Build strong business relationships... the right way

It is imperative for a leader to build and continue to strengthen true relationships with other business units.

Time and again, people adopt quick and easy relationship strategies based on unfair sacrifices of scape goats. Such strategies are really short lived, and they foster finger pointing versus ownership and responsibility. Easy scape goats happen to be people that we lead! We must build bridges without blowing away the foundation that supports us.

A true leader is one who has the ability to gather support and build these relationships the right way - based on empathy and real interest for collective success.

Trust your lieutenants

As an upper level leader of an organization, our role is more strategic in nature. This separates us by one or more levels from our organizational members who do the day to day work. Our effectiveness in such a separated leadership role primarily hinges on our ability to bring the right lieutenants. We must spend adequate time in identifying and on-boarding these qualified lieutenants. Once they are on board, we need to trust their abilities and give them the opportunity, and needed support to succeed. We could establish an internal review process, but we must support their decisions (100%) in the larger organizational and public setting.

Take stock before you order

We sometimes enter new organizations as leaders, to improve them. In such cases, we must remember that all organizations have their good and bad performers. Lotus, a very beautiful flower, grows in muddy dirty waters. But, it does not show any trace of the mud/dirt. So, it is possible to have good talent in not so good places. The effectiveness of identifying good performers is the mark of great leadership. It is a much better strategy to retain good performers and provide them an environment to succeed than ignore them and substitute them with good performers from the outside.

The importance of goals

One of the most important aspects of a leader is to set clear goals for their organization and themselves, and set the tone for that to cascade through the organization. Goals are the ultimate result we want to achieve. These goals must be few to be manageable. Every action we take must be evaluated and modified/refined to ensure that it helps us achieve one of our goals. In doing so, our goals will be truly used as guiding lights - as they must be. Each goal could have interim concrete milestones - annual/quarterly/monthly/weekly. The frequency of these depend on how one is willing to check their progress. I am a proponent of just using weekly milestones. Just like goals, milestones are not tasks, but they are the results of tasks.

Positive conflict resolution

As leaders, we face conflicts among members of our group; between members of our group and members of other groups; or between us and others. It is relatively easier to resolve conflicts where we are not a party - because we can provide the objective view of an outsider in those conflicts. When we are involved, we need to step back, and separate us from the conflict to see it objectively. We must list out the facts and write out the solutions for each. Solutions must focus heavily on what we can do vs. what others can do. Present these solutions to the parties involved and get consensus on the direction. A lot of times, we will be able to influence others to volunteer their actions by focusing on ours. For this, it is very important to focus on what to do and never express emotions.

Positive is NOT passive

Passive in this context can either be considered (a)inactive, or (b)receiving, enduring, or submitting without resistance. This is a negative posture that will not produce results. There is a tendency to misunderstand a positive approach to mean passive. Here are the highlights of a positive approach that differentiates it from passive:

• A positive approach is based on determination to resolve difficult situations, not shy away from them
• A positive approach is marked with persistence, which is not laid back
• A positive approach involves continuous improvement
• A positive approach could involve elimination of unproductive resources/relationships
• A positive approach drives business decisions from the mind, not the heart
• A positive approach is to achieve financial goals for business

Being positive is to achieve success through productive collaboration

Swallow dissatisfaction with a smile

A busy life has the potential to generate dissatisfaction from family, social and work situations. As social bodies, we may tend to share this pain verbally, physically or emotionally with the group around us. Such spreading of pain could, at best, provide temporary relief through camaraderie. It is of prime importance for a manager to keep their team happy and upbeat, in order to get work done. This is even more important when we as managers are feeling down, because we need as much positive results as possible to lift us back up. By getting our team and others around us all upset, we will only bring more problems to us at a time when we are not in a position to resolve them. So, it is best for us to keep our problems to ourselves by swallowing it quickly...with a smile.