The Eleven From Leaders' Heaven

Joan F. Marques - MBA, Doctoral Student
Burbank, California

  • 1. When people are happy in their jobs, they are at least twice as productive. Therefore, create the right environment and give them jobs they are proud of. This can only be the case if you execute point 2.

  • 2. Communicate your vision to all team members in such a way that it becomes their vision as well! In order to do that, you have to master point 3.

  • 3. Make sure you have your goal and your strategy in place. In other words, know where you want your organization to be in the future and how it should get there.

  • 4. People are multi talented. Try to recognize these talents and use them to bring out the best in your workers.

  • 5. Supreme success is guaranteed if you focus on all the important areas of leadership: adequate communication, good interpersonal relations, employee motivation, effective job design, pleasant teamwork, and change preparedness.

  • 6. Use your power positively (motivational), but not negatively (coercive). How? By combining your ways of motivating, performance rewarding, and leading by example in such a way that your subordinates will want to identify with you.

  • 7. Rewards or punishments may seem appropriate at times, but they only sort temporary effects. The positive behavioral change vanishes as soon as the reward or punishment stops. What works better in most cases is genuine interest in the reasons why people act in certain ways. If they know that you care, they'll care that you know.

  • 8. Obtain and maintain expertise, a likable character, a hard working attitude, and a well-defined set of ethical values if you want to be sure of your employees' respect and lasting admiration. The best implementation of this strength lies in point 9.

  • 9. Never ask your employees to do something that is in conflict with their personal ethical values.

  • 10. Fortunately, you are leading in a time when physical traits are unimportant, and where leadership skills such as honesty, competence, vision, inspiration, credibility and all the other above mentioned matter. Apply them!

  • 11. Make yourself comfortable with the criteria of situational leadership. Realize the principle of different strokes for different folks: what motivates one employee may demotivate another. Rely on the circumstances, your experience, and your intuition to determine what leadership style works best in a given situation.