How to Be a Top-Notch Leader

"Many believe that leaders naturally rise to the top, while others feel they are developed and groomed. In order to optimize your own career as a leader, you must be a visionary, a trailblazer, a strategist, a communicator, a coach, a diplomat and a politician.  AMA has found that the most successful leaders focus on the big picture as well as operational procedures."

• Communicate your goals to your people. Define your strategy and objectives for your staff. If you aren’t clear where you want to get to, you won’t know it when you get there.

• Set values for your staff to follow. These values should reflect the ethical and interpersonal standards with which you expect your people to abide.

• Create a climate of open communication and trust at all levels. Your executives and managers must feel that they can speak honestly to you-without fear of any consequences. There’s a proverb: "If you think you’re leading and no one is following you, then you’re only taking a walk." Your staff won’t follow you wholeheartedly, if they believe they can’t be up-front with you.

• Project the image of a leader. You don’t have to look like a superhero to be a leader, but you should look and sound credible. You have to appear confident, competent and caring-show that you are sure of yourself, that you know what you want your people to do, that you care about your staff and that others can rely on what you say.

• Listen. Listen for factual and emotional content. Sometimes, you can learn more about what’s really happening through noting body language and tone.

• Focus. Sort out your priorities as well as those of your organization. Think about which issues critical to your operation will demand your personal attention. Assign other areas of importance to those who you trust to handle them well.

• Be decisive. Make decisions as you go along. Do not let them accumulate. A backlog of many little decisions can be harder to deal with than a big and complex one. At the same time, avoid snap decisions. Move fast on the reversible ones. Reflect more on the non-reversible ones.

• Communicate confidence, conviction and enthusiasm. Display unsinkable optimism in the ability of your organization and its people to succeed. You want to demonstrate a commitment to your mission and a belief in your people’s capabilities to achieve it. Root out those with limiting expectations. Provide the resources your people need to achieve mutually agreed-on expectations.

• Motivate staff. You can do this by acknowledging outstanding work. You can also do this by modeling excellence yourself. If you’re not performing at a consistently high level, re-examine your standards. You can’t inspire high performance from others if you don’t set a good example.

• Demonstrate initiative. Don’t waste any opportunity you see. As a leader, you should go out and look for a chance to move your organization or team ahead. When you see an opportunity, you need to take it as far as you can. Don’t stop until you have done everything you can to reap the full benefits.

• Be willing to take reasonable risks. President John F. Kennedy said, "There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."

• Look for trouble. That is, don’t ignore problems. Also encourage your people to resolve problems when they encounter them.

PASS

• Results.  At the end of the season, it's the win-lose record that matters. Results count and records speak. Kelly posted the higher score for the season -- 10-4 vs. 6-8 for Jennifer.
   

• Integrity. Jennifer has consistently demonstrated integrity more often than not, including her refusal to get sucked into many of the numerous mudslinging catfights. She questioned Kelly's integrity in the final boardroom, noting his whispering behind her back vs. speaking with her directly, "like a man."  I give Kelly credit for integrity in his final boardroom. On numerous occasions, he refused to rise to the bait to sling mud. He even went so far as to champion Raj, despite personal issues with him and knowing that Raj had talked about how much he disliked Kelly.
   

• Emotional self-control in the face of high stress.  Both Jennifer and Kelly demonstrated calmness and emotional self-control in the midst of highly stressful situations and factors out of their control. Both candidates demonstrated much higher emotional intelligence levels than their competitors throughout the season.
   

• Direction and order in chaos.  Both candidates demonstrated their leadership ability to effectively provide direction and order for their teams -- even in tough conditions. This is a must for effective leadership.
   

• Conflict resolution skills.  Kelly successfully mediated a conflict between Raj and Elizabeth when Elizabeth waltzed into the polo clubhouse declaring herself "dictator Elizabeth." As you might imagine, this met with resistance. Kelly stepped in and skillfully mediated a truce by helping them to identify their feelings vs. the problem. He motivated Elizabeth to admit to her poor choice of words and asked the team to stop their childish behavior. He reminded them that they each had a specialty and should be deferring to each other.  Current research indicates that many leaders spend 20 percent or more of their time dealing with conflict. Research from Eckert College suggests that the leaders most suitable for promotion are those who demonstrate conflict-resolution skills. There are simple and effective conflict resolution models and skills available to learn and classes on conflict. One book that I recommend is: "Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most" by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen and Roger Fisher.

  FAIL

• Delegate smartly.  Jennifer delegated both the coordination with the NBA and her ambassador role during the event and with Trump. Trump was left unattended and without an invitation to the VIP reception. There are some leadership roles that just should not be delegated. Do you think The Donald wants to be treated as if he is important? Jennifer blew it and could not defend herself in the boardroom.
   

• No inspiration for team.  Raj and Chris' behavior demonstrated that Kelly failed to inspire his team. Neither of them was bought in nor was committed to Kelly or his event. While stuffing 400 sponsor gift bags, Raj told John to throw his trash on the clubhouse floor because "it pisses off Kelly, and it's fun." Kelly's response was to pray for good weather and continue punching into his spreadsheet on the computer. He should have paid more attention to motivating and inspiring his team.
   

• Micromanagement.  Kelly spent too much of his leadership time micromanaging his team. The result was open rebellion from Raj and John. Intelligent, driven professionals do not require micromanagement. Leaders need to determine how much supervision is required of employees, taking into account experience, motivation and capabilities.
   

• Big picture vs. details.  Both candidates fell short here. Jennifer stayed up all night printing signs on the computer, which could have been delegated, but she wasn't visible as the ambassador of her event. Trump didn't appreciate that she didn't kowtow to him during the event. Had Jennifer taken the big picture view, she would have taken the gigantic ego of her potential future boss into account.  Effective leaders balance the helicopter view with the details. The most important person at the event to impress: Trump. Yet when Trump arrived at his event, Kelly suddenly recalled that he had lost track of seating details. It was no doubt an embarrassment for Kelly when he had to show The Donald to dirty and broken seats.
   

• Protect your team.  This counts as a pass for Jennifer -- she sent her team to bed for much-needed sleep while Kelly unnecessarily kept two of his three people up late. John and Raj didn't need to be up listening to the frogs and geese half the night waiting for Kelly. He should have sent them to bed to rejuvenate for the big event.

MAUREEN MORIARTY
SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER