Tuesday, January 13, 2009

24 Lessons in High Performance Leadership

Lesson Twelve
Continue to Grow as a Leader

Right now, I’m extending my arm four to six years into the future and plucking something out to give you. It's the Yellow Pages from the future. For some people, it’s the stock exchange index or Dun and Bradstreet directory. For many, it’s the company organization chart. Is your name listed? In what capacity? Are you surprised at what you see? If you have a sense of urgency about growth and effectiveness as a leader, you and your organization should be in a prominent position. If you don’t, chances are good that there won’t be a trace of you left. Your attitude, shaped by your sense of urgency, will be largely responsible for producing the results you want.

Do you have room to grow? What are your team members saying about you at home to their spouses and children? You're not a topic of conversation––you're the topic of conversation. When someone comes to work for you, he or she is essentially saying, “I trust you and this organization to do right by me and my family.” That is a heavy responsibility. If that person wastes a year or two of his or her life, that time will never be recovered. People’s lives should be enhanced and opportunities should abound for them and their families because they had the good sense to come to work for you. The lives of your employees should be better because they had the good sense to come to work for you. Your effectiveness as a leader affects people’s lives.

A strong desire to do the right thing, beginning with ourselves and permeating every personal and professional relationship we have, marks our commitment to excellence. A healthy discontent for the way things are should make it slightly uncomfortable to sit back and coast. When Walt Disney told his people not to rest on their laurels, it was because he was a leader who understood the consequences of complacency. We should certainly feel pride and a sense of accomplishment when we do a job well, but we must constantly look for new directions and ways to improve and to continue to grow in new directions.

Walt Disney illustrated the need to constantly scan the horizon for growth opportunities when he resisted his advisers’ urging to produce a sequel to the enormously successful Three Little Pigs. They pressured him and he reluctantly agreed. After the sequel (The Big Bad Wolf) turned out to be a box office bust, Disney called his advisers together and announced a new law that is heard around the Disney organization to this very day: "You can’t top pigs with pigs.”

Invest some time and energy in developing the following three important leadership characteristics:

Develop a sense of urgency: How can you grow as a leader? How can you be more effective––now?

Develop a healthy discontent with the way things are: What could you and your people be doing better? How?

Develop an appreciation for the awesome responsibilities of leadership: Think about how you affect your employees, both at work and in their lives beyond work.

"An organization will never rise above the quality of its leadership."

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