Leadership Lessons: Attitude Acuity
May 08, 2008
By Jack W. Reidenbach
Attitude is to leadership as oxygen is to life form. It is the mindset of your disposition and the catalyst for your character. It could limit your comprehension, or allow you a limitless passion to overcome and succeed. Attitude is the action of toleration, distinguished by tactful ingenuity, the tenacity to unite, and the decisiveness to encourage. These are the primary ingredients for developing, strengthening, and sustaining quality leadership. Whether by choice, appointment, election, or default, once you've accepted a leadership position, you are responsible, and therefore accountable, for the outcome.
Action of Toleration
You must live by the word "consideration," allow for thought and deliberation, and respect the feelings of others. Set a positive example for success because your attitude will be the stimulant for accomplishment. The confidence you exhibit will provide you with objectivity of the present, and formulation for the future. Your dedication and determination to provide fairness in your approach, and understanding in your support, will increase opportunity for success.
Employees deserve to know their opinions or ideas will be respected and considered. Leadership requires employee involvement. The complexity of the involvement depends on the number of individuals involved and the scope of the issue. But one thing remains constant: you must maintain the patience to listen.
Tactful Ingenuity
A successful leader will embrace effective communication rather than dictate; delegate rather than control; and skillfully guide rather than take charge. One-way communication should be replaced with a two-way interaction of interest, intellect, and understanding. The finesse required to communicate at this level is performance driven by leadership attitude.
Successful corporate, department, or project development requires effective direction. Leadership cannot presume employees have an understanding of their expectations. That "assuming" attitude only leads to multiple interpretations and a "focus frenzied" approach to project resolution. A fictitious approach to leadership improves your chance of failure while reducing your effectiveness to lead.
Leadership is responsible for effectively communicating their expectations. In doing so, team members learn they are dependent on one another in the overall success of the project and/or objective. Leadership should provide for a trained workforce within a team environment that follows written guidelines and/or procedures. Employees must be made aware of performance expectations as well as resolutions to poor performance. Because that cooperation directly affects the timeliness for completion, it is critical this cooperation be closely monitored and maintained. Both support and communication are key elements to the team's success.
Tenacity to Unite
Today's workforce is characterized by diversity. The importance of understanding the role language and culture play in today’s organizational development is imperative to the success of that organization. Your attitude must embrace this multicultural reality, and provide motivational inspiration for it to succeed. Employees like to succeed. By taking that desire, and adding a meaningful motivational value, you enhance your communication skills, gain the respect of your team, and add credibility to a timely and successful project completion. A diverse labor force does not alter that philosophy. Employees with an understanding of what’s expected, and the training to perform the job, will do their best to perform well. Being a part of a team environment increases the competitiveness of that performance, and ultimately leads to quality results.
As leader of a group, department, corporation, or organization you must provide the tools necessary to accommodate training. Where necessary, bilingual supervision is a plus, along with English classes for those who desire it, and cultural diversity classes for English speaking only employees. In a world where diversity is the norm, excellence in product and performance depends on how far leadership is willing to go to meet the needs of a multicultural workforce. Developing a team means having people work in a joint and cooperative manner. The coordination of that effort toward successful execution solely resides in the leadership of that team. Leadership must be the catalyst for accomplishment.
Decisiveness to Encourage
Assessment and judgment are critical to providing the guidance, direction, and answers necessary for quality performance in a timely manner. Just by listening, your attitude will project respect of another’s opinion, sensitivity for their concern, and will strengthen the opportunity for potential cooperation. That's pretty impressive for not even opening your mouth. As a matter of fact, becoming an effective listener strengthens your character and enhances anticipation of your response, and appreciation for what you have to say.
Leadership must be the compass for direction, the engine for resolution, and the stimulant for effectiveness. Your voice should not just be heard, but understood. Your information must not be conjecture, but fact. Your tone must express the strength of your character, and your attitude should illustrate your convictions. Effective leadership is not only reaching your goal, but doing so with each participant’s commitment. The alliances you establish, and the method by which they are maintained, are the key building blocks to sustaining both meaningful cooperation and long-term relationships. Awareness is key, assessment imperative, and the judgment of cooperation essential.
Jack W. Reidenbach spent 35 years in the business sector, with positions ranging from Systems Analyst with Eaton Corporation to Vice President of Manufacturing with KMW Systems Corporation.
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