It amazes me that some company leaders working today in 2009 still don’t get it!  The average worker is walking around on eggshells and looking for a lifeline to provide some relief from the daily stress of working. No position is secure.  Yet there are still corporate leaders unwilling to see that competent leadership is the key to a profitable, innovative, stress resistant business environment.

 These same company leaders do not understand that their behavior impacts the organizational climate more than internal norms, values and external influences. The industry, size or location of the organization matters little, but the words from the employees are consistent.  Repeatedly I hear,  “the communication style of my immediate leader or in some cases the top leader is poor.” “I only hear from him/her when things are wrong or when something needs attention RIGHT NOW.”  “I am non-existent here —just an employee number.” Does this sound familiar?

Could this be the time when women write the new guidelines for effective leadership? Avivah Wittenberg – Cox and Alison Maitland in their book Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the Emergence of Our Next Economic Revolution talk about the serious global impact women have had on the workplace in the last thirty years.

Did you know that 80% of the American consumer purchasing power is in the hands of women? If we are primarily a service economy and women are our customers some of their expertise should be used to improve the workplace. We have made a few steps in that direction according to Linda Carli in her book, Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders.  Women occupy about 40% of the managerial positions in the United States. While the CEO role in Fortune 500 companies continues to be a challenge, Ursula Burns became the first African American woman CEO of Xerox on July 1, 2009. Current Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis and Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayer are proof that Hispanic women are making strides in prominent leadership roles.

I am not stating the case for a biased look at leadership, merely suggesting that it may be time for the other half of the workforce to show what they have learned about effective leadership. Frances Garcia, Inspector General of the U.S. Governmental Accounting Office told the Hispanic Business magazine that she advises leaders to value others. “You cannot do it alone. It sounds so much better to say “we” instead of ‘I.’ People get tired of hearing ‘I, I.” Does this sound like something you have heard a leader in your company say? 

Here are some tools and techniques that we use at APLS Group. We keep working to fine tune our organization. Let us know what you think?

        Get to know your people

        Greet them with enthusiasm

        Ask for employee input and mean it (staff meetings)

        Make them part of the solution

        Involve them in projects to gain experience and knowledge

        Provide on-going feedback (praise and redirect when needed)

        Treat your employees as adults – provide information as it becomes  available so they can do their JOB!

        Provide training opportunities to learn new skills

        Coach and Mentor them for continued success

        Be inclusive and embrace the diversity of your team

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 5:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.