A Leader Without Followers….
… is just a person taking a walk according to John C. Maxwell. A business without a true leader is like a hamster on a wheel – most likely running, but not getting anywhere despite the effort!
Whenever we’re asked to develop leaders, my first question is: What do we need them to do? I often get blank stares, so I refer them to Enerpace’s Leadership Pyramid: https://www.enerpace.com/company-solutions/
The job of leadership begins with establishing a business’ mission, vision and goals. If a business doesn’t know why it exists or what purpose it serves, it’s really hard to the employees to be engaged by their work. They don’t know the “so what” that justified their efforts. A vision lays out where the business is going. Again, if employees don’t have a direction, there’s no way for efforts to be coordinated or, to use a familiar phrase, have them “rowing in the same direction”. Each day, a company’s people are making decisions. You want those decisions to be congruent with your purpose and advance your movement forward.
Leaders define the company’s values – how we treat each other, our customers and our key stakeholders as we operate in accordance with our vision and mission. Values need to be lived and present in all communications, or they’re meaningless. Employees often look to the “say/do” ratio of their leaders. If the company’s top people don’t walk the talk, if they don’t do what they say they will do, then there’s no reason for the people to do it either. The behaviors that get rewarded should be those in alignment with a business’ mission, vision and values.
