Leadership - Support
Support
Strong support
Anyone in a managerial position is only as good as the people who are working for him or her.
This applies equally to strong leaders.
For you to fulfil your goals you will need strong help.
Without it you won’t be able to function as effectively as you can.
You will not reach your own potential as a leader.
Recruitment strategy
Your aim is to strengthen your own position as a leader by the development of your staff as leaders in their own right.
This will engender respect, trust and generate influence and you will gain a loyal following.
However, eventually they will move on as part of their own self development.
This is quite natural and you will want to replace them.
When you do this try to bring in even stronger leaders.
Removal of leaders
When you join a new company or organisation you will evaluate the vision that you are trying to achieve and you will assess the ability of the available leaders to help you get there.
You may well need to replace some of them.
Use a simple game plan.
Categorise those you wish to replace into a few levels A, B and C, where A is best.
In this situation, remove those at level C and replace them with better leaders.
Then remove those at level B and replace them with better leaders and finally remove and replace those at level A.
Naturally, the very best leaders you will have retained.
No superheroes
While it sounds nice that somewhere there is a being that can come in and solve all the problems - they do not exist.
Yes a very good leader can make all the difference but he or she will need a high calibre team to achieve their vision of the future.
Inner development
If possible try to develop the leadership potential of those in your team to fill the roles you need. This may not always be possible:
The pool of talent may not have the desire or potential.
There may not be enough time.
When you try to develop people in leadership skills many will be very responsive, others are just not bothered, and others can not adjust to it no matter how hard you try.
Lead and look
If a leader can not motivate himself to achieve then he or she has no chance of getting the potential out of others.
He or she should always be aware of potential leaders within his or her midst.
Develop these and motivation and success levels go up [see The Complete Motivation package].
Once these aspects are in place group morale increases accordingly.
A key aspect in looking for potential leaders is if they also have the ability to recognise and encourage possible leaders.
Another key feature is the ability to delegate.