The typical CEO and senior management team have little formal training in effective leadership and base their style on trial and error. This style will not work. CEOs cannot lead others if they cannot effectively lead themselves. They must develop personal leadership in themselves and their management team.
However, they didn’t succeed because they had great personal leadership qualities. They succeeded because they understood the importance of hiring managers who also possessed personal leadership skills.
These leaders built an environment in which leadership qualities flourished in all employees. As each employee reached new heights of achievement so did the organization, ensuring that the individuals and the organization outperformed the competition. Leadership is an elusive trait. The typical CEO and senior management team have little formal training in effective leadership and base their style on trial and error. This style will not work. CEOs cannot lead others if they cannot effectively lead themselves. They must develop personal leadership in themselves and their management team.
Changing Attitudes toward LeadershipAnyone, whether CEO or supervisor, can develop personal leadership and make it a dynamic force in his or her life.
Changing attitudes is difficult. Each of us has two things in common, the present and the future. During our present, we program our future. The program we set today determines the results we get tomorrow. If we desire to create a future that is different from our present, we must change our actions and the way we think today. We exhibit personal leadership when we take responsibility for leading ourselves to reach our personal vision by changing our lives so that we will reach new heights of achievement and lead a life that is positive and fulfilling. The Most Important Leadership AttitudesThe key to developing personal leadership is to believe in yourself first. Once you know you can accomplish anything you desire, you are ready to tackle the world and generate great personal success.
Even those not in management positions must begin to think like a leader. Position is unrelated to responsibility. Everyone who exhibits effective personal leadership and believes in themselves can become a leader and a positive role model. The key leadership attitudes are:
The following proven, simple but sometimes difficult to follow steps will help you develop more success though personal leadership. Develop the conviction and courage needed to accomplish change. You can make personal changes although these changes will take time and effort. Take these steps:
You, as an effective personal leader, will develop a strong success attitude that gives you:
Strong personal leadership also gives the organization a competitive advantage in today’s compressed, highly competitive business cycle.
Effective CEOs take the attitude for themselves and their management team that “If you don’t grow, you go.” They understand that when they exhibit personal leadership as they strive to evolve the organization to the next level, they also provide a role model for their employees, who must accept and lead change. In the resulting culture, employees meet their personal goals by helping the organization meet its goals. Personal growth translates into organizational success. Robert Schuller provided us with a great personal vision statement that you can use in your 1% growth plan when he said, "Whatever you do today, do it better tomorrow."
Attitude Is Everything
Would you want to have an employee who is extremely good at his or her job but has a bad attitude or an average employee who has a positive attitude?Lack of Focus: A CEO’s Mistake Can Kill Sustainable Growth
Focus is an important management skill a CEO should develop. Focus drives performance, performance drives results. Having a focused management team is the key to developing competitive advantage in your marketplace.Accountability for Results: A CEO’s Ultimate Challenge
Have you watched key business goals suffer as you missed deadline after deadline? Often such problems arise because we don’t hold ourselves truly accountable. When teams don’t execute effectively because of lack of accountability, the company fails to generate results.