How Great Leaders Build Great Organizations

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As a leader, you don’t have a company without your people. If you want to build a great company, you must put your people first.

If your people are not happy with you, they are not going to invest in you.

If they are not happy with you, they are not going to bring their best selves to work.

And if they are not happy with you, they are not going to be happy with your customers.

Without your customers, your people, as leader, you have nothing.

According to Dave Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich, ‘Employees who are competent but not committed will not perform to their full potential.’

‘Commitment comes from building an employee value proposition that engages employees to use their discretionary energy to pursue organization goals.’

Commitment or engagement grows when we work in a company with a vision, have opportunities to learn and grow, do work that has an impact, receive fair pay for work done, work with people we like working with, and enjoy flexibility in the terms and conditions of work.’

‘Great leaders understand that the search for meaning that builds abundance is grounded in clarity about our truest individual and organizational values and how they align. ‘

‘As a leader, you create a more abundant organization when you help employees clarify their personal identity and enhance their signature strengths and then help them see how those strengths fit with the goals and values of the organization.’

‘Leaders can serve the important function of holding up a metaphorical mirror to help employees see how their behaviors are perceived by others.’

‘Leaders may also help employees ascertain their identity by asking them to complete a time log and analyze the results.’

‘When we act outside of our comfort zone, we may learn hidden strengths we did not know we had.’

As a leader, you might ask your employees to share their perceptions of their strengths, describe times when they demonstrated their strengths, and explore how their strengths might be used to help others (including coworkers and customers).’

As a leader, you meld organization and personal identities by hiring, training, and compensating employees whose personal identity melds with the identity of the organization or its subparts.’

Source:

Dave Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich (2010). The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win.

How To Lead From Within You

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You are a leader. Leadership is not about where you come from, what you have done with your life, or where you are going.

Leadership is about self-care.

To lead other people, you must take care of yourself. You must be there for you, especially when things are not going well for you.

According to Dale Carnegie, ‘The first step toward success is identifying your own leadership strengths.’

Successful leaders today involve employees in all aspects of the work process: design, manufacture, inventory, marketing. Leaders create teams. They don’t issue orders from above. Leaders realize that the employees who actually do the work can actually make decisions.’

‘Treat people like people.’

Motivation can never be forced. People have to want to do a good job.’

‘There’s nothing more effective and rewarding than showing a genuine interest in other people.’

‘Be quick to admit mistakes and slow to criticize. Above all, be constructive.’

‘Step outside yourself to discover what’s important to someone else.’

‘No one can possibly know everything. Listening to others is the single best way to learn.’

‘Team players are the leaders of tomorrow.’

‘The greatest reward a leader can achieve– the greatest legacy a leader can leave- is a group of talented, self-confident, and cooperative people, who are themselves ready to lead.’

Source:

Dale Carnegie (1993). The Leader in You: How to Win Friends, Influence People and Succeed in a Changing World