As a leader or potential leader your achievement is ultimately judged on the basis of work done and results achieved, whether for yourself or your team members.

The ‘Golden Circle’ approach.
Start with the WHY and the WHAT before proceeding to the HOW
Why?
To achieve success in what ever we do, there will often be times that you need to do things that you either do not like to do or things that takes time and effort to accomplish. If you do not know the true WHY you are doing it, you will lack the motivation to persist and get it done and your success will never be complete. The true WHY that provide you with that motivation and the meaning in what you are achieving should never just be about money, your status, your job responsibility - that is about YOU and it means SELFISH - Selfish in itself is a negative and it is the simple principle in life that will tell you that you cannot achieve anything positive like success out of a negative like selfish. The true Why is never about YOU it is always about others – that is SELFLESS – It is this selflessness that lend positivity which in turn will provide you with the strength, motivation and meaning to drive and commit you to do the things that you may not like or take too much time and effort to accomplish. The beauty about selflessness is while it allows you to help others, it support your success at the same time.

What?
When you know clearly WHAT it is that you are trying to achieve, you can use it to direct you and allow you to measure your own success and that way you need not be dependant on others to endorse or recognise or appreciate what you do. Since you have little control over what others think or do, you will more often than not be frustrated and that will take away the motivation that will allow you to do what you have to do.

How?
In today’s global, 24-7 environment, time is a precious commodity. Diverse workforces, lean teams and multi-skilled people characterize the workplace.
In this environment, it is essential for an effective leader to get things done in the right way, at the right time and by the right people.

So now you know – let go ahead and find out how to lead …
.how to get things done and how to cultivate it into an art form that will make

In any team sport, a lot of time is spent choosing the players who will play in each game. This holds true for business as well. Leaders need to select the right people for the right jobs, and they need to assign them tasks that fit with their skills and proficiency. To do that leaders need to understand the game that has to be played and the skills and abilities that are required to play it.
You then have to place the correct player in the correct position.

The 4-Step’ BALM’ Method
Break-down the broader team goals into specific, individual tasks. List all tasks, and then rank each task in terms of importance:
Analyze and list the competencies required to perform each task
List the competencies of each team member
Match individuals to task competencies.

Where you have overlaps, you have two choices: either allot better qualified individuals to more important tasks, or allocate the task to the person at the lowest organizational level who is qualified to perform it.
Where you have a gap, you may need to train existing team members or recruit new ones to fill in the gap. Often, training is the best option. Simply because you know more about the individual’s talents and working methods. Recruitment often takes a very long time. It is also risky. As it is possible for candidates to cover up failings that only become obvious once they have been in a role for several months.

Each team member should know his or her position within the team. The roles of each person should be clearly defined, with individual responsibilities, authority and accountability clearly spelled out.
No member of your team should be thinking
What are we here for?
What are we supposed to do?
What part can I play?

Goals help team members prioritize, show them where to direct effort, keep them alert and stop them from sliding into complacency. They also help your people find security in their own achievement. After all, if they’ve met the goals you’ve assigned to them, they can be proud of their achievement and contribution to the team. This pride in themselves helps them measure forward progress and develop self-confidence.

Use the SMART PRINCIPLES TO SET GOALS FOR YOUR PEOPLE. Under this strategy, a goal should be:

S Specific, Simple, Sensible, Significant
M Manageable, Measurable, Meaningful
A Agreed, Attainable, Acceptable, Accountable
R Realistic, Relevant, Rewarding, Reasonable
T Timebound, Tangible, Timely, Truthful

Again using the sporting analogy, to win the tournament, your team initially has to win the first game to qualify for the second round and then it must win the next game and so on. Each win takes you closer to your final goal. To win through, you must specify short-term as well as long-term objectives. Many people prefer to concentrate and focus their energies on the job at hand rather than look far beyond the horizon.

In setting goals, you are laying down deadlines and targets for people. Many people work well under the pressure of deadlines and approaching targets. It’s your job as a leader to use this tendency to your advantage by formulating reasonable targets and time schedules for people to follow.

Of course, your team members might have a different idea about what is reasonable and realistic than you do. But people often tend to underestimate themselves. Remember the teachers who pushed you in school? You might not have liked them, but they are the ones you remember the most.

So, if you honestly think that your people are capable of performing better, set stretch goals. It might make you temporarily unpopular, but in the long run, it will be well worth it. Not only will you achieve better results, but your team members’ self-confidence will improve as they realize their potential.

Path-Goal Theory
It is also important for people to know exactly the standard of work and conduct expected from them. At the outset, you have to clearly express the quality of work you expect so your team members can respond accordingly.

Research reveals that many employees only put in between 50% to 70% of their best efforts – enough to get by and get paid, but little more. However, what you’re after is 100% commitment and effort from your team, and the excellent results that come with this.

This however, is the fun side of getting best results. However, the other side of your role as leader is making sure that standards are maintained and that people are making their fair best effort. This is where you need to show ‘tough love’, correcting people when they go astray and resisting when they ‘test the boundaries.’

There are 2 key areas where you need to show this tough love…

- Articulating Expectations:
Sports coaches continually push their team members to put in 100% effort, be it at practice session, a one-off game or a big tournament. If teams are to perform at their best on the big day, they have to work as hard as they can during training.
This is just as true in business as it is in sport. For your team and its members to shine, they need to give their best efforts every day. And it’s your job as the leader, to articulate this expectation.

- Maintaining Rules & Regulations;
Every organization is bound by certain rules. These rules are often arrived at with much argument and through much painful learning by the organization. They are necessary to keep the workplace safe, pleasant and efficient, to hold the organization together and to make sure that customers are being served as they should be.
However, employees may not have the big picture of why the rules are necessary, and they may perceive them as irritating or unnecessary without really considering their value. This is where people can ignore rules or blank them out of their minds.
Often, all you need to do to ‘enforce’ rules and regulations is calmly explain their purpose and why the organization needs them. (If you cannot identify this, then you either need to find out or formally raise the rule as needing review)
If you enforce rules early enough, before a pattern of breaching them becomes established, then this is often enough.
Only if the team member continues to challenge rules do you normally need to take more intense action.

- Tips
Don’t get stressed about people testing boundaries (as long as it’s not too serious). And don’t take it personally if they do
Anyone who’s been a parent of even the most delightful young child knows that boundary testing is just what they do. Be testing rules and assumptions, children learn what’s good and what’s bad. And, looking at it positively, it’s part of how they learn about the world and expand their abilities.
Obviously, adults are more sophisticated than children. However, unless they’re actively maintained, standards do slip. And as a leader, it’s your job to maintain them.

Communication is a vital tool

Communicate, Connect, Accomplish

Not only does regular communication from you help to give your team members the ‘big picture’ they need to make good tactical decisions, it can also give them the comfort and security of knowing what’s going on around them, and it builds trust, as they see what you’re doing within the wider organization after their interests.

From the other perspective, if your team members feel safe to share information with you (even if news is bad), you become much more attuned to the reality of what’s going on with the team and its customers. This means you can react quickly to circumstances, solving problems while they are still easily manageable.

And if communication between you and your team members is frequent, open and honest, they can learn to give you what you want, just as you can learn what will motivate and reward them as individuals.

Now, we list some of the principles that will help you harness communication as an aid in building a potent and vibrant team. Practice these principles

Keep Open Lines of Communication
How many times do you tell your subordinates, employees or team members: “I will keep you in the loop” (or some such promise)? If your answer is:
Often – It’s a positive indicator that implies you intend to keep communication channels open. On the flip side, mentioning it implies it is not a usual practice and that this communication is something of an exception.
Rarely – Is it that they are always “in the loop” so you do not use this line? Or is it that you rarely communicate?

Whatever your answer, you need to ponder the issue and tackle it honestly. If you are to be an effective leader, then you need to communicate often with your team, and team members need to feel that they can communicate easily with you. Besides, open communication creates a vibrant environment where people are charged with ideas and express their inputs vigorously. You therefore have to do the following:
Look for any breaks in communication and put necessary links in place so people do not feel like they are out of the loop.
Take regular feedback. Find out what kind of information people seek and ensure that they receive it.
Watch out for too much information, lest your workers get swamped with information overload.
When on the receiving end, be careful not to get upset when you receive bad news (i.e., do not “shoot the messenger”). Focus instead on information gathering and problem-solving.
Quite naturally, your team members will be watching you as the news is delivered, because to them, your response is a useful guide as to the seriousness of the situation. If they see their leader upset, panic-stricken or out of control, it’s bad for morale.
More subtly, if you respond negatively, you will discourage people from giving you bad news in the future, thus closing down communication links.
The age-old principle of tapping the ‘gossip grapevine’ holds good and can also yield good results. Use it to garner the general view and opinions people have but are unwilling to openly discuss. But be cautious—while the grapevine can yield excellent advance information, it can also be wildly inaccurate.

Communicate for Action
In the military, any communication (radio, print or verbal) from the leader is considered an order and is instantly obeyed by the subordinates. Military leaders are accordingly trained to deliver brief and concise orders that can be clearly understood and followed by the troops. People are trained to obey, and the consequences of not obeying can be extreme. Moreover, when joining the military, people know that this is what to expect and are, to some extent, “signed up” to the approach.

In the world outside the military, little of this holds true, particularly in buoyant economies or growth industries, where good talent is in high demand. Here, if a leader were to use a military approach to order giving, team members would quickly leave.

Leaders outside the military must use a different and more tactful approach. They must call upon options ranging from simple requests to tacit orders to get things done. These approaches are shown in the “Request Tool”:

Ask Politely
In most situations, a polite request is more likely to get the work done than a rude or arrogant demand.
For example: “I want this job done! or I don’t know how you do it!” or “Do this by 0900 hours tomorrow morning!” are anything but polite requests.
Rather, a polite request will be more likely to yield the results you desire. Such a request may include something along the lines of “Would it be possible to get this job done?” or “Are you able to get this job done by nine o’clock tomorrow morning?”
Both of these requests would be more effective than the previously mentioned demands, because neither implies a status gap. Moreover, such a polite request shows that you place a level of trust in your subordinate.

Ask Confidently
A confident request suggests authority, whereas a lack of confidence gives the impression that the request is not worthy or legitimate. A meek, halfhearted or wheedling request communicates a certain element of doubt as to whether the subordinates will comply, and therefore it reduces the likelihood of compliance.
Remember that if people you manage are being paid to perform their jobs, they are being paid to do what you ask. They are exchanging their labor and obedience for money. As such, you have the legitimate right to allocate work to them fairly, and they have the duty to do it willingly. This is where you can ask for things to be done with total self-confidence.

Ask Clearly
Make requests in a clear, brief and concise manner, using language that subordinates can understand. If instructions are lengthy or complex, it may be a good idea to put them down in writing.

Make Legitimate Requests
Requests should be consistent with the existing rules and policies of the company and should be in line with what is in the employee’s contract of employment or job description.
While it’s fair to expect some flexibility from the employee, it’s not fair to ask too much without renegotiating his or her terms of employment. (If an employee feels exploited, you can be sure that he or she will eventually look for work elsewhere.)

Request with Reasoning (When Necessary)
At times, an unusual request may get the employee wondering, “Why do I have to do this” or “What a funny thing to do!”
If you think this is the case, it’s usually best to give the reason or rationale behind the request. Not only does this make the request seem fair, reasonable and legitimate, but it also gives the employee the context he or she needs to make good decisions while performing the task.

Follow Established Channels
You should, as far as possible, maintain the proper channels of authority and command.
Bypassing channels causes confusion as it disrupts agreed work patterns and disempowers other leaders within your organization who will necessarily want to re-establish their authority. Bypassing established channels is a great way of starting a “turf war”!

Exercise Authority Regularly
The regular exercise of authority creates a system whereby subordinates learn to make time for and follow your requests and to work under your authority.

Start with Common and Acceptable Requests
If you have taken over a new team or have unclear and ambiguous authority, it is best to start with the most acceptable and common requests that are normally made. Thereafter, you may slowly raise the scope of what you ask.

Insist on Compliance, and Check that Work Has Been Done
Non-compliance by a subordinate undermines your authority as a leader. Particularly when starting to work with someone new, make sure your requests have been complied with.
When you find that something hasn’t been done, you’ll want a good explanation, and you’ll want to know why this issue wasn’t referred back to you.
A good way of managing this situation is to have a list of work you’ve delegated and to run through the list with your team member on a routine basis. If you set it up so that the work on the list is due for completion by the next meeting, you will motivate your team member to complete the work before the meeting—no-one wants to be seen as a failure in meeting their objectives.

Show Concern & Patience
Sometimes you may have to be patient with a team member while he or she learns to work with you. During this time, it is important for you to stay calm and to win over his or her confidence in you as a leader.
However, if someone continually fails to meet targets, you then have to take appropriate action. Any less may undermine your credibility with people around you in your organization.

Advances in information and communication technologies have ushered in revolutionary changes in the workplace and in the way we communicate and conduct business. As a leader, you must be technology-savvy and you must exploit available technology to work smartly and efficiently.

Reductions in international communication costs and Internet tools make it extremely easy to stay in constant touch with distant / remote employees through email, chat, Voice Over IP, use of cell phones, etc.

These are now flexible enough for you to use to develop a good rapport with team members, in some cases without even meeting them.

While some people still feel uneasy working with someone they haven’t “looked them in the eye,” others are now successfully working with people they’ve never met before (or even spoken with).

As a leader, use all appropriate technologies to keep in touch with and be available to your team. Bear in mind the value of meeting people face-to-face, but also take advantage of technology where you can.

For all of the virtues of avoiding micromanagement, it’s easy to take this too far. If you’re not careful, by leaving team members to get on with things without your interference, you can appear aloof and out of touch with what’s going on “in the trenches.”

It is important to express your support and involvement to your team members. Follow these guidelines to do so:

Provide feedback. The how-to of this strategy is discussed in detail in the next module. When someone does something that pleases you, make sure they know about it, but don’t patronize them. Rather, compliment them as one adult to another.

Make it a point to meet your team members in action (i.e., ‘Catch them working’—whether they are in the same office or a different office located in another city). They will appreciate your effort.

‘Appreciate your people in public and criticize them in private.’ Make it a rule of thumb never to criticize them in the presence of their colleagues or subordinates.
Talk to them about the issues they’re experiencing and any frustrations they have with the work. Do what you can to remove barriers and help them work as effectively and productively as possible.

Show interest in team members’ professional growth and spend time advising them on career-related issues. Help them grow their professional skills, and send them to formal training courses when appropriate (more on this in the next module.)

Occasionally, it can be a good idea to ask people about their personal lives. This line of questioning reflects that you see them as individuals, not work units.

Many initiatives fail for lack of “follow through.” Perhaps the leader’s attention shifts onto another issue once decisions have been made, perhaps urgent fire- fighting displaces important strategic activity, or perhaps leaders just assume that once they’ve given out instructions, the work will get done.
Whatever happens, if you do not devote time and attention to making sure change actually happens, the chances are that nothing will change.
To lead effectively, you must ensure that your instructions have been complied with and properly followed through. A few tips to help you do this include:

Exploit feedback loops to motivate employees.
‘Raise your Antennae!’ If you continue talking to people and keep your eyes and ears open, you will most likely receive plenty of feedback. Casual, friendly chats “around the water cooler” can give you valuable feedback.
Hold routine, pre-booked update meetings with team members to review progress and to deal with any issues that have come up. If all’s going well, and you hold them frequently, quite short meetings will keep projects on course and people happy. What’s more, these brief team sessions provide an ideal opportunity for coaching and giving and taking feedback. Make sure you have frequent, consistent, properly targeted appraisals. Doing so gives you the opportunity to focus on the employee, to agree to goals and objectives, to discuss the behaviors you want and to monitor achievement of previously set goals.

Use rewards and punishments, but use them carefully.
Often, you do not have the budget to offer big rewards. And particularly in the workplace, punishment needs to be used very sensitively if it is not to be intensely demotivating and counter-productive.

But whenever appropriate, use the following techniques : …. (go through points above)

Develop Stamina
Let’s be honest. The hard work of implementation can often be quite dull.
Building vision can be difficult, but it can also be fascinating and challenging. Communicating the vision can be exciting, and inspiring your team has its own rewards.

But implementing change is often a slow, technical process that is filled with frequently repeated, mundane activities.

This is where you need to discipline yourself to keep focused on delivering the vision. It’s where you need to avoid going off on self-indulgent “flights of fancy,” which provide intellectual stimulation at the cost of sustained focus.

And it’s also where you need to work to keep yourself and your team motivated to continue delivering day-by-day-by-day-by-day....

Staying focused is not exciting, but it’s often the difference between success and failure.

Team Building – Making the whole greater than the sum of the parts

As a leader, one of your major challenges is not just to lead a group of employees, but rather it’s to mesh them into a successful team. You know you have been successful in this goal when the capability of the team as a whole is greater than the sum of the capabilities of individual members.

The task allocation tool covered earlier helps you get started in this process by allocating the right people to the right jobs.

Firstly in handling team meetings so all team members feel like they’ve fairly contributed to the team decision;

We look at four key actions you can take during team meetings to help your team bond: introducing the issue effectively; making sure all team members to contribute; shaping positive communication and summarizing.

Introducing the Issue
After introducing the issue you want your team to discuss, your opening comments could be something like:
“Who would like to start and offer us some ideas to resolve this issue?” or
“Now, Carmen, what do you think about this?”

Getting All Team Members to Contribute
Manage the discussion so that all team members get the chance to speak up and contribute their views and ideas.
“OK, so that’s how we think our customers see it. Now, what’s the engineering perspective on this?” or
“Thank you, Morgana. Now, John, what do you think?”

Balancing People’s Contributions
Meetings can often be dominated by particularly self-confident team members. They can also focus too much on some areas, leaving little time to look at others. If everyone is to contribute, you’ll need to close down some lines of discussion.
“I think we now have a common view on this point. Now, we don’t have long left. John, where are we on... ” or
“Thank you, Lynne, for making your point so clearly. Gita, what do you think?”

Shaping Positive Communication
Not everyone has a way with words. Some people may communicate in a way that confuses others or that others misunderstand. In chairing the meeting, you have to be alert enough to realize that what has been said by some member may have been misinterpreted by the others, and you must be able to provide some quick damage-limitation by clarifying the facts. For example:
“Am I right in understanding that you think we should...?” or
“Malcolm, did you really mean that you think...?”

Summarizing
At the end of the meeting, summarize what’s been discussed and bring out the important decisions that have a bearing on future jobs.
“Thank you, everyone. This has been a useful meeting, and I’m glad that we’ve all agreed that we’ll go ahead with this project.” or
“I am glad that we’ve had the chance to thrash these issues out. We’ve made some important decisions. Firstly, we agreed that...” or
“OK, so we’ve still got work to do on this. What I suggest is that we meet again next Tuesday and brainstorm this issue. Can you please put your minds to what we’ve talked about and come up with some bright ideas?”

Secondly in managing people’s behavior during tasks so the team performs effectively.
Group-Cohesiveness Tips
The next set of tips help you build a positive atmosphere that will help your team work together more effectively.

1. Achieving Harmony
When the pressure’s on, the workplace can become difficult and tense. Tempers can fray, and personalities can clash. As a leader, it’s part of your job to smooth conflict so that people work together as effectively as possible. Some practical tips may include:
Don’t take sides. Listen to both parties and ask them to reconcile their differences amicably.
Remember, your objective is usually to resolve the conflict and get people back to working together. It’s not to see who’s right and who’s wrong. There are usually two sides to an argument, and it’s often best if people don’t feel they’ve “lost face” in front of their co-workers. Some conflicts cannot be solved immediately and need time to heal. In the meantime, it can be best to separate the parties.
Use humor (appropriately, of course) to diffuse situations. As long as everyone sees the funny side of things, humor can be very effective.
Do not make personal insults, as it will only provoke the conflict further. Be calm and let your composure have a positive influence on the conflict.
Some examples of harmonizing comments may include:
“Let’s not get personal here. This is a complicated, difficult situation, and we’re probably disagreeing because there’s something we don’t understand. Now, let’s look at this step by step.”
”Let John explain first. Adam, I will hear you out after he has finished.”
“This argument is getting out of hand. Time to take a break, after which we will regroup and approach this more productively.”
2. Giving Support
When someone has made a particular effort, or is not as appreciated by the team as they should be, give them your support. But be careful to be even-handed; make sure everyone gets his or her fair share of praise.
“We all appreciate the efforts Sara has put into arranging this event, despite the short notice we gave her.” or
“Thank you, John, that’s a great presentation. I’m sure we all appreciate the work you’ve put into it.”
3. Emphasizing the Value of the Team’s Mission
Remember what we said about significance - People tend to be happier and more motivated when they think that what they’re doing has real value to other people. And where they believe in the value of the team’s mission, they’ll be committed to the team and other people working to achieve the mission.

4. Setting Standards
We looked at maintaining standards earlier - Help your team to understand the need for the standards you set, and support your team in developing and setting its own standards.

5. Encouraging Friendship
When the day’s work is over, make an effort to help team members become friends. Perhaps arrange to meet socially after work, have team meals to celebrate wins or have team days where members do something enjoyable together.
While these events can be hard work initially, once the “ice is broken,” they can help strong friendships form. And people who like and respect one another work together far more effectively than those who don’t.

Much of what we’ve said in this workshop will probably seem like common sense. Even so, under the pressure of events, it’s far too easy to forget to do the small, simple, mundane things that are so important if you are to turn vision into reality.

We offer these pointers to help you make these tips part of your life:
There’s a lot to get to come to grips with here, so don’t try to make a whole lot of changes at once. A good start would be to begin with role allocation and goal-setting tools.
Make a repeating diary entry to check your use of these techniques and to keep them fresh in your mind.
Take your time to practice skills so they become a natural and automatic part of your leadership style.
Do not make too much of a forced effort to use the leadership behaviors suggested in the tools. To be effective, they have to come naturally.
It may be a good idea to take advice from a mentor or a senior colleague if you have doubts regarding any tool you want to put into practice.