Posted by Verdon Kelliher on 8 December 2009 | 0 Comments
According to a study on leadership from Mercer Consulting, only 36% of employees trust senior management to communicate effectively, and this drops to only 26% amongst employees with more than 15 years' experience. Moreover, only 53% of employees felt their organisation did a good job of keeping employees informed. These statistics are the norm across nearly all industries and these percentages were recorded when the market was great. They can only be worse now.
Leadership during these difficult times has become more critical then ever as it's harder for businesses to be able to afford the cost of replacing good people. More importantly, disenchanted people drag down the morale and productivity of those around them. It's a well-documented fact that the vast majority of people leaving a company, leave because of their relationship with their manager, not because of anything the company may have done.
Good leaders empower those around them. They are trusting, they listen, and possibly most important of all, they are fair. A good leader is someone that encourages free thinking, listens to all ideas, promotes free speech (well, to a point) and is not driven by ego but by the success of the company and those people working in it.
Tim Sanders, the former executive from Yahoo said, “In true leadership situations, listening comes before arm-waving." He couldn’t be more correct. The ability to listen carefully before making a call is vital.
Another quality of good leaders is that they promote leadership in those around them, embracing the concept that you don’t have to be in a leadership role to be a leader. Ralph Nader, the former candidate for the US Presidency, once said, “The job of a leader today is not to create followers. It’s to create more leaders." He’s right. In a tough economy when peoples' backs are against the wall, leaders could be excused for just doing what is needed in the short-term to survive. However, you always need to keep one eye on the long-term prize and achievement of that goal will only come from good all-round leadership skills.
Tags:
leadership,
teams
