Are You a Leader
or a Follower?
Principles for Leadership Success

TAMPA, Fla., April 1, 2004-- The post-911, post-Enron environment has created unprecedented challenges for leaders who must achieve results through smaller workforces that may be unfocused and demoralized, according to findings released by Achieve Global, international provider of training and consulting services.

"Leadership is easier during good times than during periods of retrenchment, when there are tough decisions to make without the cushions of prosperity and profitability," says Sharon Daniels, Achieve Global CEO. "Organizations need good leaders most during hard times -- leaders who can tap into the best efforts of employees and unite them behind common goals. That's how they will solve problems and seize opportunities with the creativity and speed required to stay competitive."

To explore how leaders can get these results, Achieve Global conducted research with employees, managers and senior managers. Research and consultant experience with clients in a variety of industries and business sectors revealed that:

• Today's employees place greater emphasis on ethical behaviors.

• Employees have a greater expectation that their leaders will demonstrate technical competence.

• There is increased expectation that leaders will be big-picture thinkers, capable of foreseeing trends and anticipating the consequences of actions.

• Employees look to leaders for traditional performance management skills, including coaching and feedback, when work responsibilities are changing rapidly and are not well-defined.

What emerges from the research is that employees want leaders to demonstrate more than leadership skills -- they need people with leadership qualities, or the personal attributes that emerge over time with the application of leadership skills in many situations. Achieve Global identified five qualities today's leaders must develop to succeed in achieving results through others:

• Collaborative: Working together motivates people toward better results.

• Inventive: Alert, creative, quick-thinking risk takers can maximize emerging opportunities.

• Skilled: Continuous learning and training, as well as a willingness to roll up their sleeves to get the job done, creates credibility for leaders.

• Visionary: Success depends on creating a shared vision and working with others to make it a reality.

• Mindful: Being aware of how leadership behaviors affect others and demonstrating steadiness in the face of adversity helps keep others focused and motivated.

"By themselves, these qualities do not necessarily produce the leaders employees are looking for," says Daniels. "What's still missing are the guidelines for how to work with others in situations that aren't covered by specific skills. These underlying principles not only help achieve organizational results, but also create strong and committed employees."

The six basic principles of leadership are:

1. Focus on the situation, issue or behavior, not on the person.
2. Maintain the self-confidence and self-esteem of others.
3. Maintain constructive relationships.
4. Take initiative to make things better.
5. Lead by example.
6. Think beyond the moment. This principle, one of the timeliest, encourages leaders to consider both the short- and long-term consequences of their actions.

Guided by these principles, genuine leaders achieve results without sacrificing long-term organizational viability or employee commitment. They create an environment of collaboration that produces timely, high-quality decisions, while motivating others to stay the course during difficult times -- a situation sure to continue in the near future.

Source: AchieveGlobal