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"Many believe that leaders naturally rise to the top, while others feel they are developed and groomed. In order to optimize your own career as a leader, you must be a visionary, a trailblazer, a strategist, a communicator, a coach, a diplomat and a politician," says Edward T. Reilly, President and CEO of American Management Association. "AMA has found that the most successful leaders focus on the big picture as well as operational procedures," Reilly says. He offers the following advice:
Communicate your goals to your people. Define your strategy and objectives for your staff. If you aren’t clear where you want to get to, you won’t know it when you get there.
Set values for your staff to follow. These values should reflect the ethical and interpersonal standards with which you expect your people to abide.
Create a climate of open communication and trust at all levels. Your executives and managers must feel that they can speak honestly to you-without fear of any consequences. There’s a proverb: "If you think you’re leading and no one is following you, then you’re only taking a walk." Your staff won’t follow you wholeheartedly, if they believe they can’t be up-front with you.
Project the image of a leader. You don’t have to look like a superhero to be a leader, but you should look and sound credible. You have to appear confident, competent and caring-show that you are sure of yourself, that you know what you want your people to do, that you care about your staff and that others can rely on what you say.
Listen. Listen for factual and emotional content. Sometimes, you can learn more about what’s really happening through noting body language and tone.
Focus. Sort out your priorities as well as those of your organization. Think about which issues critical to your operation will demand your personal attention. Assign other areas of importance to those who you trust to handle them well.
Be decisive. Make decisions as you go along. Do not let them accumulate. A backlog of many little decisions can be harder to deal with than a big and complex one. At the same time, avoid snap decisions. Move fast on the reversible ones. Reflect more on the non-reversible ones.
Communicate confidence, conviction and enthusiasm. Display unsinkable optimism in the ability of your organization and its people to succeed. You want to demonstrate a commitment to your mission and a belief in your people’s capabilities to achieve it. Root out those with limiting expectations. Provide the resources your people need to achieve mutually agreed-on expectations.
Motivate staff. You can do this by acknowledging outstanding work. You can also do this by modeling excellence yourself. If you’re not performing at a consistently high level, re-examine your standards. You can’t inspire high performance from others if you don’t set a good example.
Demonstrate initiative. Don’t waste any opportunity you see. As a leader, you should go out and look for a chance to move your organization or team ahead. When you see an opportunity, you need to take it as far as you can. Don’t stop until you have done everything you can to reap the full benefits.
Be willing to take reasonable risks. President John F. Kennedy said, "There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."
Look for trouble. That is, don’t ignore problems. Also encourage your people to resolve problems when they encounter them.
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