Using Your Leadership Powers
May 10, 2008
Using Your Leadership Powers
By Gene Swindell
The Voice of Change™
Every leader has three powers:
1. Position power - The authority that comes with the leadership job.
2. Skills power - The knowledge and expertise of the leader.
3. Personal power - The attitude, the beliefs and values, and commitment demonstrated by the leader.
Numbers one and two can become barriers to trust, respect and good relationships if allowed to dominate the leader’s actions. Number three, personal power, could well be the key to successful leadership. The reality now is people don’t want to be managed, they want to be led by a leader who manages himself and leads others.
Effective leaders in the 21st century also recognize that customers want what they want, where and when they need it. Customer service has gone through a drastic change in recent years. Where we were trying to keep customers satisfied through mass marketing, direct mail, and discount sales in the 90’s, the service industry now focuses on electronic data gathering and data mining. Information on individual customers is collected, categorized, and analyzed to determine the exact services that appeal to that specific person or group of people.
If leaders learn customers want business magazines in restrooms, then the latest publications will be there. When a customer wants invoices due at the end of the month instead of the 15th, the change is made without question. Leaders in this new century will have to remain ahead of the curve to maintain the competitive edge.
Balanced thinking is becoming a critical characteristic of effective leaders. The age-old challenge of meeting quotas and goals will always be a top priority in any business. However, meeting the numbers must be balanced with creating new methods and systems to keep customers loyal and dedicated. The left-brain of today’s leaders must be connected to the right brain so the statistical hemisphere can be simultaneously joined with the creative right hemisphere. When numbers appear, forward-thinking leaders immediately look for new innovative ways to meet them. New ideas will be the key to success.
Gene Swindell works with companies that want to create a competitive advantage by strengthening the framework of their organization. Call 770-926-1395 or on-line www.geneswindell.com
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