Editor's Note: This is the first part of a two-part review of "Master Leaders," which came at the recommendation of Dave Steinmuller of Hammons Products.Imagine sitting around a conference room with 30 world-class leaders and management gurus with the opportunity to hear their honest takes on leading people.
Author and researcher George Barna did exactly that, then wrote about it in his book, "Master Leaders."
While serving as emcee at a leadership conference, Barna garnered a veritable goldmine of wisdom during often-provocative discussions in the green room. Admired leaders such as Ken Blanchard, Bear Bryant, Warren Bennis, Tony Dungy, John Kotter and Patrick Lencioni pontificated personal views on the toughest topics: organizational culture, hiring, vision and values, trust, team-building, character, developing leaders and confrontation. Here are just 12 insights from the book:
No. 1. Successful leaders can understand spreadsheets and various data measures, and they can make tough decisions. However, the really successful leaders know how to pay attention to their gut instincts, passions and creativity. They really give a lot of attention to that. This gives them a wealth of perspective in running a complex organization.
No. 2. Leaders set the standards for values in an organization, and the values are the foundation of behavior.
No. 3. True leadership is not necessarily about having a concrete vision of what the end will look like. It's embracing the process of what a group will go through to get where the group is headed.
No. 4. Great leaders take the complex and make it simple. This gives people a more clear direction and an energizing rallying point. Unnecessary complexity bogs everything down and gets a team nowhere.
No. 5. Culture is the environment. It's the language, values, customs, traditions and beliefs. This is why culture is unique to the organization. If the culture isn't right, effective leaders get people acting differently, they get them producing positive results, and if they keep them doing that long enough, it will trickle down into the lifeblood of the organization and replace the old culture.
No. 6. Start every meeting off with "What good things happened in your area this week?"
No. 7. Make it a primary practice of the leadership team to develop leaders internally. One of the most difficult things is to create a culture where leadership is really crucial.
No. 8. The cost of hiring wrong is huge. Too much effort, time and resources are gobbled up. When new hires have unhealthy attitudes or work habits, eventually they're going to nurture an unhealthy culture, and then blame their managers for it. And rightfully so, because management hired them!
No. 9. The leader has to guard the mission, the culture and the organization.
No. 10. Being crystal clear about expectations is one ingredient to creating a healthy culture. People long for clarity and predictability. Not everyone fits a stated culture, and that's OK.
No. 11. There's no such thing as effective leadership without the ability to confront well. An effective leader is competent at knowing when to confront, why they should confront (or whether to let it pass for now), how to confront and whom to confront.
No. 12. Leaders cannot tolerate discontinuity between what someone says they will do and how they actually perform. If the two don't match up, a leader gets involved.
Kudos to Barna on a book loaded with practical tips for leaders.
Springfield-based consultant Mark Holmes speaks nationally on increasing employee and customer retention and improving employee performance. He is the author of "Wooing Customers Back" and "The People Keeper," and writes a blog at www.managemyemployees.com. He can be reached at mholmes@thepeoplekeeper.com.
