Personal effectiveness is a matter of style and substance. It’s also a matter of personal values, character, humanness and confidence in the creativity, initiative and capabilities of others. Above all it’s a matter of ‘engaging’ other human beings. Here are ten keys for effectiveness and success.
1. Develop a vision! Planning for the longer term pays off, and working backwards from a vision of the desired end result creates clarity and purpose. People want to follow someone who knows where he or she is going.
2. Simplify! You need to see the big picture in order to set a course, communicate it and maintain it. Keep the details at bay. You also need to then simplify reality and identify the essential activities and action steps to get there. Keep the incessant ‘busy-ness’ at bay. Focus on what really matters in terms of customers, value added and performance.
3. Trust your people! You can’t expect them to go all out for you if they think you don’t believe in them. And they definitely will not go all out if they don’t trust you. Be trustworthy and build trust by ‘trusting’.
4. Keep your cool! The best leaders show their mettle under fire. Stay ‘in command’ with full attention to all of what’s going on.
5. Be an expert! Everyone had better understand that you know what you’re talking about. And even when you don’t know you’re an expert in finding out.
6. Encourage risk! Encourage individuals to take chances and to accept error and failure as an inherent facet of learning and growth. Encourage and unleash the creativity of those around you.
7. Invite dissent! You’re not getting the best or learning how to lead if people are afraid to speak up and engage themselves in what you’re up to. Heat and friction are natural ingredients of energized and high performing individuals and groups.
8. Remove obstacles! Remove obstacles and barriers, and provide the tools, training, systems and structures to act and to grow.
9. Develop ownership! Stimulate self directed action and transfer responsibility and ownership to those who do the work.
10. Tell the truth! There is no more effective method of engaging individuals and making a difference than telling the truth - about what is happening, what you want, how you want to get there, and what you want, need and expect from others. A ‘ruthless commitment’ to telling the truth is perhaps the most liberating and refreshing approach to effectiveness in any context. All part of ‘the quiet work of leadership.’
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