Your Leadership Affects Your Organization's Productivity

Empowering People to Drive Productivity

Photo by Mike McCormick

Being "effective" means that you are producing or are capable of producing the result according to the organizational plan. The 'result' is the purpose or objective. Click here for information on effective styles of moving people to perform.

Let us demonstrate this by an example.

You have a good training and development plan. And you have specified the percentage of productivity improvement for both employees and the organization during planning at the beginning of the year.

An effective leader can motivate and inspire employees to work towards attaining that higher productivity.


A Good and Effective Leader
Do you believe that you need certain qualities as someone having authority over other people? Do you find it difficult in convincing your people or in retaining your influence over them and what they do?

In order to become more effective, you:

• need to understand the organization's objective, the reasons why you need to achieve that objective, and how to achieve it
  
• are not easily discouraged and make no excuses for any failure or shortcoming
  
• look for the well-being of the majority and not for your personal gratification
  
• develop new leaders including the ability to detect natural talents in leadership among your followers or subordinates
  
• do not allow success to cloud your decisions which is sometimes described as "having one's head in the clouds but the feet firmly set on the ground"
  
• are not dictatorial in the way your exercise leadrship
  
• seek the good in others and in the organization
  

Further consider what Jack Welch had stated, namely, the attributes of Energy, the ability to Energize others positively, the Edge to make a decision, the ability to execute well, and passion to do it.

Different people place emphasis on different qualities.

John C. Maxwell's "The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader" are of interest and relevant. These refer to the "character qualities".

These are 1. Character; 2. Charisma; 3. Commitment;
4. Communication; 5. Competence; 6. Courage; 7. Discernment;
8. Focus; 9. Generosity; 10. Initiative; 11. Listening; 12. Passion;
13. Positive attitude; 14. Problem-solving; 15. Relationships;
16. Responsibility; 17. Secure; 18. Self-discipline; 19. Servant-hood; 20. Teach-ability, and 21. Vision.

One Sandra D. Peters, a business management course lecturer, concentrates on character, competence, listening, generosity and self-discipline as being beneficial.

Some of the qualities mentioned by Maxwell are similar to those mentioned by Jack Welch.
Click here for more information particularly on the attributes of an effective person.

Click here for a book for today's CEOs by Michael Adeniyi, and other HR-related books from Amazon.com

Seeing the Big Picture
People who are in positions of authority need to have vision, and believe in and share that vision with others. Having this "helicopter-eye view" will help you in becoming a more effective person.

When you are in such situation, always try to see the big picture. And see whether everything fit together logically into a harmonious system.

In doing this, you will discover how you fit in, what you can do and what you lack in terms of knowledge, skills and capability.These help you to become a more effective leader.


Adequacy of Information
You may find that a certain style suits you well and is effective within the environment of your organization.

Knowing other models will deepen your knowledge and provide additional insights. Such knowledge can make you a better professional.

Such a person is highly sought after like a rare commodity.

Kouzes and Pozner had uncovered five personal-best common practices of the person at the helm in organizations. These include:
• Models the way
• Inspires a shared Vision
• Challenges the process
• Enables others to act
• Encourages the Heart

To Van Setters and Field, effectiveness comes from the interaction of several variables. These variables have connection to human resource management which later evolved into strategic Human Resource management.

Goldsmith and Clutterbuck (1984) identified leadership as one of the important characteristics of excellent companies in the United Kingdom.

Unless and until you and your colleagues are accepted as having the necessary qualities, your people will consider you as mere managers. Acceptance is earned, not forced.

People Development Initiatives
Jeffry Immelt had said of GE workers, “so we have taken our workforce, and we have trained them to live into the 21st century”. GE emphasizes employee training.
Read about his 10 Keys. Click here.

And we are now in the 21st century! Click here.

In the face of all the challenges faced by organizations everywhere, your organization needs leaders who have the required skills or are trainable to acquire the necessary skills in leading others. Click here for more relevant information.

You can implement initiatives to ensure your organization has the required number of capable executives who can help in the transformation of your organization.

The first target group is your senior management.

Also, prepare your middle management for the purpose of implementing your succession plan.

It is also important that as a responsible employee, you don't miss any opportunity in improving yourself whether as an executive or rank and file, in terms of your knowledge, competence and skills.

As a manager, train and develop your people. Develop their skills and capabilities, and prepare them for more responsible tasks.

Executive coaching plays an important part in developing capabilities and competencies. Your organization can conduct this with in-house expertise or with help from trained management coaches.

There are also development courses available as public training programs.

Discovering Your Hidden Potential and That of Your Subordinates
Everyone has the potential to do better.

You may want to use the Johari Window model to discover who you are and how others see you. This is one of the effective ways in discovering self. But sincerity and honesty play an important part.

It is said that a person has two dimensions. We have "the true self" and "the defeatest self." The first pushes us forward while the second pulls us back.

However, when we understand and accept the person that we are, we can begin on a journey of self-discovery and self-improvement.

Remember that Managers Administer, Leaders Make Things Happen.
Click here for inspiration to transform your organization.

This is the quality that you need to effectively manage change and to ensure that change remains permanent.

You need capable and effective people. This is crucial for successful implementation of strategic human resources management.

You need people who can inspire others to reach to the next level.
Get inspired from these quotes.

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