Good leadership: a company's #1 asset.

Almost every action requires leadership. In the words of Tom Peter and Nancy Austin of Passion for Excellence, "Leadership is a sacrifice--it is self denial, it is love, it is selflessness and it is humility," The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender. The role of the leader

Once a leader is chosen, it is important that they know how to lead, determine the effective qualities they possess and how they manage the company's affairs while maintaining employee's loyalty and motivating spirit. Listening is a very important leadership skill; through listening, information is acquired enabling identification and clarification of issues, the making of decisions, the resolution of conflict and the development of creativity. Customer satisfaction will improve and, as a result, sales and productivity increase, cost decreases and new ideas are generated.

Critical thinking enables a leader to make decisions based on facts not on impulses, to be open minded and, most of all, acknowledging bias and prejudices and to avoid allowing them to influence decisions. Giving performance feedback successfully is crucial to an effective leader. When done correctly, it can and will improve interpersonal relationship and promote trust and respect for leaders and companies on a whole. Time management, planning and implementation are also important factors in leadership. Once planning is on the way, organizing and delegating takes precedence. Just putting people to work together toward a common goal is not enough; but by establishing the structure the team or group need to function effectively and ensuring that it works will most certainly remove all obstacles that may impede progress. A motivated team will overcome obstacles of all types to achieve its goals.

In retrospect, effective leadership is having the ability to successfully manage a work group or team to foster strong connections with each other to create independence and functionality without having to micro-manage, which will ultimately lead to high productivity and little turnover.

Jemma Harris, CBA