Page 250 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

Settling into Your Renewing Organization 235

As a result of the feedback at the six-month review, Carla was able to
develop a plan of action to strengthen her leadership, which in turn would
strengthen her working relationships with her boss and comanagers.
Superior leadership, Carla’s aspiration, requires a master plan, and it is dif-
ficult to develop that plan without feedback, especially from your boss and
your fellow managers who talk to him or her. Rely on others to tell you what
you are doing well and what you need to improve. In the final analysis, it is
their perceptions of your effectiveness—what they think—that will affect your
present and future success.
Superior leaders seek to constantly improve their leadership abilities. For
them, leadership effectiveness is a strong value and goal. Bob regularly strives
to improve his leadership abilities either by practicing them or reinforcing
them. He often listens to books and courses that he downloads to his iPod
while doing his morning exercises. He rereads his favorite books on manage-
ment and leadership every year, and he puts a short synopsis of the ideas he
is working with on his BlackBerry and laptop computer. Every day he is aware
of and applies in his work the skills and abilities of a superior leader.
Superior leaders like Bob exercise their best abilities many times a day. They
are steady and consistent in their approach to their work. They are logical, con-
sider alternatives, listen to others’ ideas, and weigh consequences, yet are con-
fident enough to override logic when their intuition is compelling. They trust
their judgment and intuition. They learn who the others are in their organiza-
tion whose logic and intuition they can trust and from whom they can learn.
With an unflinching commitment to their beliefs and values, superior lead-
ers set high standards for themselves and others, and they have a low toler-
ance for anything less. Most importantly, they live up to their standards. When
they are unable to meet their own standards, they figure why and work to
improve. Bob’s daily performance is shaped by his beliefs about good leader-
ship. He constantly strives to live by his values to achieve his goals, and he
maintains a remarkable ability to help others do the same. Superior leaders
touch people’s lives. Bob has the ability to make every person with whom he
comes in contact feel better, more important, more competent, and more valu-
able and responsible. He knows when to take charge and when to get out of
the way. Superior leaders seem better prepared and work harder and smarter
than just about everyone around them because they are well grounded in the
values, beliefs, purpose, and principles by which they live.