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January 2012
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Leadership Excellence
Content by Pat Williams, Sr. VP Orlando Magic
Written by Janet Watson - Director Firm Development Nperspective
Recently I was fortunate to participate in an event that featured Pat Williams, the Sr. VP for the Orlando Magic and renowned author and speaker, where he presented his Seven Principles of Leadership Excellence. What an outstanding opportunity to hear a dynamic and motivational speaker. I spent some time both during and after the presentation thinking about some of the people I have worked with and for and myself to evaluate how we measure up to these qualities and where there are opportunities for improvement. Everything that Pat shared resonated with me and when I asked if I could share these ideas within our Nperspective newsletter, Pat gladly gave permission in exchange for letting you know that his latest book "Leadership Excellence: The Seven Sides of Leadership for the 21st Century" by Pat and contributions by Jim Denney is being released by Barbara Books next month, Feb. 12, 2012. I have a couple of his books and they are well written and inspiring. Please consider purchasing this next one.
Pat has spent a lifetime as a student of great leaders, trying to capture what makes them great and taking those things that will help him and others that he impacts become great leaders themselves. Here is what he considers the "seven qualities that all great leaders possess." Additionally, you must have all seven to be great; the best part for everyone reading this is that they are all implementable immediately!
1. Vision - this is the heart and soul, it is what creates the future. Great leaders are able to see both more than others and beyond what others see - this helps them create goals
a. Having a vision requires you to begin with the end in mind and causes three critical things to happen: - Keeps you focused
- Keeps you fueled (the creation of passion, energy and enthusiasm)
- Helps you finish
2. Communication - the ability to communicate the vision above
a. You must believe philosophically that this vision is important
b. You must be able to communicate this vision using the three C's:
- Clearly, Concisely, Correctly
c. You must be able to communicate this vision with optimism
- Perpetual optimism is a force maximizer
- Optimism creates hope
- Optimism motivates and inspires
- Being a motivating leader can be tricky - the key is to figure out what each person's motive is -know what buttons to push - once you know what motivates people you can inspire them
- The ability to communicate in front of people is critical, to improve in this area consider hiring a speech coach, joining Toastmasters, the National Speakers Bureau, etc.
- Great communicators use stories, so start saving and creating new stories from your experiences
3. People skills - become sincerely interested in other people
a. Make sure you remember to be visible and available (this is the ultimate skill). There is a tendency that as one climbs higher in an organization, the less available they become and leaders can then start to lose their excellence in leadership
b. Listening - listen and silent are made up from the same letters - asking questions and listening is how you learn. The two key questions area:
- What do you think?
- How would you make the call on this one?
c. Empowering people
- Send hand written notes
- Use words that will never be forgotten (remember your tone of voice), however be careful not to overdo this one and sounding/becoming insincere
d. Delegating - this helps create the next generation of leaders. Remember success without successors is not success - it is the foam on the beach. Consider leadership training programs to help with this creation.
4. Character counts - you can only go as high on the leadership level as your character allows - live these qualities:
- Honesty all of the time
- Integrity - walk and talk need to match
- Responsibility/accountability
- Influence - above all how do you handle a crisis
- Humility - having a humble spirit
5. Competence - you must be good at what you do:
a. Solving problems - when people stop bringing their problems to you, you're no longer leading them
b. Be a salesman - never stop selling your vision
c. Teaching - you need to be committed to being a lifelong learner and a lifelong teacher
- Continue your formal education
- Hang out with really smart people
- Take advantage of everything that happens in life - fight through your fears
- Be a lifelong reader - your brain needs exercise. Pat's challenge is to read for an hour a day for the rest of your life (novels, periodicals, newspapers don't count)
6. Boldness - make decisions and don't look back 7. Have a Serving Heart - become one of those leaders that people never forget, this needs to become a part of your life.
I hope you not only enjoyed this article, but you are ready to make a personal commitment to become a great leader that inspires those around you.
Nperspective's team has a proven track record of helping entrepreneurial companies succeed. Contact any of our CFO partners for additional information. We can provide a free consultation to discuss ways we can help your company focus upon growth opportunities as the economy recovers. Please contact Janet Watson at (813) 317-3460 or [email protected]. |
| Did You Know? |
Did you know that Nperspective recently helped a client start using a proper job costing system for their clients. The resulting analysis identified the fact that the company made NO profit from one of their largest revenue customers last year. They have immediately begun both the analysis of customer pricing historically and for the future to ensure that the business is profitable and grows versus a lot of work for
no profit!
Contact Janet Watson for more information.
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Nperspective, LLC provides interim, part-time, and project CFO and Controller services using a flexible engagement model that is dependent on our clients' unique business needs. Our partners are seasoned CFOs who focus on rolling up their sleeves, are accommodating to client needs and helping create significant value from within their finance organizations.
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