Exploring Great Leadership: A Practical Look from the Inside - Softcover

Wilson, R. Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1475949081 ISBN 13: 9781475949087

Verlag: iUniverse, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Just like you don't have to be a CEO to be a great leader, you don't have to be a great leader to achieve personal success . . . I have said that income, wealth, position, and status are not measures of great leadership. They are not measures of personal success either. Personal success is achieved through honoring and respecting those around you (including family, friends, fellow employees, and others), always being ethical at work and in your personal life, channeling your motivation and desires toward specific career and personal goals (which are compatible with your mental being), and being willing to pay the price of achieving those goals through sacrifice and hard work. Those who do that will find their niche for success and achieve it. Another significant point I want to make is the importance of enthusiasm and a positive attitude to achieve that success, especially when things are not going exactly as you envisioned or planned, which will inevitably happen. Most leadership books share "ten steps for success' "five things to never forget' and other such formulas. Great leadership is not that easy. Someone who wants to become a great leader must truly understand the psychology and practice of great leadership. R. Lynn Wilson spent almost four decades in high-level positions. In that time, helping friends, employees, and associates hone their leadership skills became second nature. In this guidebook, he demonstrates why everyone can't be a great leader; why personal and corporate ethics are paramount for leaders; and how empowerment, teamwork, and education are critical for great leadership. Leadership ability is obtained by having the necessary psychological makeup, knowing one's self, love of work, honoring others, personal sacrifice, and having fun in the workplace. Ignoring, minimizing, or mismanaging the human side of management creates suspicion, fear, and failure in the workplace. Take a practical loo

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EXPLORING GREAT LEADERSHIP

A Practical Look from the InsideBy R. Lynn Wilson

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 R. Lynn Wilson
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-4908-7

Contents

Preface.............................................................viiAcknowledgments.....................................................ixIntroduction........................................................xiGreat Leadership Defined............................................1Our Mental Being....................................................12Relationships.......................................................23Personal and Corporate Ethics.......................................44Corporate Culture...................................................48Employee Empowerment, Teamwork, and Education.......................68Hiring and Pay Philosophy...........................................129Decision Making and Strategic Planning..............................149Quality.............................................................178Marketing, Public Relations, and Image Building.....................196Accountability......................................................220The CEO.............................................................231The Personal Challenge..............................................242Appendix A..........................................................247Appendix B..........................................................269Appendix C..........................................................275Appendix D..........................................................283Appendix E..........................................................287References..........................................................299Index...............................................................307

Chapter One

Great Leadership Defined

* * *

When most people hear the term great leader, they visualize heads of state, famous philosophers, religious leaders, and organizational CEOs. Do you have to be an organization's CEO to be a great leader? There is a very simple answer to that question, and that answer is "absolutely not." Do you have to at least be in management to be a great leader? The answer to that question is the same as the first: "absolutely not."

So how can managers and especially non-managers be great leaders when they are not the Big Kahuna? One of the most enjoyable and exciting aspects of my job was to watch employees excel and demonstrate great leadership. So what defines a great leader? What distinguishes great leaders from the rest of the pack? Is it in the eyes of the beholder? Are there distinguishing traits?

We will begin answering the above questions about great leaders and great leadership by looking at Abraham H. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. His theory was published in Psychological Review in a 1943 paper titled "A Theory of Human Motivation." For those of you who are not familiar with Maslow, he was a respected research psychologist who died in 1970 and the first of my personal heroes in this book. His theory has been widely published in organizational-management and academic textbooks for many years. It is astonishing that Maslow published his theory sixty-nine years ago and it is still applicable today. Actually, basic human nature changes ever so little, if at all, over time. I have included his 1943 paper in Appendix A, and it is essential that you read it before proceeding.

Now that you are back and have read the paper, you know that Maslow divides human needs into the following five categories in ascending order: physiological needs, safety needs, love needs, esteem needs, and the need for self-actualization. I am amazed by the numerous interpretations, variations, and adaptations on his theory I have seen, and interestingly, none of them have compromised his basic premises.

It is also interesting that all the versions I have ever seen use a pyramid to demonstrate Maslow's hierarchy of needs though his paper is only narrative and has no pyramid. That was a surprise to me, since the pyramid is the theory's universal symbol. There is one adaptation of Maslow's theory to organizations that I have always thought of as simple and relevant. It was published in a book written by Andrew D. Szilagyi (1981, 408–411), titled Management and Performance. Szilagyi is a professor of management at the University of Houston's C. T. Bauer College of Business. Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Szilagyi's interpretation for organizational adaption are shown in Figure 1 and will be used for my discussion of Maslow's theory and its importance to great leadership.

Before we proceed, I want to make a very important point: never confuse success with great leadership. If we use income, wealth, position, or status to define a successful person, then I have seen many successful people who were not great leaders. In fact, I would rank the majority of them as less-than-great leaders, and I would put some of them in the category of terrible leaders. In contrast, I have seen many great leaders who were not successful in terms of income, wealth, position, or status. How can that be? As we discuss in this chapter, it will become clear. Now back to Maslow's theory to get a basis for defining great leaders and great leadership.

At the bottom of the pyramid in Figure 1 is physiological needs, which includes such things as adequate base salary and a reasonably comfortable physical working environment. The next level is safety needs, including safe working conditions, fringe benefits, general salary increases, and job security. It has been my experience that without having these two need levels satisfied, employees will actively look for a job at another organization that will meet those needs. This applies to management and non-management alike. You can find exceptions, but you sure don't want those people working in your organization.

One can debate which of these basic needs is most important. Common wisdom would say it depends upon the person and his or her individual needs, but I have found that base salary— including base fringe benefits and job security—are paramount. If you can't meet your basic financial needs, you have no option but to do something else or be consumed by emotionally charged financial problems. We're not talking about buying a new Ferrari or a second home on the beach. We are talking about basic food, shelter, and other subsistence.

Fear of losing one's job is also a strong motivator to leave, but that is a slightly different animal. It is not usually as immediate in causing an employee to leave as base salary and benefits, but it certainly can be. Lack of job security can result in many undesirable behaviors on the part of an employee, even from the best of employees. I have seen employees who fear job loss spend much, if not all, of their time exhibiting behavior, sometimes irrationally, that gets in the way of their usual good job performance. This is done in an effort to mitigate their fear and/or push attention away from themselves.

One very important aspect of job security is that it is not always black and white and is much more subjective than salary and benefits. Your boss or some other legitimate authority in the organization telling you your job is in jeopardy due to job performance or downsizing is not subjective, but many times employees have an unfounded fear because of rumors or comments made by less legitimate sources. Later in the book, we will talk about the importance of good and accurate communication, which is critical in...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: iUniverse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1475949081
• ISBN 13: 9781475949087
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 328
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland