Leading with Integrity
11185
Business > Management
Apr 18, 2007
Leading with Integrity
Leadership is often defined as getting other people to do what you want. Using this definition it is no wonder that many people revert to using underhanded tactics to try to "trick" their followers into doing what they want. This is a shortcut to leadership and doesn't result in long term value. It is this type of "leadership by trickery" that makes people automatically suspicious of their leaders. If you want to develop a long term foundation for leadership, these types of short cut tricks will only prevent you from achieving your goals. Once some of your followers realize that they have been tricked you will lose any credibility you started with. If you want a solid leadership foundation you must take the long view and consider how every action will impact your ability to lead further down the road. To build trust with your followers you must act with integrity. Leading with integrity means doing what you say you will do. Many leaders get themselves into trouble by making commitments off the cuff and then not following through on those commitments. If you are careful what you say, you will increase your integrity with your followers simply because you won't have to back out of commitments you made with out thinking. When you do make commitments make sure they are tied to realistic timeframes. If you tell someone you are going to give them a raise next year, you are making a commitment with many factors you can't control. Sometimes saying that you will give them a raise when sales reach $1,000,000 will be a better commitment because it is tied to a goal that will enable you to give the raise. Sometimes leading with integrity means going through with something to keep your word even when you would rather not. Not keeping your word will often hurt you much more than any inconvenience that is caused by keeping your word. If you ever have to go back on a promise, don't hide it under the rug. Take the time to apologize to the people you made the promise to. Apologize and try to come up with some way to work things out even if you can't make the original commitment. Another important part of leading with integrity is delegating responsibility. Many leaders fail by delegating responsibility and then taking back over when their delegate does something they don't want. When you delegate you need to be willing to part with the responsibility. If your delegate does something differently than you, you need to support their decision. That doesn't mean you can't steer them in a different direction, but always support their decision whenever possible. If you delegate responsibility and then pull it back, you will demotivate your followers and make it difficult to delegate other items in the future. Leading with integrity is avoiding the shortcuts that many leaders take. By avoiding shortcuts you can build a strong foundation that will amplify your leadership skills as you develop trust with your team.
Leadership501 is a website with resources for leaders and people in management positions. Please visit www.leadership501.com to find out more about keeping a good relationship with people you lead and other leadership topics.
Write a Review
Add to My Favorite
Refer it to Friend
Report Article
Other links at Business > Management
It's a fact that most businesses - online or offline - fail in their first year. I've also seen that many online businesses start but never really get off the ground.
Category:
Business coaching is a profession that helps people develop and enhance their business skills, so that they can achieve desired results. A business coach guides people to develop efficient business plans and implement them properly, on time.
Category:
So you've spent countless hours thinking, planning, filming and editing your web video. And finally, the video is ready to be distributed across the Internet.
Category:
There are many benefits to having a home business. One of the great things is that you can be doing what you love to be doing and you can be doing this at home, surrounded by your family and able to stop work at any time to take care of things
Category:
Site Sponsor
Directory Statistics
Articles: 68309
Categories: 501
Yahoo Entertainment
