5 Tests of True Leadership

My study of organization, leadership, people, and success has left so much to be desired on what true leadership entails. Everybody seems to be engrossed on the need to become a “great leader”, but the question is, how can successful leadership be measured in a world where everything changes with speed of light?

In the ever transforming world of technology, environmental change, sophistication in customer demand and awareness, and tsunami of organizational alliances; leadership strategy and effectiveness have become complex and chaotic. The demand of customers is increasing at alarming rate from better quality goods and services, to quality plus cheaper price; and competition has not helped matters. In the face of these imminent crises, it has become quite challenging for leaders to focus on long-term corporate opportunities and growth as employees seem to respond cynically to the constant changes in business plans and strategies.

So what is the way out of all these?

As a transformational business and leadership coach, who’s constantly helping business owners, CEOs and leaders to become more effective in growing their businesses and careers, I have learned that the best “business and leadership success strategies” are not the introductions of complicated new systems and techniques. Most of the time, CEOs and leaders are buried in the streams of the noise that they lose focus of their direction thereby leaving their organizations to suffer critical abandonment and loss of profit.

It is possible for organizations to succeed despite the spate of change in the economy, industries, government, and society if the following 5 parts processes are adequately implemented.

1). Be Crystal Clear of Where you’re Going
Many business owners and leaders run their businesses and organizations with no clear direction of where they are going. It is alarming how many businesses operate without goals, and even when goals are set, they don’t make any effort to commit to achieving them.

When was the last time you sat down to draw up a business plan for your organization? What is your revenue forecast this year, and what are the strategies you have put in place to achieve it? The point is that casually set goals yield casual results. They fade away in the face of obstacles; and obstacles are bound to come in every business. Many businesses perish for lack of direction. Paraphrasing J. Dean, you can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails to always reach your desired destination. That is your responsibility as a leader.

2). Strategize Your Actions
Executing specific simple massive action plans tailored to the needs of your business will help you to know what to do one step at a time. Great Leaders achieve success more easily by consistently executing simple disciplines over time and ensuring active participation by its workforce. The secret is in knowing what to do and doing it consistency. Contrary to the belief of some people, it is not the number of newly introduced strategies that produce great results; but the awareness of what to do, and the commitment of the teams involved.

Strategies are important for success; but they should not be used in replacement of human resources. The best organizational objectives with carefully crafted strategies will fail if the individuals within the organization disagree with its concept, and the ideals of the desired outcome. So as leaders, it is absolutely important to involve your team at the strategic planning stage and have them make constructive input. People will respond with dysfunctional behaviours if they don’t trust the leader or agrees with his ideologies.

3. Upgrade Your Skills
With careful planning and focus on organization’s highest priorities, it becomes easier to identify the important skills-gap within corporate executive levels. I belong to the school of thought that believes that leadership should not bother to the involved in every activity that goes on within the organization. This attitude derails focus and effectiveness.

But with careful planning and the help of change agents like the team at Cognition Global Concepts, business executives can easily be inspired to upgrade their skills in line with what is most important for them to achieve desired growth. From my experience of working with leaders, skills upgrade in areas like marketing, sales, team management, and communication will by far accelerate growth and increase return on investment.

A lot of factors can be responsible for lack of growth ranging from inability to generate enough revenue, high operating cost, or low team spirit. Successful CEOs and leaders ensure continuous future growth by applying mastery of the combination of these skills even in downturn economies.

4. Optimize Your Environment
A good environment is critical for success in business and leadership. Organizations are usually impacted by several environmental changes including location, price, government policies, products/services, distribution systems, and human resource policies. These factors affect the way businesses operate and how much success and growth is achieved.

You can tell as much as I know that business environments are constantly polluted by the news about inflation, take-overs, downsizing (or is it right-sizing?) strategies, lack of trust by employees, and dynamic customer’s taste and values. Each of these factors pose a big threat and distort the focus and behaviour of leadership.

Leaders tend to lose control when emphasis shifts from area of strength and empowerment to a less important business area. In order to avoid this happening, business owners and executives need to be constantly surrounded by people who are supportive of their visions. If you want to lose weight, you don’t litter your kitchen with Cheese and Burger; that would be counter-productive.

5. Master Your Psychology
Understanding the psychology of leadership is perhaps the most important ingredient that contributes to the overall success or failure of any vision, mission, or goal.

It is a common knowledge that leadership is by influence. We know also that effective leadership presupposes that leaders should support the values and opinions of their teams in bringing corporate missions to bear.

Successful leaders are flexibility to the needs and development of their teams. By being flexible, leaders learn to show genuine interest and understanding in the behaviour of team members, and become able to integrate with it.

But trouble starts when leaders fail to believe in their own ability to cope with the complexities of leadership within their organizations. They get held back by all forms of fear, doubts, other people’s opinion, and self limiting beliefs. They exhibit high sense of insecurity that sets in the way of the growth they’re meant to create.

Successful leaders work constantly on their psychologies to rip-off negative influences that tend to stay in the path of progress. They commit to mastery and develop the inspiration to constantly counter their own inner conflicts.

Successful business owners and leaders Work With a Business Coach who helps to grow their businesses faster. All progressive executives and professionals immerse themselves in Executive and Leadership Mastery Coaching which helps them clarify their visions, make more compelling decisions, and accomplish more in less time.