Seeing the Talents of Effective Leaders

Management Articles | October 9, 2005

An organization of any size, from the family to the department store, the neighborhood grocery store to the largest international corporations, is a reflection of its leadership. And leadership is only as good as its leaders. What is this thing called leader"? What constitutes an unusually good or great leader?

And leadership is only as good as its leaders. What is this thing called leader"? What constitutes an unusually good or great leader?

Professor John Adair, of Surrey University in England, shared his thoughts on the special talents that set a bona fide leader apart.

"Few leaders," he stated in International Management, "do more than merely coordinate efforts. But the most effective leaders create a sense of esprit de corps, a team spirit that makes even the most arduous or the most humdrum work exciting."

The gist of his piece is that the unusual or great leader has great organizational talents. He also has the ability to inspire others to expend much greater efforts than they would have expended had they been left to their own devices. Both are needed in any true definition of leadership.

Now, if you are a manager, supervisor, or employer, take a good, long look at what you're doing at work.

I encourage to evaluate your performance periodically by answering these questions:

How am I leading?
Am I leading effectively?
Do my employees consider me an effective leader?

The answers to these questions are the open doors to where you are and what you have to do to improve your leadership talents. (You may want to take it a step further by having subordinate rate you periodically using these and/or supplementary questions.

However, you can assess your leadership qualities simply by looking at the success of the projects you handle and at the teamwork you have created. Therein lies your answer to your effective leadership.

Remember: When you maximize your potential, everyone wins. When you don't, we all lose.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, Customer Relationship Marketing Consultant, rapidly becoming known as The Master Blog Builder, helps individuals, organizations, and small businesses improve their customer relationship marketing. For more information email him at execandgroup-consulting@yahoo.com or sign up for his free Lesson to Be Learned weekly Tip sheet at www.MasterBlogBuilder.com.