Leadership is really rather simple to describe. A leader is a person who gains the confidence and support of his or her troops, employees, or followers by: determining and engaging in a rational plan, caring for and nurturing his followers, demonstrating a willingness to make good although tough decisions, rewarding those who perform and penalizing those who do not with minimal interference of politics or personal relationships, provides an excellent example of character, communicates in a straightforward and open way, exudes reality-based optimism, and on and on. Everyone has their “list” of 7 habits or 10 principles or x whatevers.
Any list of leadership traits is like a list of “good intentions”. As Peter Drucker says “good intentions are no excuse for incompetence”. And likewise, having a handy list of leadership traits is also no excuse for not being one. As I have pounded through this series, execution--what you actually do, not happy-sounding slogans, banners, or lists--is what makes you a leader; what enables your organization to realize the kind of success potential its business idea deserves. So here goes. For the next several weeks I’ll re-present special items from 2007 blogs packaged in a leadership light.
The first is making decisions about people. Possibly no one decision making task is as important. Your organization has a pretty good idea of who deserves to be exalted, demoted, fired, promoted, rewarded, punished. They see their everyday actions and results unpackaged and unvarnished. Make those tough decisions on personnel. Don’t be swayed by personalities or relationships. Get inputs from within the organization. And use the personality matrix to provide clarity. You can find more detail on the personality matrix in Category B. The Personnel Matrix: Smart and Fast, listed to the right. But here’s a quick summary.
On the chart, heart means “good attitude, loyal, heart in the right place”, the plus sign means “can do their job well”, the other two signs are the antitheses and obvious. Separating these two usually co-mingled chracteristics can give you tremendous insight into the decisions required. People in the:
o UL quadrant are “Don’t Lose ‘Em” Performers; keep them fully motivated and fully compensated. Don’t ever lose one!
o UR quadrant are “Mercenaries”. Never trust a Mercenary. Reap the benefits while they’re there and pull the plug on your own time frame.
o LL quadrant are “Still Valuable” employees, demote them back to their ability level and create a “Don’t Lose ‘Em” employee.
o LR quadrant are “Poisons”: Fire Poisons faster than you can sign the pink slip, even if you temporarily have to do that job yourself.
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