It takes a leader with a vision to see the future leader within the person.
LEADERS MUST BE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AGENTS
Those who believe in our abilities do more than stimulate us—they create an atmosphere in which it becomes easier for us to succeed. Creating an environment that will attract leaders is vital to any organization. Doing that is the job of leaders. They must be active; they must generate productive activity; and they must encourage, create, and command changes in the organization. They must create a climate in which potential leaders will thrive.
The leaders in any organization must be environmental change agents. They must be more like thermostats than thermometers. At first glance, a person could confuse these instruments. Both are capable of measuring heat. However, they are really quite different. A thermometer is passive. It records the temperature of its environment but can do nothing to change that environment. A thermostat is an active instrument. It determines what the environment will be. It affects change to create a climate.
The attitude of the leader, coupled with a positive atmosphere in the organization, can encourage people to accomplish great things. And consistent accomplishment generates momentum. Many times momentum is the only difference between a winning, positive growth climate and a losing, negative growth climate.
Leaders cannot afford to overlook the importance of momentum:
- With momentum, Leaders look better than they actually are.
- With momentum, Followers increase their performance.
- With momentum, Leaders look worse than they actually are.
- With momentum, Followers decrease their performance.
Momentum is the greatest of all change agents. More than 90 per cent of the successful changes we’ve instituted in our organization has been the result of creating momentum before asking people to change.
To maximize the value of momentum, leaders must:
- Develop an appreciation for it early;
- Know the key ingredients of it immediately;
- Pour resources into it always.
The next time you find it difficult to adjust the environment in your the company, keep in mind this simple fact from the laws of physics: Water boils at 212 degrees, but at 211 degrees, it is still just hot water. One extra degree, an increase of less than one-half of one per cent, can make the difference between a pot of languishing liquid and a bubbling cauldron of power. One degree can create a full head of steam-enough power to move a train weighing tons. That one degree is usually momentum.
Momentum is the greatest of all change agents.
Leaders in some organizations don’t recognize the importance of creating a climate conducive to building potential leaders. They don’t understand how it works. Advertising executive William Bernbach, who understands the difference it makes, once stated, “I’m always amused when other agencies try to hire my people away. They’d have to ‘hire’ the whole environment. For a flower to blossom, you need the right soil as well as the right seed.” Until the leaders in an organization realize this, they will not succeed, regardless of the talented individuals, they bring into the firm. The right atmosphere allows potential leaders to bloom and grow. That is why the atmosphere needs to be valued and developed first. Even when a leader from an organization with a poor climate steals away a potential leader who is beginning to bloom from the rich “greenhouse” environment of a healthy organization, the potential leader will not continue to grow and bloom. Unless, of course, the leader has already converted the environment of his or her own organization from “arctic” to “tropical.”
To see the relationship between environment and growth, look at nature. An observation was made by a man who dives for exotic fish for aquariums. According to him, one of the most popular aquarium fish is the shark. The reason for this is that sharks adapt to their environment. If you catch a small shark and confine it, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium in which it lives. Sharks can be six inches long and fully mature. But turn them loose in the ocean, and they grow to their normal size.
The same is true of potential leaders. Some are put into an organization when they are still small, and the confining environment ensures that they stay small and underdeveloped. Only leaders can control the environment of their organization. They can be the change agents who create a climate conducive to growth.
MODEL THE DESIRED STYLE OF LEADERSHIP
According to noted medical missionary Albert Schweitzer, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others . . . it is the only thing.” Part of creating an appealing climate is modelling leadership. People emulate what they see modelled. Positive model—positive response. Negative model—negative response. What leaders do, potential leaders around them do. What they value, their people value. The leaders’ goals become their goals. Leaders set the tone.
As Lee Iacocca suggests, “The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.” A leader cannot demand of others what he does not demand of himself.
FOCUS ON THE POTENTIAL OF THE LEADER AND THE ORGANIZATION
As stated before, those who believe in our abilities do more than stimulate us. They create an atmosphere in which it becomes easier to succeed. The opposite is also true. When a leader does not believe in us, success is very difficult for us to achieve. It becomes nearly impossible. As leaders, we cannot allow this to happen to those we lead if we expect our organizations to succeed.
To ensure success, identify the potential in each future leader and cultivate it in light of the needs of the organization. It produces a win-win situation. The mentoring leader wins because of the rising star working beneath him or her who can perform and produce. The organization wins because its mission is being fulfilled. The potential leader wins because he is being developed and improved. His future looks bright.
One of the best applications of this idea is expressed in what I call the 101 per cent principle: Find the one thing that you believe is the potential leader’s the greatest asset, and then give 101 per cent encouragement in that area. Focusing on a person’s strengths promotes positive growth, confidence, and success as a potential leader.
Napoleon Bonaparte is known as one of history’s greatest leaders. One of his leadership secrets was knowing the needs of his men. He first determined what his men wanted most. Then he did everything possible to help them get it. He knew this was a key to successful motivation. Most leaders do the opposite. They first decide what they want. Then they try to persuade others to want the same thing as much as they do.
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