HELPFUL HINTS IN SELECTING LEADERS

HELPFUL HINTS IN SELECTING LEADERS
Selecting employees for supervisory, management, and leadership positions is a fascinating journey.
The same holds true if you are considering forming a business partnership.
What characteristics do you look for?
• Personality Compatibility
• Technical Expertise
• Sharing the same vision.
• Ethics
• Morality
• Mutual friends
• Capability to get along with others
• Financial Stability.
Absolutely – each one of these characteristics is worthy of exploration. Some would say these are
essential..
But gee, an individual can also be a solid performing follower with the above characteristics.
What is left out of the above listing of essentials? A question which is overlooked primarily because of the 1st two items on the list (personality – we really get along well together) and (technical expertise – they bring a essential tool kit of knowledge)? In the evaluative minds of many interviewers this combo translates, sometimes erroneously, into – leadership. The person across the table has all the attributes of a “ natural leader”. It’s so obvious, I can tell in my gut that this person is a leader – I just know it.
Ok – how do you know it? Intuition? As the well worn bromide goes – “the proof is in the pudding”.
A pertinent question for the candidate ? What is a leader ?—no, here you might received an academic or “ down to earth” descriptor . Good information but not what is needed.
The onion which needs to be peeled – is this person a Leader??
• What type, size, organization have they led?
• What quantifiable successes can they cite?
• Their demonstrated philosophy of leadership.
• When did they 1st know they were a leader? How?
• Specific examples of team building.
• Types of employees with whom they work the best/least?
• Failures as a leader.
• What leadership skills do they bring to the table?
• What characteristics are they looking for in a leader?

With mentoring and coaching leadership skills can be honed and developed. It is true that abilities can
be developed wherein and individual with no previous leadership skills can transition into a position
requiring those talents. Many of these individuals have some prior formal or informal leadership
experience.
A caveat. In many ways, leadership is a type of natural selection. Followers gravitate to those who
lead. Whether on the playground, classroom, social club, identifiable leaders and followers emerge.
The risk of hiring someone into a leadership position without a proven record, is significant. The
nuances of successful leadership are complex. They are learned overtime. This is not like learning a
software program where the variables are identified and solutions finite. Empathy, communications,
trust , delegation involve skillful interpersonal skills.
Leadership experience is a valuable teacher which can be measured in the breadth , depth, complexity
and success of involvement . Years in the “job of life” is differentiated from chronological age. Quality
of leadership is a necessary ingredient as is quantity.

Leadership Without A Compass

The spectacle of a captain less mega oil tanker aimlessly adrift in the Arctic’s environmentally
sensitive waters with millions of gallons of crude oil spewing forth into the pristine backwaters is almost unthinkable. Who can forget the images of oil coated waterfowl fighting for their lives after the Exxon Valdez spillage?
A few survived: strength, luck, and help from human care providers.
The parallel with leaderless leaders? Leaderless leaders?
While coaching management and owner teams, it has been a surprising discovery to find the number lacking a designated or even de facto captain. This void occurs within a partnership where neither party wants to assume responsibility for the executive roles. Other times, a legacy owner simply doesn’t want to lead the firm which has been handed down from a relative: or a husband/wife team grow a boot strap business and suddenly find they have a growing employee base, demanding customers, and supplier issues – but neither wants to be the CEO.
A surprising number of small and midsized firms have these “ leadership vacuums”. There is no acting, in charge president, or senior partner. The decision making buck stops – no where. Decisions are made in a collaborative mode. Translated, decisions are delayed or deferred. In the case of partnerships, both individuals may become masters of decision making avoidance.
They claim not to want to offend their partner while not wanting to face the human and financial concerns of running a successful enterprise: “ let me sell, or track costs, or run a project” , I’m comfortable with that “ is the familiar refrain I hear.
In the course of coaching dozens of “leaders” over the past decade, I have identified a consistently missing element present in these operationally challenged firms. There is an absence of leader generated, employee informed VISIONS. As with the aimless direction of the captain less tanker, the visionless leader and their company lack direction, purpose, and the defined drivers essential to capturing the opportunities of the future.
Consequently employees do not buy into the entreaties of management, have generally low morale, and see their work as “just a job”. The firm reacts to the whims of the marketplace rather than controlling its destiny. Survival rather than success become the mantra. Visionless, like walking in the dark of night without a destination or purpose.
Company captains who have defined who their firm is: where they are aimed, and in what time frame, describe the process as “ someone turned on the lights”. Suddenly and with enthusiasm there is a direction, a purpose, an raison d’etre. Imagine ! Now they can now stand up in front of employees and stakeholders and complete the mantra of a Big Ten University which is WE ARE ………………… Employees now have that brisk walk in their step all going in the same direction: The GPS voice is telling the same message to EVERYONE in the firm: in 2 years we will be the best at what we do.

A leader's compass

Graphics, Astrology, Greek Logic – Three Communications Platforms

Management gurus have made a comfortable living teaching us
lesser mortals about the art and science of “communications”
When the residue settles, we often hear the refrain “ talk on their level”:
Don’t use 50 cent words when 25 centers will do:
Paint word pictures, etc etc etc.
What if you and the listener speak a different language??
We’re not referring to a foreign language. We both speak English.

Rather, a truly semantical difference.
For example:
One person sees the world through a graphic, pictorial, multidimensional lens.
The world is a dizzying array of colors, shapes, lines, objects.
These objects tell a story, communicate an au natural experience.
They reinvent the world of design throughout the centuries and
Based on their cultural and historical perspectives.
What were Wyeth ,Picasso, Monet saying in their work?
Ask a person with the talent to see the message behind the painting:
Where some see a lily pond, others see a >>>>>>>>?
These hallowed communicators reveal themselves in an open, interesting,
and decipherable way if you speak their language.
Remember the Oak Tree from last week’s muse?

Others see the world in an astrological, mystical sense.
Life is explained by the stars, Stonehenge mysteries, the signs of the seasons
Perfectly logical, almost scientific, these truths are evident to true believers.
What do Leo and Taurus tell us about our lives present and future?
These analysts see and hear ruminations accessible only to them.
A doubter? Listen and only then pass judgment.

A third group are the semantical philosophers. Descendants of the Greeks and Romans.
Communications is founded on logic. Discussions are based on the art of using words
as an artist does a palate . Refining, defining, verbalizing phraseologies to convey
emotions, ideas, and points of view. Linguists relish the genesis of words, their many
sided meanings. The art of persuasion and problem solving is also the capacity to
motivate and captivate the minds of others using the influence of words rather
than the cudgel of tyranny.

Three platforms of communications. Spaced far apart in our human universe. Differing foundations,
separate points of focus. A tantalizing challenge to our psyches.

One of the world's great communicators

TRUST AND TEAM LEADERSHIP

A well accepted principle of effective leadership is that of trust. Without unconditional trust the relationship between team members and management is held together by only the very thin filament of organizational control “ Me boss – You Employee”.
The term “servant leadership” is much in vogue. For many leaders there is a religious attachment to the phrase. With good reason.
There is a significant connection between trust , servant leadership, and the success of a team.
By definition, one of the purposes of a “team”, is the collaborative sharing of ideas, knowledge, and resources in order to enact best practices solutions. Team members are perceived as equals with the senior management person there providing a listening ear and acting as a informative shepherd.
When the chemistry of “trust” is present a very interesting group->leader interaction takes place. There may be expectations for the senior person to carry out certain actions. The group may have decided, for example, on a reconfiguration of a work cell. This involves the need for a discussion by the manager with a long term employee and a reassignment of them. This will be a very difficult meeting. At the time of commitment with the group, there is every expectation that the manager will move forward.
Follow through is essential. Trust is in the balance. Future behavior modeling by team members will only occur if the leader carries out what he/she has promised. The team leader has become the servant of the team. This means no waffling, or procrastination, or significantly modifying the agreed upon action. Returning to the team and saying “ I had second thoughts” usually is a trust breaker.
Obviously if there is VERY VERY significantly new information or a change in circumstances that prevents the action from taking place then all bets are off. However, this should be a rare exception.
With the example of a “proof is in the pudding” in hand, teams take on a new mantle. Members begin to trust each other more and more. They also now have more trust in the leader.
The result – Discussions are more open and candid. Problem solving is attacked with greater vigor and turf wars recede into the background. Any fear of retribution by team members when areas of disagreement are laid on the table is muted and dissolves over time.
In addition, the esprit de corps of the team grows into commitment and loyalty to the team and the organization. As with other human experiences such as happiness, these positive characteristics are passed along to fellow employees, customers and vendors

Trust - An integral part of team success