As we’ve all learned, most of life’s lessons don’t travel in a neat formation accompanied by bugles and cavalry. They arrive filthy and unkempt, prominent in the mess we’ve made around our foxhole. These lessons are typically the offspring of hubris, naivete and ignorance … or from overlooking the land mines hidden beneath our feet.
Every Tuesday, we’ll share valuable and practical leadership tips and tools to help you BE a better leader so you can BECOME a better leader. Remember … you won’t become a better leader until you start being a better leader … implementing NOW the changes necessary to adopt the proven strategies of successful leaders.
A young friend of mine called me recently and said he was being considered for the CEO position of his young but growing company. He was elated, so excited, so thrilled to be considered …. until the “be careful what you wish for” axiom popped into his head and he realized he was pretty inexperienced in leading an organization of any size.
We went on to talk about his concerns and as he began to think about his candidacy, it dawned on him that he had a very limited finance background … he didn’t think much about communication … could be a better team player … and while he was proud that his strategic perspective caught the Board of Director’s attention, he wasn’t sure how to get everyone on the same page to actually implement it, since he tends to work tactically without looking to see if anyone is following him.
An April, 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review, The New Path To the C-Suite (subscription or purchase required for the full article), confirmed yet again that the functional and technical skills that lead people to the C-Suite are NOT what is required for promotion or success. Rather, it is the softer skills … leadership, communication and collaboration that differentiate the successful business leader
We recently kicked off our Nothing but Leadership series, but we’ve already published a lot of valuable leadership material, including our recent R.E.S.P.E.C.T series, How to Get Respect by Earning It. You can’t start soon enough to hone these skills so they’re battle-tested and baked into your conduct and performance. If you’re a lifelong learner, some of these tools and techniques may be familiar to you. If you’re not, start now to devote some time to reaching beyond your comfort zone to equip yourself to be the best leader possible.
Another step you can take to develop your leadership skills, and take advantage of the experience and expertise of more seasoned executives, is to work with an executive coach. Why Everybody Needs a Coach outlines some of the reasons this might work for you, and how that process has been so valuable for so many other professionals.
It’s another way to expand your portfolio and start to work “on your business” instead of only “in your business”, to step back and devote some quality time to rounding out your skill set by focusing on proven tools and concepts that have been successfully deployed by other successful leaders.
Here’s a good place to start developing your awareness of what it takes to BE a better leader.
Consider the notion that “LEADERSHIP = COMMUNICATION“, a perspective embraced by many business leaders.
While a simple formula can’t capture all of the elements of leadership, this is certainly the right place to start … because there’s not a single leader who believes that he or she couldn’t improve their communication skills. They are an irreplaceable tool of top leaders, who constantly struggle to devote enough bandwidth to communicate with all of the constituents serving your organization.
Try this … even for one day. Look at everything you deal with through the lens of LEADERSHIP = COMMUNICATION. Are you taking the time to communicate effectively? Are you certain everyone is clear about what you’ve communicated? How can you do it better?
I’m going to give you a head start on this approach, and provide a simple checklist of communication objectives just below. In One Simple Tool to Overcome Brain Freeze, I’ve written about the simple but invaluable process of using checklists to make sure you don’t overlook seemingly minor but critical steps in any process.
Start with this matrix and create a Communication Action Plan relevant to your specific business. If nothing else, this process will give you a road map to make sure you’re touching base with people across the organization from varied constituencies … not when you have to for a specific assignment … but when you should be sharing … learn … building your network … being aware of what others are doing.
Communication is the cornerstone of successful leadership. Like me, you’ve already learned the hard way that it’s one thing to be the generator of great ideas to move your company forward. It’s quite another to communicate those ideas, lead people in the execution of the strategy and achieve the level of accountability in the organization to make sure everything gets done. Your ability, clearly and in simple terms, to articulate the vision, mission and goals of your organization is absolutely essential to your success.
You can get started using this simple communication matrix. Create a Communication Action Plan by deciding the What, Who, When and How of a robust and relentless communication program. Make sure to get all of the action items on your calendar so they don’t get left out in the maelstrom of your day.
Are you a lifelong learner? How much time are you spending on the “softer skills” of becoming a great leader? Can you improve your communication quotient just by living this concept, LEADERSHIP = COMMUNICATION?
Welcome to Exkalibur. I’m Lary Kirchenbauer, President of Exkalibur Advisors, Inc. Please take advantage of our resources to help you build your business ... and let me know what more we can do to serve you.
Read my latest column from the NY Times affiliate, the North Bay Business Journal.
Lary has a remarkable ability to provide a clear and thoughtful analysis of the business drivers and potential outcomes facing private companies at each stage of development. His insight has provided a powerful framework for decision-making in many challenging situations.
Noah J. Rosenkrantz, CEO, GreenLine Systems
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[...] necessary to adopt the proven strategies of successful leaders. Start by taking a look at our communication matrix to make sure you’re working at improving your communication [...]