Leadership soup is chock full of ingredients necessary to make it good and tasty.

When it comes to selecting the key ingredients in the soup that are necessary for great leadership, consider the leadership situation. Different leadership situations require different competencies to fit the situation at hand. For example, some situations require courage, while others might require honesty and integrity.

If one were to ask me to taste the soup and identify the three major leadership ingredients in the recipe that for what leaders should do, I would have to settle on these:

Do be a visionary, Do be a communicator, and Do be a motivator.

In order to be a great leader and lead people in the right direction, one needs to know which direction to take. Consider a person standing at a fork in the road. Flipping a coin to decide whether to take Route A or Route B is not leadership. If this person had established the vision in the first place, the answer would be simple–take the route that has the best chance of making the vision a reality.

Secondly, a leader who can’t communicate effectively is heading for failure. This means having the ability to communicate up the organization with management, down the organization with employees, across the organization with coworkers, and outside the organization with customers. Any leader who can successfully communicate in these four directions is on the road to success.

Finally, a great leader must have the ability to motivate his or her people. This means not only inspiring them to be all they can be but also inspiring them to do all they can do. This is where that second prerequisite, communication, comes back into play. The leader must communicate with employees to find out what their motivations are and then use those motivations to inspire the employees to achieve their best. Any leader who can do these three things stands a great chance of being a superstar.

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Do you want to be successful and remembered as a great leader?  If so, you have to BRING IT ON.

Employees today are looking for someone to follow—leaders who can bring leadership excellence to the team.  Studies show that 70% of employees are not engaged with their work.  I have seen evidence firsthand that the main reason for this is poor leadership. Leaders are not engaged with the employees.  This means when you first show up to lead, you have to “bring it on.”

On the one hand, you can’t come in like a raging bull know-it-all, barking orders before you know who the employees are and what will be required to get them to produce at their best level. On the other hand, you can’t stand there like a deer in the headlights, uncertain where you are and wondering how you got yourself into this predicament.

So bring on an air of friendliness.  You want them to be friendly with you—then be friendly with them first.  Bring on an air of respect.  You want them to respect you—then show them respect first.  Bring on a listening ear.  You want them to communicate with you—then listen to what they have to say.  Remember, a leader who has no ears to listen will soon be surrounded by people who have no mouth to talk.  Bring on trust and confidence.  You want them to trust and have confidence in you—then train them, point them in the direction you want them to go and show your trust and confidence by getting out of their way.  Bring on the habit of being a visionary.  You want them to go where you want to go—then communicate with them to establish a shared vision and direction.  When they participate in establishing the vision they will be more apt to help achieve something they have a stake in.  Nobody wants to see their own idea fail.  Bring on fairness and equity for all.  You want them to work hard and support you—then work hard to support them with fair and equitable treatment.

Again, do you want to be a great leader? Then, BRING IT ON!!!

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Photo Credit: Meer Reflections by Dave Whelan

Anything you do beyond living the life of a hermit will require you to communicate with another person or a group of people. In order to successfully accomplish this task, you must be able to put words and phrases into sentences and add the right nonverbal signals to transfer an idea or concept from you to the other person. Also, you must be able to receive the other person’s verbal and nonverbal signals to get a clear message from them. These are not always easy to do because barriers get in the way. People are not always eager to hear what you think and sometimes, you don’t care what they think. Sometimes, because of the differences in your backgrounds, people can easily misunderstand or misinterpret what you say. Attitudes influenced by anger, emotion, and traditional thinking can prevent the successful transfer of information. Some people have big egos and no matter how much convincing evidence you present, they do not see things your way. Language, with its semantics, homonyms, and jargon, can sometimes be a great deterrent to effective communication.

In spite of all these barriers, there is still hope. Communication can be as easy as 1-2-3:

(1) Identify and understand the problems and barriers that tend to preclude effective communication.

(2) Develop some strategies that will overcome the barriers and solve the problems.

(3) Practice the strategies until you become an effective communicator.

The best investment you can make in a successful career is to enhance your ability to communicate. Success hinges on your talent for relating to others, listening and understanding what others are saying, recognizing the value in other people, and communicating value back to them, all while keeping emotions intelligently in check.

All the technical knowledge and expertise in the world is worthless if no one knows what you’re saying. So whether you’re leading a team, writing a report, delivering a presentation, or managing an entire organization, your ability to communicate and build strong interpersonal relationships is the key to reaching your highest potential.

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