Best-Practices Leadership
A leader in an organization can’t do everyone’s job. Instead of micromanaging, strong leaders use organizational leadership to coordinate, communicate, motivate and delegate among employees and team members. For comprehensive organizational effectiveness, each individual needs to be seen as a contributor, with the leader at the helm.
Most importantly, best-practices leadership involves keeping employees motivated throughout the process, adapting your scope or strategy as necessary, and developing an effective communication strategy.
Some people never make it to the other side because they’re more successful at being doers. This is a crucial point in determining if you’re going to move up the ranks.
Browse our articles, tools and advice on best-practices leadership.
In 2007, CEO Michael Lewis, ILD Corp., knew about social-networking sites but he didn’t participate in any of them. The wake-up call came when an employee googled ILD Corp. and the result was ugly: dozens of customer complaints about charges and billing. Thus began Lewis’ migration from the back pew to the pulpit, where social media is concerned.
Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry first noticed the need for their company when they shared a house with three friends. In looking for cleaning products that didn’t have harsh, toxic ingredients, Ryan and Lowry came up empty-handed. Thus the idea for Method home-cleaning products was kindled.
When the World Trade Center was hit on 9/11, Fire Department Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer happened to already be on the scene. That made him the first FDNY fire chief to take command. What we’ve learned since then, he says, is that leaders don’t simply “command and control” during a catastrophic event. They go beyond that.
To paraphrase business writer Daniel Pink, the future will belong to those who can flex, adapt, empathize, tell stories and create. Theater performers, whose stock in trade is flexibility, adaptability and creativity, could teach us a thing or two.
An organization’s health results in part from its ability to renew itself faster than its competitors. Researchers from McKinsey & Co. use a process called the “five A’s” to build a competitive advantage.
