No Excuses! - The Power of Self-Discipline Part 12

As you move up the scale of management, becoming more knowledgeable and effective and getting more and better results from more and different people, you reach the highest level, that of a leader. At this stage, you are responsible for determining what is to be done rather than how it is to be done.

It is said that "some leaders are made, some are born, and some people have leadership thrust upon them." Leaders emerge or are promoted to deal with a situation requiring leadership ability. In its simplest terms, the role of the leader is to "take responsibility for results."

The primary reason that people are promoted into increasingly higher levels of leadership is that they demonstrate the ability to get the required results at each level. The ongoing question of the leader is always, "What results are expected of me?" Clarity is essential.

The main reason that some people are not promoted into greater leadership position-or perhaps they are even fired-is because of "failure to execute." They do not do the most important jobs expected of them, nor do they get the results demanded of them.

Leaders Have Vision.

The first quality of leadership, based on 3,300 studies of leaders done by James MacPherson, is the quality of vision . Leaders have vision. They have the ability to project forward into the future and develop a clear picture of where they want their organizations to go. They then have the ability to share this vision with others and gain others' commitment to make this vision a reality.

You become a leader when you accept responsibility for results. You become a leader when you begin to think, act, and talk like a leader. You become a leader when you develop a vision for yourself and for your company, your life, or your area of responsibility.

There are hundreds of books written about leadership and the importance of vision. Yet they can be boiled down to a single principle. A military leader has a vision of victory , from which he never deviates. A business leader has a vision of success for the business based on excellent performance, to which he or she is completely committed.

A Leader Is a Standard Bearer.

The leader sets the standard for the organization. It is not possible for anyone in the organization to have a clearer vision or to aspire to a higher standard of excellence than the leader. For this reason, the leader is the role model, the one who sets the tone and the morale for everyone in the organization. The personality and influence of the leader affect everyone below him in the company, organization, or department.

You cannot raise morale in a business; it filters down from the top, from the leader. The behavior of the leader influences and affects the behavior of everyone else. If the leader is positive, confident, and upbeat, everyone in the organization will be influenced by this behavior and will be more positive, confident, and upbeat as well.

Walk the Talk.

When you become a leader, you must discipline yourself to be "leaderlike." You must walk, talk, and act the part of a leader. You become a different person with different responsibilities.

When you are working your way up, you are a part of the staff or the sales team. When you become a manager, you are part of management. This means that when you are part of the staff, your orientation is upward and sideways, but when you become a leader, your orientation is downward, toward all the people for whom you are responsible.

Perhaps the most important behavior of a leader is for you to discipline yourself to be a role model. Imagine that everyone is watching you and patterning everything they do and say based on your behavior.

When you become a leader you no longer have the luxury to "let it all hang out." From the time you are promoted into leadership, you have a special responsibility to discipline and control your words and behaviors in such a way so that you bring about the best possible results for your organization and for other people.

Set the Standards.

The leader sets the standards for the organization's behavior, quality of work, personal organization, time management, and appearance. In excellent organizations, the leader is the person who everyone looks up to and wants to emulate.

In most cases, the leader works harder than others in the company. The leader appears to be more committed, determined, courageous, visionary, and persistent than anyone else. The leader sets a tone that everyone wants to emulate.

The leader also sets the standard for how people are treated in the organization. When the leader treats people with courtesy, consideration, and concern, it quickly becomes known that these are the standards to which others must adhere.

Set Values and Principles.

In addition to a clear vision for the organization, the leader must have a set of values and organizing principles that guide behavior and decision making. Everyone must know what the leader and the company stand for and believe in. The job of the leader, then, is to articulate this vision of excellent performance within the constraints of high ethical standards at all times. He or she must walk the talk and live the values and behaviors he or she teaches.

The very best standard for a leader is the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

For example, when Jack Welch was the president of General Electric, he encouraged managers to treat each employee as if that employee might be promoted over his head sometime in the future and he might find himself working under the person who is now working below him. This way of thinking ensured that managers treated their staff with a high degree of respect and courtesy.

Seven Principles of Leadership.

To be an effective leader, there are seven principles you must incorporate into your leadership behavior and activities.

1. Clarity: This is perhaps your most important responsibility. You must be absolutely clear about who you are and what you stand for. You must be absolutely clear about your vision and where you want to lead your people. You must be absolutely clear about the goals and objectives of the organization and how they are to be obtained.Especially, you must be absolutely clear about the values, mission, and purpose of the organization and what it stands for. Everyone around you and below you must know exactly why they are doing what they do and what their company has been formed to accomplish.

2. Competence: As the leader, you must set a standard of excellent performance for the organization as well as for every person and function in the company. Your goal must be for your company to be as good as, or better than, your very best compet.i.tor. You must be continually seeking ways to improve the quality of your products and services to your customers.

3. Commitment: The leader is absolutely committed to the success of the organization and believes completely that this organization is the best in the business or will be the best in the future. This pa.s.sionate commitment to the organization-and to success and achievement-motivates and inspires people to do their best work and put their whole hearts into their jobs.

4. Constraints: The job of the leader is to identify the constraints or limiting factors that set the speed at which the company achieves its most important goals of revenue and profitability. The leader then allocates people and resources to alleviate those constraints and remove the obstacles so it can perform as one of the best in the industry.

5. Creativity: The leader is open to new ideas of all kinds and from all sources. The leader is continually encouraging people to find faster, better, cheaper, and easier ways to produce excellent products and services and to take better care of customers.

6. Continuous Learning: The leader is personally committed to reading, listening, and upgrading his or her personal knowledge and skills as an executive. The leader should attend additional seminars and courses to improve his or her skills and abilities.At the same time, the leader encourages everyone in the organization to learn and grow as a normal and natural part of business life. The leader provides time and resources for training and development. The leader knows that the best companies have the best-trained people. The second-best companies have the second-best trained people. And the third-best companies have the least-trained people-and are on their way out of business.

7. Consistency: The leader has the self-discipline to be consistent, dependable, reliable, calm, and predictable in all situations. One of the great comforts of business life is for an employee to know that the leader is completely consistent and reliable. An effective leader does not change from day to day. The leader is not "blown in the wind" by each new situation, problem, or emergency that arises. Instead, the leader is calm, positive, and confident-especially under pressure.

The Inevitable Crisis.

The only thing that is inevitable in the life of the leader is the crisis. When you rise to a position of leadership, you will experience crises repeatedly-crises that are unpredictable, unbidden, and often capable of seriously damaging the organization.

It is in the crisis that the leader demonstrates his competence. In times of crisis, the leader becomes calm, cool, objective, and completely in control. The leader asks questions and gathers information. The leader a.s.sesses the situation accurately and makes whatever decisions are necessary to minimize the damage or cut the losses.

Great leaders discipline themselves to keep their fears and misgivings private. They do not share their concerns with their staffs, knowing that this can cause confusion and loss of morale. Instead, the leader asks a lot of questions, probes deeply into situations so that he or she understands them thoroughly, and keeps his or her feelings private.

As far as the members of the organization are concerned, the leader is always calm, positive, relaxed, and in complete control-no matter what is happening.

Self-Control and Leadership.

There is a direct relationship between your ability to discipline yourself and your behaviors and your readiness to lead. It is only when you prove to others that you are in complete control of yourself that they develop the confidence to put you in a leadership position-and keep you there.

The leader realizes that everything he says to or about another person is magnified. The leader therefore praises and encourages people, both in their presence and when they are not around. He never says anything negative that could be misinterpreted or that could demotivate or offend another person. If he has problems with someone, he addresses him privately, out of sight and earshot of anyone else.

Leadership Qualities.

Leaders discipline themselves to plan, prepare, organize, and check every detail. They take nothing for granted. They ask questions to ensure that they have a complete understanding of a situation, problem, or difficulty.

Great leaders act as if they own the entire company. They accept a high level of personal responsibility. The leader never complains, makes excuses, or blames others for problems.

Leaders are intensely action-oriented. They gather information carefully and make the decisions that are necessary. They set measures and standards and hold others to them. They insist that the job be done quickly and well.

Leaders Rise to the Top.

Leaders rise to the top of an organization, as cream rises in milk. When you accept complete responsibility for getting results, concentrate single-mindedly on completing your most important tasks, continually upgrade your knowledge and skills as well as your ability to contribute value to your company, and treat other people with kindness and consideration, you will emerge as a natural leader.

As you demonstrate your ability to make an increasingly valuable contribution to your organization, people above, below, and on both sides of you will want you to be promoted into leadership and will support you when you reach that position. One of your primary aims in life is to walk, talk, act, speak, and treat others as a leader would. Eventually, your position will be equal to your performance.

In the next chapter, you will learn how to develop and practice the disciplines necessary to be more successful in your business life and activities.

Action Exercises:.

1. Ask yourself, "What results are expected of me?" and then concentrate single-mindedly on getting those results every day.

2. See yourself as the leader of your organization and ask yourself, "What kind of a company would this company be if everyone in it were just like me?"

3. Create a clear, exciting vision for yourself and your organization based on success and excellent performance.

4. Identify the most important people in your business world and determine how you will have to behave toward them to get them to perform at their best.

5. Resolve in advance that, when the inevitable crisis occurs, you will respond in a calm, controlled, and intelligent manner.

6. Clarify the exact values and principles you believe in and stand for, and then share them with the people around you.

7. Treat each person around you as if he is competent, valuable, and important. This is the key to gaining the loyalty and commitment that you require as a leader.

Chapter 10.

Self-Discipline and Business.

"The quality of self denial in the pursuit of a longer term goal, and indeed, the willpower to maintain that level of self denial, is an excellent training for the boardroom."

-JOHN VINEY.

Most people will work in or for a business or own a business in the course of their lifetimes. The achievement of business success demands high levels of discipline from you in every area of business activity, both large or small. Without self-discipline and self-control in business, no success is possible.

There is no area of activity that demands more self-discipline than starting and operating a successful business in our current economy.

The first law of economics is scarcity. As a rule, there is never enough of anything for everyone who wants it. Specifically, there are never enough customers for you to sell everything you want to sell. There are never enough sales revenues to help you achieve all your financial goals. There are never sufficient profits to enable you to expand as much as you want. Especially, there are never enough good people to work with and for you to help you achieve your business goals.

The Law of Compet.i.tion.