What happened to me throughout my life is not who I am. What I decide for my life is who I am. Are you a decision maker?
Now that we’ve discussed working on ourselves over my previous posts, what have you decided to work on and apply first? It is my hope that you will pass on what you have learned, and increase your influence.
Which in turn will multiply my influence through you. I hope you have done a lot a lot of thinking when going through these posts, and reflected on what you have learned. I know that you have the potential to strive towards, and become a highly effective leader.
The purpose of this post and these websites is to help you realise that potential, and working on yourself every day so you can fulfil that potential.
1. Fulfilling Your Potential
You’re still reading this post, so that is how I know you have the potential to become a highly effective leader. If I am being totally honest, every single one of us is crying out for a lot more highly effective leaders.
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Your team needs a highly effective leader. Your department needs a highly effective leader. Your organisation needs a highly effective leader. Your community needs a highly effective leader. Your country needs a highly effective leader. Our world needs lots of highly effective leaders.
We need highly effective leaders who are willing to go that extra mile for their people. We need highly effective leaders who are going to climb the leadership ladder, then climb back down and help others climb. Is that you?
I believe it is, because you are still reading. So, don’t prove me wrong.
When you have decided what leadership principle to work on and apply with your team first, how are you going to apply it?
Are you going to tell your team what you have learned, or are you going to show them what you have learned? Are you going to transform your team with what you have learned? Are you going to inspire your team with what you have learned?
Are you going to motivate your team to apply what you have learned?
When you apply what you have learned with your team, you are creating change.
2. What To Focus On
Highly effective leaders focus on the people and their personal growth, not their goals. They do this by leading by example, and being a role model for their team. They also expect their team to be the same role model for others.
Highly effective leaders inspire their team to embrace change. They motivate their team to implement change that for the good of themselves, the team, and the organisation.
As you are going through these posts, I have been describing and advising you on leadership principles. They are principles that I have applied in my career. It is now up to you to do the same, and then teach your team the same principles.
To transform yourself first, you must listen to what you are telling yourself, nobody else. The advice I have shared will not transform you, it has to come from you, and the effort you put in to apply it.
We discussed being a transformer in an earlier post, so that will help you with this. Are you willing to be that transformer?
My role through writing this post is to try to influence, and inspire you to be that transformer. But, also for you to help to transform others too. To make a start on this, take your team through a 30 day book study with a leadership book.
For example, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. If you do this, then it will be a great start in transforming your team from followers to leaders. This will also be a great start in you becoming a highly effective leader.
The message in the book is to first master being a follower, and then to work on leadership. If you help your team through this, then you will all be well on your way to climbing the leadership ladder together. With each team member helping one another up that climb.
As you work on yourself to grow and develop every day, you will also be growing and developing your team. Then, you can stretch your influence by helping your peers, and their teams to grow. You can help them develop and increase their influence.
This will again multiply your influence within the organisation even further. You don’t need permission to help other teams, and increase your influence with your peers. Are you willing to stretch yourself and help other teams? It is not about authority, it is about influence.
If you feel that you have taken a lot from this post and you are going to apply what you have learned, then share this post and my other posts with your peers. When you do that, take them through a 30 day book study also.
3. Show People That You Care
Show them what you have applied, or are planning to apply with your team. Show them how they can do the same. If you truly believe in leadership and what we discuss on this site, then recommend it to your organisation’s leaders.
Encourage them to share these posts for their leadership teams. Most organisations are willing to buy personal development resources for their teams, so don’t be discouraged by anyone.
The more you help your team, your peers, and their teams. The more it will get noticed. Especially by the senior leaders within your organisation. You will become known as a person who promotes leadership to all, and who is willing to help others.
You will become known as a highly effective leader, and the opportunities will open up to you because of what you are doing. You will be given the chance to lead bigger teams, and climb the leadership ladder.
When you start applying what you have learned, please be clear that things will not start to improve overnight. It will take some time before you start seeing transformations. It is usually months, and then years. That shouldn’t discourage you or stop you from working on yourself every day.
If you work on transforming yourself every day, then your ability to transform others will increase. If you do not work on transforming yourself every day, then your ability to transform others will decrease.
As I have said before, the purpose for this and my other posts was to inspire you to learn the principles and then apply them to your life, your team, and your organisation.
4. Pride
The pride I feel that you are going through these posts, and are willing to apply these principles is huge. I am so proud of you that you are doing this. I really hope you pass on your new skills to others, and teach them through leading by example.
These leadership principles are what I have learned and practiced over the last 20 years of my career. So, I want to help you get ahead by learning them quicker than I did, and by applying what you learn. Keep practicing what you apply.
Share and teach what you have learned with others. Increase your influence with everyone you interact with, whether that be at work or at home. Bring into the conversation what you have learned, and inspire others to do the same as you.
If your organisation doesn’t have a leadership programme, then inspire them to implement one for their people. Help them do develop it with your newly found knowledge.
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If you get a rejection on the leadership programme idea, then don’t let that knock you back. There is nothing stopping you developing your own programme using the leadership principles you are learning.
If you do this, the demand to be part of the programme from your team, your peers, and their teams and beyond will increase rapidly. People will want to know what you are doing.
So, when you get asked questions from people, then that is your opportunity to increase your influence with them by answering their questions.
You have an amazing opportunity with what you are learning. An opportunity to increase your influence through the entire organisation. It will take time, and you will get some resistance but do not let that stop you. Keep going, have patience, and lead by example. You can do this……I BELIEVE IN YOU!
Do you want to leave this earth with all the knowledge you have and not share it with the world? That would be a huge tragedy.
I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.
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All the best,
Great post Tom. When one is a highly effective team leader more work gets done, the team is actually wanting to do the work, and productivity naturally increases.
It doesn’t matter how smart a leader is because if he can’t inspire his team do be productive then its the power of one.
Its essentially a leader is thus highly effective as its a win win for the organization and the results will naturally show for themselves. The leader will naturally be proud oh what his leadership inspired and accomplished which starts with empathy for others viewpoints and listening to teammates and pivoting when required.
Hi Muz,
Thank you so much for your comment.
I couldn’t agree more, highly effective team leaders get things done with their teams.
The better the team make decisions together, the more successful the team will be.
All the best,
Tom
Hello! I was just reading through your article and I am a business owner myself, (a successful physical store / business for 6+ years now) and although there are only 2 of us (myself and my business partner/ also my father) running our business everyday I do believe like in any other business we are always trying to think of new ideas we can apply to our business to make it better. In a partnership you sort of both are leaders in your business, and you can bounce ideas off of one another and hopefully receive constructive criticism about your thoughts. I thoroughly enjoy our chats about our business together and making decision about what we should do next to make our store more successful for us and a better place for our customers to shop in.
I do realize there are other situations though wherein leaders especially at the top of the food chain (managers, CEO’s etc.) have to be very good leaders to be able to transform their team, the amount of effort and productivity they put into their products and employees is a very important thing for them to be successful in their industry. And if your employees don’t see you as a leader, someone they aspire to be, or see you as someone who is successful and constantly broadening your horizons of knowledge and growth for yourself, this can be a very powerful downward spiral for someone who was once at the top of their game and then maybe suddenly they decide to stop growing at some point for whatever reason. This in turn has a ripple effect on your employees of course. You won’t get the quality of product you once had in the items you are selling/ have manufactured, and your employees will start to think of you as just being some rich guy who only cares about his money, and not the “little” guy working the production line in his business/ factories. Myself, as someone who has been in the professional culinary arts field for 10+ years I can definitely say the biggest compliment in that field from my superiors was even when I started working as a dishwasher I was always told “in this industry, ultimately YOU are what keeps this kitchen running.”
My boss came to me one day and told me exactly that and said “sure, I have cooks, and a fully staffed kitchen of waitresses, and bartenders too, but, if you aren’t here to wash all the dishes they dirty, and I have no plates / mugs/ glasses, or cutlery to serve food and beverages, I can’t run my kitchen” and he told me that because often the dishwasher in a professional kitchen takes a lot of flack from often frustrated cooks, and other staff, and being the “lowest” guy on the pole in terms of what you do for a job you might feel pretty under appreciated compared to everyone else, but, in reality, you’re the glue that holds the rest of the operations together. And that was the first time I ever heard anyone say that to a dishwasher. It’s something I’ve always carried with me to this very day. It’s also the reason I continued working for that particular restaurant for 4 years until it closed.
I have also seen leadership destroy a company as well. My life partner works for a flagship company which started out as a true leader of leaders in its field of manufacturing, the CEO was highly praised, he gave his employees frequent cash bonus raises, he got to know every employee on a personal level and remembered their names and always greeted them in the corridors of the factory facilities, he continuously went out of his way to plan extracurricular social events for his employees like lavish luxurious catered no-expenses-spared Christmas parties for the entire company. He stayed at the top of his game and was the reason his company was listed as one of the top companies to work for in our community. Until he wasn’t. fast forward a few years, he made some bad moves for his company in terms of their finances, he cut budgets on certain things he shouldn’t have, there were no more lavish parties only ever cheap pizza parties. He got too big for his britches and started looking at himself as a big rich CEO and forgot all about his employees who really made him who he was in his leadership role. Ultimately the next year his shareholders had lost so much in their stocks, they voted him out of his position. Today, my partner still works for this company but, it has gone down hill entirely under a new CEO who was set to “cut costs” to lower their losses and plan for the future to make more money and bring the company back up to where it was financially at its height in former years. This new CEO has gone rogue entirely with staffing cuts, fired nearly every department of the company, they sold the factory building they were in and moved across the street to a building they built and own which was sitting vacant due to a contract not succeeding with another company they were supposed to partner with. THIS is why leadership matters. If you have a good leader you believe in, your the kind of person who would actually ENJOY showing up to work everyday, and doing your absolute best at your job. This particular company once told employees if they had “new ideas” that could be useful, they were encouraged to bring them up to their team leaders so they could be entered into consideration with bigger managers within the company and if they were something the company wanted to run with, they may be compensated for their idea.
Nowadays, this doesn’t exist within this company. Ideas you give them, are owned by the company, you will NOT receive compensation for having that idea, and with the amount of staffing cuts currently, if they don’t like your idea or don’t like you, they may fire you regardless. This is why good leadership matters in a business/ company. If you genuinely like the CEO/ overseeing boss of your company you’re a lot more likely to do better work on the job, and enjoy doing so. Happy employees makes for more productivity/ better quality control within the company which in turn makes products better, and will result in much more successful business. Oppositely, if you strongly dislike your boss/ they are not a good leader, employees will not have respect for him/ her, and will not do their jobs as efficiently as you want them to, or possibly at all, as they may ultimately decide to quit and move jobs. It’s VERY important to be able to inspire and lead your team properly in any business or company! Excellent article on leadership. I really enjoyed reading it, because I’ve seen how unmotivated my life partner is these days about going to his job since now the employee treatment super sucks compared to when he originally started his job years ago sadly.
Hi Cal,
WOW! This comment is an article in itself.
Thank you so much for sharing your story on my article, I hope many people read your comment and learn from you as much as they learn from me.
Keep growing yourself, your business and your people.
Thank you again, and all the best to you.
Tom
Wow this is a great article. I love this part: The better the team make decisions together, the more successful the team will be
Hi Alyse,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, means the world to me.
I am so pleased that this article resonated with you. Keep making decisions with your people and being the most successful you can be.
All the best,
Tom
Great post!
Decisions define us, and striving to be a decision-maker is important. I appreciate the emphasis on being a role model for personal growth and inspiring change.
I’m inspired to take action and apply what I’ve learned in my team. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and advice!
Hi John,
I am very appreciative of your comment, means the world to me.
I am so pleased that you found this a great post and you certainly do know what decision making is all about.
Keep making the right decisions and taking action for yourself and for your people too.
All the best,
Tom
Hi Tom,
I agree that the best way to be an effective leader is to lead by example.
When you inspire people with what you have learned, you are being a very effective leader.
And to encourage people by showing that you are able to change as well, makes people want to make you proud of what they do.
They are willing to show you the pride they have in the work they do.
I truly believe that the best leaders absolutely do, lead by example!
And when they do, they make great leaders.
People are happier and more productive.
Hi Chas,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, means the world.
Leading by example, you are right is the most important leadership principle for me and so many others.
Keep leading your people by example and inspiring them to do the same.
All the best,
Tom
This article really resonated with me as a leader. I’ve always thought that decision-making was one of the most important aspects of being an effective leader, but this article helped me to understand that there is more to it than just making choices. Your emphasis on taking responsibility for the outcomes of decisions and involving others in the decision-making process really struck a chord with me. It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that as a leader, I need to make all the decisions on my own, but this article reminded me that involving my team in the process not only results in better decisions but also fosters a sense of ownership and accountability among team members. This is a great read for anyone looking to improve their leadership skills. You always have good insights on topics relating to leadership and I love reading them. well done Tom!
Hi Femi,
I am so pleased that this article resonated with you, and it’s amazing that you shared your thoughts on decision making.
Learning from each other is what leaders do, so keep sharing your knowledge with your people and developing new leaders when you can.
All the best,
Tom
Hi Tom,
Great post! It is profound when you say that highly effective leaders focus on the people they work with and their personal growth, not their goals. This really hit me that it is about growing the people. Also to genuinely show that you care about the people. This is often the people that you work with.
I read the 7 Habits before but forgot to focus on being a better follower first, then develop into a leader. Thanks for the motivating post, you make it easy to understand and put into action.
Hi John,
I really appreciate your thoughts on my article, means the world to me.
Thank you for your very kind words and I am so pleased that you can relate to what I am sharing. It’s so satisfying that people like yourself can relate and share your insights that I hope others can learn from to, not just from the content in the article.
Keep following and keep leading your people.
All the best,
Tom