| The
Role of a Leader
- Brian Tracy
Your ability to negotiate, communicate,
influence, and persuade others to do things is absolutely indispensable to
everything you accomplish in life. The most effective men and women in every
area are those who can quite competently organize the cooperation and
assistance of other people toward the accomplishment of important goals and
objectives.
Of course, everyone you meet has different values, opinions, attitudes,
beliefs, cultural values, work habits, goals, ambitions, and dreams. Because
of this incredible diversity of human resources, it has never been more
difficult and yet more necessary for diplomatic leaders to emerge and form
these people into high-performing teams.
Fortunately, leaders are made, not born. You learn to become a leader by
doing what other excellent leaders have done before you. You become
proficient in your job or skill, and then you become proficient at
understanding the motivations and behaviors of other people. As a leader,
you combine your personal competencies with the competencies of a variety of
others into a smoothly functioning team that can out-play and out-perform
all its competitors.
When you become a team leader, even if your team only consists of one other
person, you must immediately develop a whole new set of leadership skills.
In order to determine what these skills are, you need to consider the
genesis of high-performing teams.
Teams generally go through four phases as they evolve toward high
performance. These stages are called forming, storming, norming, and
performing.
The forming stage is very important, perhaps even critical, to the success
of the team. Your ability to select the proper team members in order to
accomplish a particular task-personal or business-is the mark of the
superior leader. If you select the wrong people in the first place, it
becomes almost impossible afterward to build a winning team, just as it
would be impossible to win athletic championships with unskilled or
ill-suited players.
In the forming stage, the team members come together and begin to get a
feeling for each other. There will be a good deal of discussion, argument,
disagreement, personal _expression_ of likes and dislikes, and the forming of
friendly alliances between team members. This stage, especially the
discussions and conversations that take place, may seem time consuming, but
it is absolutely indispensable to the development of a unified group of
people that you can lead. One of the most important qualities of a leader is
that of patience. And patience is never more necessary than when you are
going through the early stages of assembling your team.
The second stage of team development is called storming. Storming is a
shortened form of the word �brainstorming.� It is during this stage when the
group, whose members are now comfortable with each other, begins the hard
work of setting goals and deadlines, dividing up the tasks, and getting on
with the job. During the storming phase, people learn about the
contributions that each member can make to achieve the purposes of the team.
The third stage of team development is called norming. This is where norms
and standards are established among the team members so that everyone feels
secure and confident in his or her place. All members know what is expected
and how it is to be measured. And all members are aware of the
responsibilities and obligations that they have, not only to the job, but to
the each other as well. Your ability as a leader to promote the norming
process is critical to the success of the team.
The fourth stage of team development is performing. In the final analysis,
your ability to get results is all that really matters. Your lifestyle, your
rate of promotion and level of rewards, and your respect and esteem among
your co-workers and bosses will all be determined by your ability to perform
and to get others to perform. There are basically five qualities of the most
productive work teams that you need to foster throughout the stages of team
development. The degree to which you accomplish this before you start
working will determine your success as a team leader and the success of the
team as a whole.
The first quality is the existence of shared values. You can foster this
quality by asking the question, �What are our values?� or, �What do we stand
for?� People will contribute the values they consider the most important. As
they do, you or someone else can write them on a flipchart. The values will
usually be something like: integrity, excellence, quality, caring about
people, profitability, and harmony. The second quality of top teams is
shared objectives. It is absolutely essential that everyone takes the time
to discuss the actual reason for forming the team and the chief results that
are expected of them.
Leaders are those who can see the big picture. They are absolutely clear
about what it is they want to accomplish and what it will look like. They
have the ability to articulate this vision in the minds and hearts of others
and to get everyone, no matter what their background or personality, working
together in harmony toward the realization of that vision.
People cannot hit a target they cannot see. Again, even though it may appear
time consuming, everyone needs to have ample opportunity to discuss and
agree on the ultimate goals desired before work begins. The more thorough
the discussion on goals and objectives, the more effective the team will be
when it begins working.
The third quality of highly-productive teams is shared activities. Everyone
knows what they are supposed to contribute to the achievement of the overall
goals and objectives of the team. Everyone also knows what each of the other
members is expected to do. All the work that has to be done is clearly
divided up among the team members, and everyone knows their role in the
process.
The fourth quality of high-performing teams is that the head of the team
leads the action. You become the role model for all of the others. You go
out in front. You continually look for ways to make it easier for your team
members to do their jobs. You accept complete responsibility for the
achievement of the overall goal. You start a little earlier, you work a
little harder, and you stay a little later. You set careful priorities on
your time and you always work on your highest value tasks. You never ask
anyone to do something that you wouldn't do yourself. You always put
yourself out in front and go to bat for your people in every circumstance.
You are a leader because you continually lead.
The fifth and final quality of high-performing teams is that individually
and as a group, they continually evaluate their progress toward their goals
and values. The are always asking themselves, �How are we doing, and how can
we do better?� When they manufacture or sell products in the marketplace,
they ask their customers for ongoing feedback and evaluation. They set
incredible standards of excellence and they are constantly striving to be
better.
Whenever they have problems, misunderstandings, or difficulties within the
team, they reexamine their values, their goals, their activities, their
assignments, and their responsibilities. They are more concerned with what's
right than with who's right. They are more concerned with winning than with
not losing. High-Performing teams run by excellent leaders, are determined
to perform in an excellent fashion. All members know that their ability to
work together in harmony and cooperation is the key to the success of every
one of them.
The wonderful thing about becoming a leader in your work and personal life
is that you can practice the skills of influencing and persuading others
toward a common objective. You can promote the principles of excellent
teamwork by establishing your values and goals, determining your activities,
and then leading the action. And you can improve yourself by continually
evaluating your performance against your standards.
One of the marks of excellent people is that they never compare themselves
with others. They only compare themselves with themselves and with their
past accomplishments and future potential. You can become an even more
excellent person by constantly setting higher and higher standards for
yourself and then by doing everything possible to live up to those
standards. The more proficient you become at getting the results for which
you were hired, the more opportunities you will have to get results through
others. And your ability to put together a team and then to lead that team
to high performance will enable you to accelerate your career and fulfill
your goals faster than ever before.
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Achievement in Action
(One
45-minute video)
In this fast-paced seminar, Brian Tracy presents a proven, practical,
powerful process to overcome any obstacle and achieve any goal you can
set for yourself.
You learn how to:
- Decide exactly what you want
- Make detailed plans of action
- Achieve more, faster than ever before
- Use "back to the future" thinking in every area
- Create a path to your goals
- Make all of your dreams come true
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About Brian Tracy
Brian Tracy is a leading authority on personal
and business success. As Chairman and CEO of
Brian Tracy International, he is the best-selling author of 17 books and
over 300 audio and video learning programs.
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