. As an effective leader, it is important for you to get the input of ALL staff members involved. You may be good, but you still need a staff, and the best staff is one that assists in the analysis and final decisions. Jim Stedt is a partner at The Business SoftSkills Company (GetSoftSkillsNow.Com) located in Santa Ana, California. They provide job readiness and workforce success videos for education, business, prisons and individual use. Training is available online, on DVD, or through an affiliate program. These products are the most complete and concise soft skills training packages now available for the price of an average college textbook.
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