To succeed in the future, organizations and leaders must grow and change at least as fast as the world around them changes. The most important change for leaders is their view and understanding of the role of people.
During most of the 20th century, people were seen as cogs or moving parts in a great machine. Organizations wanted workers who could do simple, repetitive tasks as efficiently and quickly as possible. Leaders were the “head” and workers were the “hands.” To achieve this dynamic, the best form of leadership was a command- and-control process. The leader was responsible for all the creativity, thinking, and decision-making. The workers were expected to simply follow the orders of the leader in a robotic fashion.
In today’s information economy, to prosper and even survive, an organization must tap into the creativity, imagination, and decision-making capabilities of every employee. This means that the people you employ – along with the information, knowledge, and skills they possess – are the most important resource in your organization. Consequently, the very nature of leadership has radically changed. Leaders must lead with one purpose in mind: to achieve increasingly positive results from the efforts of their team members. Highly effective leaders see the qualities of passion, trust, commitment, and loyalty as essential for improving results in their organization. Imagine the power of an organization where every team member has white-hot passion, unwavering trust, total commitment, and enduring loyalty! These qualities are developed in team members as a response to specific values held by their leader.
Truly effective leaders also understand that no leader can convince team members to become something the leader is not. The old expression, “Do as I say, not as I do” carries no weight in a work environment that strives to motivate team members.
Leaders who want passion, trust, commitment, and loyalty from team members must first develop these values in themselves. Effective leaders understand that purpose is the ignition to passion, integrity is a prerequisite for trust, service to others generates commitment to the leader and the organization, and stewardship ensures that team members develop their potential, which fosters loyalty. To ignite passion, trust, commitment, and loyalty, highly effective leaders base their leadership on a foundation of four cornerstone values: purpose, integrity, service, and stewardship.
Purpose. Purpose provides the “why.” Your purpose is why you are doing what you are doing. When you know why a person is doing something, it enables you to understand that person’s intentions, motives, and priorities. People don’t work just to have something to do, they want to make a difference, and they want to contribute to something they believe in and are passionate about. Only a noble, worthy purpose will fan the flame of passion.
Integrity. Leaders are required to be individuals worthy of trust and genuine respect among those they lead. Leaders at every level cannot expect followers to grow and develop unless they are willing to improve themselves. Leaders must first learn and master personal leadership – leading themselves – before they can truly master leading others. The root of the word “integrity” is an integer – which means a complete, whole, indivisible number. Leaders with integrity live complete, whole, well-balanced lives. All great leaders display personal integrity by being dedicated to the pursuit of significant goals in all areas of life – not just goals for the organization. Numerous studies have shown that team members consistently regard integrity and honesty as the most important qualities of effective leaders. Leaders with integrity display consistent thoughts and actions; their words and deeds do not contradict each other. Team members want to know that their leaders will do what they say they are going to do and that they will keep their commitments.
Service. Highly effective leaders succeed because they desire to be of service. With today’s global business climate shifting away from the production of goods toward a knowledge and service orientation, leaders who respond to challenges with a commitment to service empower their organizations to grow and prosper. Organizations now recognize that customer loyalty is vital for ongoing success. To achieve this loyalty, businesses must offer the highest quality products and services and be responsive to customer needs. Leaders must also give the same consideration to team members to earn their loyalty. An attitude of service must start with the leader. When top leaders demonstrate that they genuinely care about the people they lead, their team members will respond in the same manner. The result: team members who want to be of service to customers and customers, who in turn, will continue to buy your product or service. Both customers and team members will go where they feel welcome and stay where they are valued and appreciated.
Stewardship. Leaders who are committed to service develop a strong sense of responsibility, or stewardship, over the resources and assets they have in their charge. A steward places emphasis not just on the financial assets, but also on the invaluable, intangible assets of an organization. The collective talent of team members is recognized as the core resource of any company or organization. True stewardship acknowledges human potential as the organization’s most important asset. In organizations that fail, effective stewardship has been the Achilles’ heel of management. Some leaders are simply unable to sacrifice their own needs and desires for those of their team, even if that sacrifice would be for the good of the group. Short-term pressures easily crowd out long-term concerns for developing people and their talents. The inevitable result of this short-sighted approach is that you will have team members who feel unappreciated and unwanted, and who fail to deliver their maximum contribution to the organization. Successful leaders believe stewardship is a vital, permanent part of their management effort. This is because they see their team members as repositories of human potential. As stewards of this incredible untapped potential, highly effective leaders feel an ongoing responsibility to help team members grow and develop in all areas of life. An organization can grow only if its people grow. Great leaders can mold a partnership that enables all team members to dream great dreams, make noble plans, and daily pursue those plans together.
Leading an organization and embracing these core values daily is not easy. It takes clear focus, unwavering commitment, and supreme self-confidence. Most failings of leadership are a direct result of a leader’s lack of clear and consistent values. A strong value system forms the foundation of a positive self-image.