The 2 Things Leaders Must Do

What is the secret to becoming an effective leader? If I were to cut to the chase, I’d say: The 2 Things Leaders Must Focus On are Results & People. Why? Because there is a vital connection between the two: your people deliver the results you desire.

This IS the secret to effective leadership.

Let’s dissect this secret that Your People Deliver Results.

People: Leadership, by definition, requires Followers. You can’t be a leader alone. Your people are the means, the strategic channels, by which your organization reaches its goals. Your job is to do everything in your power to help your people succeed. At a high level, do what John Maxwell advises when he says: “A leader knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” And sometimes the leader gets out of the way.

Deliver: The verb “deliver” in this secret means “to do or carry out as promised; to give birth to.” Results don’t happen unless someone makes them happen. Interestingly, the origin of the word deliver means “to set free.” Effective leaders unshackle their people and do everything in their power to facilitate successful performance.

Results: Every organization has a definition of success. When President John F. Kennedy said that America would put a man on the moon, he set in motion a great engine of success that unleashed tremendous creative energy…and changed the world. As General George S. Patton once famously said: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and why, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

What is the secret inside this secret that makes it so powerful? Look deeper at the origin of the term “deliver:” from the Latin dēlīberāre, meaning to set free, to liberate.

This concept of liberation is the breakthrough idea in Jack Welch’s legendary pronouncement that “What we are looking for are leaders at every level who can energize, excite and inspire rather than enervate, depress and control.

The most effective leaders set their people free to do what they do best so that they can deliver the desired results.

So if you want to become a more effective leader, there are two things you must focus on, Results and People. And make the critical connection between them that Your People Deliver Results.

Posted by Terrence Seamon on Tuesday May 3, 2011. For more ideas on becoming an effective leader, contact terry and invite him into your organization.

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