Hidden Secrets to Leadership Success

In today’s environment leaders are directly responsible for retaining their unit or teams. This becomes a duty of the leader supported by the leadership characteristics they have used successfully in their leadership role. Often retention is viewed as an organization wide “All Hands On Deck” campaign driven from the Executive Suite. In reality Leaders at the entry level are the first line of defense. Its simple “Employees join comp...

Leadership is not effective unless there is a strong diversity element. The simplest way to think of it is to substitute the word “Differences” for “Diversity”. Leadership is understanding people’s differences. Differences are what makes each of us unique and they allow us to add value and texture to the organizations that employ us. Each of the preceding podcast episodes highlight an important characteristic of effective leadershi...

The ultimate definition of Leadership Success is not so much the results you achieve, it is the leaders you develop and the results they achieve. This means you are responsible for seeing the success of others. Demonstrating successful leadership characteristics shows others that results come from the application of proven leadership characteristics and sincere support for all of those that follow you. The measures of widgets sold,...

You will never be more on display than when you are a leader. Your followers and practically every other person in the organization and in your life watch how you behave. Leading By Example is a concept talked about in lots of leadership classes and in folklore about leaders. Leading By Example is more than showing up on the factory floor or helping the staff complete a project over a weekend. Leading by example is about being visi...

A successful leader must Trust and be Trusted. This requires a commitment to every positive leadership characteristic and to every person you lead and influence. Leadership is the use of influence to guide and nurture others as they strive to meet their goals and objectives. Trust is given by those you lead; it can not be demanded from them. Likewise, you must show faith and confidence in those you lead to demonstrate your trust in...

Humans are built to care for others and to function in groups. That means understanding where others in your group are experiencing both happiness and stress brought on by daily life events. A successful leader will try to understand what is happening with team members and relate to their situation. If the leader has had a similar event, then they may be able to sympathize with the team member. If you are simply trying to understan...

Listening is perhaps the most important characteristic and most difficult for any leader to achieve success. Listening requires work. To be successful the leader must demonstrate Active Listening which requires clarifying and reflecting what you hear from others. Additionally listening requires using others’ ideas and inputs and giving credit for those inputs. Perhaps most difficult is recognizing the “quiet” team member. In the fi...