Home  Services  People  Publications  Knowledge   Vision and Mission   Strategic Planning   Operational Planning   Performance Management   Capacity Building   Strategic Alliances   Leadership    Reminders about Leadership    Key Relationships - CEOs    What makes an Effective CEO    5 Skills for Effective Directors   Governance  About Us  Site Map

 Search
   
 

Your Location: «Home «Knowledge «Leadership «Quick Reminders about Leadership 

Knowledge

Quick reminders about leadership

Here are five quick reminders for busy leaders:

1. Be a leader
   • Leaders embody the values of the organisation in what they do and how they do it
   • Leaders need to focus their attention inside and outside the organisation and on present operations and future possibilities
   • They deliver six roles: visionary, strategist, politician, fundraiser, coach and change agent
   • Leaders have to gain the trust and respect of the people they lead
   • Leaders have to be open and they have to have honest conversations.
   
   
2. Mobilise around the mission
   • Great leaders have a clear vision for the future of their organisation
   • Missions are used by leaders to motivate people
   • Mission statements are short, precise and distinctive
   • Leaders ensure missions are omnipresent, used and reviewed.
   
   
3. Focus people on results
   • Planning and performance review are the most powerful lever leaders have to drive performance
   • Leaders ensure that strategies, operational plans and individual work plans are tightly integrated
   • Leaders ensure that plans are closely scrutinised before being approved
   • Regular performance reviews are used to hold managers to account
   • Boards enhance the quality of planning and performance review
   • Leaders also hold managers accountable for costs and expect departments to be managed on ‘bottom line’ performance.
   
   
4. Build a small focused team
   • Leaders create line reporting arrangements that enable them to lead
   • The top team tends to have between three and five members
   • Chief operating officer posts are increasingly prevalent
   • Top teams meet regularly and hold regular retreats
   • Trust, confidence and excellent communication are the hallmarks of an effective top team.
   
   
5. Invest leadership and management development
   • Leading organisations are taking many different approaches to leadership and management development
   • Leading organisations get all their managers together regularly
   • Leaders invest in their own development by attending courses, reading extensively, using coaches and networking with other leaders.
   
   .

From Managing at the Leading Edge, Mike Hudson, Directory of Social Change, 2003.