HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL LEADERS: THREE GUIDING PRINCIPLES AND SKILLS

Part 4 of 4

This four part series on leadership illustrates that there is no real secret to being a good leader. However, Highly Successful Leaders are known to be guided by three main principles and skills. Those three guiding principles and skills are:

•  Highly Successful Leaders are Authentic - they know who they are and where they are going. They set the direction and pace for the organization and lead by example.

•  Highly Successful Leaders provide Vision, Values and Strategies to transform their organizations to higher levels of sustained success.

•  Highly Successful Leaders have Personal and Organizational Values which govern their behavior. They lead by values.

The third and final guiding principle is that Highly Successful Leaders are guided by personal and organizational values. The ability to lead others first requires self leadership. Values like honesty and integrity clearly come to mind as well as being open minded and understanding of the importance of continual learning and self development. Highly Successful Leaders are in a continual learning stage. They seek to understand people, process and strategy.

Organizational values must be clearly articulated from the leaders to all members of the organization. Equally important, these values must be present in all actions taken by the leadership team. Many will refer to this as “Values-Based Leadership.” Values-based leadership focuses on balancing the needs of the individual with the needs of the organization by aligning the vision, values and resources of all concerned.

A look at any newspaper on virtually any day will illustrate how many organizations seem to be guided “Value-less leadership.” A classic example of a company that successfully demonstrated their commitment to “Value-based leadership” was Johnson & Johnson. They recalled Tylenol capsules after some deaths were reported in Chicago that attributed to their product. They made the decision to recall the product because of the following organizational value “we believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers, and fathers and all others who use our products and services. That expressed value made the decision to recall the product a relatively simple decision. Subsequent investigation revealed the product had been tampered with after it was on the store shelf. Johnson & Johnson did sustain some short term loss due to this decision. The good will and credibility they gained by taking immediate action for the protection of the consumer is still paying dividends today.

Values must be incorporated into your strategic business plan and into your day to day activities. They are a significant factor as far as keeping all members of the organization aligned on common goals. Make sure your values are meaningful to you and your organizational success. There is not an industry or profession that cannot benefit in a sustainable manner from running their organization with a “Values-Based Leadership” mentality.

Leadership is a skill that is developed. What are you doing to develop your leadership skills? What about your team’s leadership skills?