@ 8 simple steps for being leaders are:

1. Set yourself a goal of being able to think differently – on demand
A basic requirement of leadership is the ability to think through the problems facing the business: if you are not thinking about 

• your business, 
• markets, 
• customers or 
• the competition, 

someone else is. Thinking is a skill so the more your practice it the better you will become.

Most leaders are goal-motivated, in my experience. So, to become a better thinker who is able to generate new ideas, solutions and possibilities at will, set a goal. It could be a subjective measure, such as ‘Am I better able to think differently than this time last year?’ It could be an objective measure such as asking your peers to rate your ability to thinking differently on a 10-point scale.

2.  Go against the crowd
It is very tempting to follow the crowd, the consensus or the mainstream. As the former Labour Prime Minister Paul Keating once said, leadership takes imagination and courage. As a thought exercise, (at the very least) I would encourage every current and potential leader to adopt the least popular position from time-to-time.

This forces you to look at situation from a different angle and can sharpen up the reasons why you may consider an alternative action. I sometimes watch Fox News in the US for this reason. I am politically opposed to most of what the network’s commentators say but I enjoy thinking about the way they see the world.

3. Put yourself in another leader’s position and ask what would you do?
I once heard that to improve your golf game it is a useful idea to imagine how you might play the next shot of your playing partners. I believe that you can apply a similar logic to leadership. Often leaders become obsessed with their areas of responsibility. One way to grow is to consider the decisions that others make. Ask yourself would I have answered that question in that tone of voice, for example? If marketing is your responsibility, ask yourself what big initiative you might consider if you were given the financial portfolio.

4. The power of three
This is one of my favorite tools. In any situation, leaders think of three solutions: 

1. the usual one, 
2. a different one, and 
3. a radical one. 

It’s amazing how powerful it can be to consider a broader range of options and give yourself and others permission to express a left-field or radical idea.

5. Seek diverse perspectives
It is hard to think differently if you are surrounded by people who see the world the same as you. You may like them, but you will rarely receive a truly different suggestion. 

Talk to people outside of your industry or category. 
Talk to partners, suppliers or employees who have just joined your business. 

These people may challenge and stretch your mindset, giving you greater scope to think differently. My two PhD supervisors, for example, were a chaos mathematician and an environmentalist – they constantly challenged my traditional MBA frame of reference.

6. Be open to different points of view
If you want to think differently, be open to this ability in others. Encourage it. Recognise and highlight examples of people thinking differently in your team, even if you do not always agree with them. I once worked with a senior partner of a legal firm who confided in me that his worst fear was that a client might ask him a question that he could not answer; after all, he was the expert. My reaction was the complete opposite. I love receiving questions that challenge me, presenting me with an opportunity to learn and grow so that I am better prepared next time.

7. Ask original questions
You cannot think differently if you ask the same questions, or questions to which you already know the answer. To create and innovate is to ask fresh, insightful questions that open up new areas of opportunity.

8. Use thinking tools
There are tools designed to enhance your ability to think differently. Mind mapping is a tool that can help you to visualize and link solutions.

In summary, being able to think differently is a skill that you can acquire and become better at. It is a worthwhile, rewarding journey in itself and increasingly is one of the key attributes of an outstanding 21st century leader.

http://www.leadership-expert.co.uk/creative-leadership/

@ Creative leadership involves imagining ways to make the current one better

Creative leadership involves imagining a new world, 

or ways to make the current one better.”

When properly managed and encouraged, creativity can be found in any employee, regardless of their job description. On the whole, creative people typically fall into a variety of categories, ranging from those who are quick and dramatic to people who are careful and quiet. But one thing remains true of all: most creative ideas are not flashes of inspiration in an individual’s head but rather come from how people identify, create, store, share and use the knowledge they’re exposed to in their surrounding environment.

And fostering that environment (not the act of creativity itself) is the task of creative leadership.

Managing Creative People
Managing for creativity and innovation differs slightly from other methods of management due to the level of freedom employees need to be given in order to have space, time and the right environment to think creatively. 

But like any other process, managing creative functions must strike a balance between employees, clients, audiences and partners, achieving satisfaction between all involved for it to be effective and fundamental to this process to have a leader who is open to new ideas and fresh thinking, in order to fully explore new ways of doing things. 

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” ~John Quincy Adams 

“Creative leadership involves a unique vision or brilliant strategy, and sometimes both” “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” ~Arnold Glasow


According to management guru and author, Peter Drucker:
How a leader can generate creativity in their team
What might an ideal creative environment look like?
Leaders responded by listing the following six attributes they perceive a creative environment to exhibit:

These six factors are interdependent and form the ideal creative environment, and have developed called Breakthrough Leadership. 

The successful leaders of the future need to think of their role more as builders and facilitators of a creative environment rather than adopting the traditional command and control mindset.

1. Open and receptive to ideas
For many leaders, an open and receptive culture was the very essence of creativity and innovation. This insight has certainly informed my work for the past few years. It is not enough to generate big, new ideas if no one is open or receptive to them. Idea receptivity is equally as important as idea generation.

2. Continually experimenting
According to leaders a creative culture is continually testing and experimenting. The tests do not have to be big – in fact smaller, quicker, cheaper tests are the order of the day.

3. Taking risks
Having an experimental mindset also makes it easier to take risks, which is one of the other key features of a creative culture. Innovation by definition means testing new ideas and approaches, which involves risk-taking, learning and failure. This partly explains why high-achieving managers find even the idea of innovation difficult, as the outcome is not predictable.

4. Fun and enjoyable
Even the most practical and rational leaders also recognise that creating new ideas can only occur when people can relax and enjoy themselves and their work. The outcome may be serious but the process is not.

5. Retaining a focus on results
I found this a surprising result, but truly creative environments place a premium on results. It is not all beer and skittles. Creative people want to have their ideas tested in the marketplace. They need to know what works and what does not.

6. Operating at the ‘edge of chaos’
One of the distinguishing features of a creative culture is a concept which I have borrowed from complexity theory called operating at the ‘edge of chaos’. Although leaders did not use this language they instantly recognized its properties. The edge of chaos means that a living system operates in the dynamic zone between order and randomness. 

Leaders would talk about giving people freedom but within constraints. And further, they adopted a leadership style of agreeing ‘what’ has to be delivered, leaving the ‘how’ to their team members.

http://www.leadership-expert.co.uk/creative-leadership/

@ Leadership qualities

Before you can start acting like a leader, you need to understand what leadership traits you need to develop, in order to become like a great leader. I will repeat this because its important. You can develop the skills you need to become a successful leader, no matter what field you are in.

In the table below I have listed two groups of leadership traits and I want you to give each one a score between 1 and 20. 

But you can only use each number once. I.E. no trait must have the same number (basically you are placing them in an order of what you feel your strongest verses your weakest traits are. 

I am happy for you to cut and paste the table onto a word document – you might want to keep a track of your scores over time. Although I have separated the boxes with the left hand box representing more junior leadership qualities and the right hand box representative of a strong and accomplished leader it is important that you score both boxes. 

This is called self-assessment. !!

It only works if you are truly honest with yourself. Especially the more senior you are in the organisation – as Fred Goodwin, ex Chief Executive of RBS will testify. 

‘The higher you get, the further you have to fall’. Understanding your current skill set, by being honest with yourself, will enable you to gain a real insight into your own personal strengths and weaknesses. Before you go ahead and self-assess, I would like to share with you a really powerful poem written in 1934 by Dale Wimbrow:

The Guy In The Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf, 

And the world makes you King for a day,

Then go to the mirror and look at yourself, 

And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your Father or Mother or Wife, 

Who judgement upon you must pass. 

The feller whose verdict counts most in your life 

Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest, 

For he’s with you clear up to the end, 

And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test 

If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum, 

And think you’re a wonderful guy, 

But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum 

If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years, 

And get pats on the back as you pass, 

But your final reward will be heartaches and tears 

If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.

©Dale Wimbrow, 1934.

Ok lets score

The Johari Window:

The Johari Window was originally developed by two American psychologists called Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. 

They named the model by combining their first names, Joe and Harry. (Johari). The Johari Window model is used by leaders seeking to become more self-aware. It represents information – feelings, experience, views, attitudes, skills, motivation, etc – within or about a person in relation to their group/team, from four perspectives.

The diagram shows how others can see into our ‘window’. It is their perception of who you are.  The public arena changes the more you communicate about yourself, e.g. ‘what I know about me and what you know about me = larger window’.

The essence of the Johari model is that the size of each area changes to reflect what you know about yourself and what other know and are saying about you. This is very important for leaders as the more you know about your own strengths and limitations, the more you are able to play to your strengths. You may decide to address your limitations or build a team of people around you who have the expertise you may lack. The late Steve Jobs was a master at recognising peoples talents and bringing them into his team to plug gaps in his or the teams knowledge. The late great Andrew Carnegie who despite being regarded as the second most richest man in history (1835-1919), had words to this effect on his tombstone “Here lies a man who knew how to get around him, people who were cleverer than he“.

Leaders who consciously display a larger open/free area have strong self belief and make it their purpose in life to communicate with the people around them, sharing both their personal vision and aspirations and those of the business. 

They can relate to their team, engage in banter, socialising (to a degree) and open discussion. Their door is always open, but their mind is also open to new ideas. 

They are considered approachable and they know what motivates their team. Such leaders practice self-reflection and have their own agenda of continuous personal improvement through self discovery. As such they demand high standards of their people, but they set and live by those standards themselves. 

Consequently they can be challenging and difficult to work for, but inspirational at the same time. You will find the more you can share with your team and lead by example, the more they will learn about your values and what makes you tick; the larger the top left window. Often this larger window leads to a greater degree of respect for the leader as the risks of the other windows recede – backbiting and undermining in the blind area; assumptions and avoidance in the hidden area; lack of trust and respect in the unknown area. 

Leaders can also increase the size of the open/free area through a process of disclosure and 360 degree feedback from the people they interact with. Getting people to share (anonymously) what they really think about your style and what you could do to improve and get the best out of your team can be enormously enlightening.

Here’s a useful exercise. If you were to describe yourself to your team/boss and could only do it in the form of a picture, what would you draw?

What does your window look like?

What picture do you want people to see when they look inside?

The exercises I have shared with you are designed to open up neurological pathways in your brain and tap into your emotional intelligence (much more to come on EI in article 19). Ultimately the most accomplished leaders, who create resonance within their organisation, have been shown to have very high levels of emotional intelligence.  Developing strong emotional intelligence begins with developing self-awareness. Daniel Goleman writes in The New Leaders (a MUST have in your portfolio):

“Self-awareness means having a deep understanding of one’s emotions, as well as one’s strengths and limitations and one’s values and motives. People with strong self-awareness are realistic – neither overly self-critical nor naively hopeful. Rather, they are honest with themselves about themselves. And they are honest about themselves with others, even to the point of being able to laugh at their own foibles.

Self-aware leaders also understand their values, goals and dreams. They know where they’re headed and why. They’re attuned to what “feels right” to them. .. Because the decision of self-aware people mesh with their values, they more often find their work energising”

Perhaps the most telling (although least visible) sign of self-awareness is a propensity for self-reflection and thoughtfulness. Self-aware people typically find time to reflect quietly, often by themselves, which allows them to think things over rather than react impulsively.

Summary
I hope you have found this first article of great help at the start of your journey. As Lao-tzu (tao te Ching 6th Century BC) once said “He who knows others is learned. He who knows himself is wise”

I encourage you to spend the next 7 days really analysing yourself.

What do you want out of life? 
How ambitious are you? 
What motivates you? 
What is your dominant strength and primary motivator? 
What do you want to be remembered most for? 
Is your Johari an open or closed window?

If you can answer all these burning questions, you will be well on the road to becoming an authentic leader. 

Next week we will look at one of the core leadership traits – that of Enthusiasm. Here’s what Henry Ford had to say about that:

“Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. 

Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eye; it is the swing in your gait; the grip of your hand; the irresistible surge of your will and your energy to execute your ideas. Enthusiasts are fighters. They have fortitude. They have staying qualities. Enthusiasm is at the bottom of all progress – with it there is accomplishment, without it there are only alibis.”

Ref; http://www.leadership-expert.co.uk/

@ Leadership Training

What is leadership training about? 
Is leadership training effective? 
If my company isn’t presently investing in any leadership training for me – what can I do about it? 

These will be the questions I will be investigating, evaluating and more importantly – solving for you.

Whether you are a top performing CEO or someone who is considering (or being considered) for their first junior management or supervisory role; providing you with the right tools to do the job effectively is essential. 

After all, you wouldn't want someone who knows nothing, or very little about plumbing to come and install a new bathroom, complete with energy efficient boiler, power shower, expensive tiles etc into your home would you? Unfortunately, however, this is exactly what most organisations do. They take a good employee and then throw them into the deep end of management under the auspices of ‘career development’.

Pro-active, innovative and forward thinking organisations do have whole suites of tried and tested, highly effective management induction and learning programmes. Over the course of the next few months I will be researching and interviewing some of these organisations HR Directors and Staff Development managers to see exactly what they do and how they do it. If you currently work somewhere you feel is amazing at leadership training and support I would love to hear from you.

Many of you are telling me that, sadly, you were either thrown in at the deep end, or that you feel your training has been inadequate. The fact is that most of the greatest leaders I have ever come across embarked on a relentless drive for their own self-development, regardless of what their companies offered. It is in this respect that I also plan to investigate the most cost effective and life changing learning programmes that are available to you.
I am currently researching leadership training courses in the following subjects:

• Transformational leadership
• Situational leadership
• Global leadership
• Leadership verses management
• The accomplished executive
• Leadership training for new managers

I will be investigating up to 10 different leadership training companies to see what they provide and how effective their training has been. The list is not exhaustive so let me know what king of leadership training you currently need and I will guide you accordingly. Just so you know, most good leadership courses cost up to £3,000.

One leadership course I would definitely recommend you should take a look at is called Best Year Yet®. What is so good about this programme is that it is goal orientated and behavioral. It is also value based and blended with on-line tracking, audio programmes, webinars, and for those who want it, one-to-one coaching.  It is also one of the cheapest and yet most effective (life changing) programmes I have ever come across. To take a closer look – see my full review.

One of the most effective ways to learn to become a leader is through coaching. 

Coaching can add so much more value compared to attending a course, because it is more personal, in-depth and can unlock peoples hidden potential in amazing ways.

There is currently an explosion in leadership coaching, because people want to be able to find their own path to success, independently to what their company offers them, or at least, with the ability to discuss real issues with someone from outside the company. This can have major benefits for both the individual and the organisation. 

External coaches are being accepted in greater numbers into organisations and as part of peoples continuing professional development planning.

For details of the three different types of coaching programme available directly through Leadership-expert™ 


Action : Asked yourself how can I become a better leader? 
First  – Self-Awareness

Action: How To Be A Leader - To answer the question how can I become a leader, it’s important for us to begin with an understanding of what makes a leader, and indeed what makes a great leader?

In order to fully understand how to be a leader, you must first make time to train yourself in both the art and science of leadership. There are fundamental principles upon which you can develop leadership skills, but you need to know what they are and how to employ them to best effect. The world (and the people within it) is also constantly changing, so it’s important to stay up to date with leadership innovation in order to adapt. Self-development is the key to learning how to be a leader and unlocking the potential within you. This is the cornerstone to your future success.

Action: Ask yourself is ‘trust’ one of your core values? If so, consider who in your team you need to be more trusting of. Find out what motivates them. What can you trust them with by delegating or giving them greater responsibility?

The third is to clarify purpose. Great leaders involve their people in the communication process to create the goals to be achieved. If people are involved in the process, they psychologically own it and you create a situation where people are on the same page about what is really important—mission, vision, values, and goals.

Action: Ask yourself “More often than not, do I communicate at my team, rather than engage with them?” Think about how you like to be involved and consider how you can engender that ethos in all your dealings with your team. Do you hold regular ‘short’ team meetings focusing on involving your team in setting parameters and guidelines to bring to life ‘mission, vision, values and goals’? Many teams I’ve met don’t even know what these are.

The forth is to align systems. This means that you don’t allow there to be conflict between what you say is important and what you measure. For instance, many times organisations claim that people are important but in fact the structures and systems, including accounting, make them an expense or cost centre rather than an asset and the most significant resource.

Action: Consider what systems you and the organisation has in place to recognise and reward people’s efforts. Create a simple reward system. For example, the CEO of a company I recently coached, decided to rule out just half an hour every Friday afternoon to phone 3 people in the company who turned in a great weeks performance, or where he had been ‘tipped off’ that they had gone the extra mile for a client/the company. Word soon got round, productivity went up and he eventually found himself phoning up to 10 people every Friday afternoon, because what he had inadvertently created was the beginnings of a high performance, high value culture.

The fifth is the fruit of the other three—unleashed talent. When you inspire trust and share a common purpose with aligned systems, you empower people. Their talent is unleashed so that their capacity, their intelligence, their creativity, and their resourcefulness is utilized.

I would add that these are based upon principles that build upon each other rather than techniques or steps that have to be taken independent of each other. These aren’t “management tricks” but real principles that guide a true leaders character.

Action: Consider what you can do differently from today to unleash the talent of your team.

The world is vastly different today and ever-changing. If we can develop leaders who can withstand and embrace the changing times by deeply rooting themselves in these principles of great leadership, then we can develop great people, great teams and great results.

http://www.leadership-expert.co.uk/

@ Leadership Theories, Theories about Leaders

You may be looking for: 
The Ultimate Leadership Guide

Many leadership theories have been suggested since time immemorial. Early leadership theories focused on the behavior and qualities of successful leaders where as later theories gave more importance to the role of associates and followers. Some of the leadership theories are as follows:

Great Man Theory. 
According to Great Man theory, a leader is born and cannot be made. This theory believed that leaders are people who have inborn exceptional qualities and are destined to lead. Here the term “Man” is used since leadership was considered as a concept that would be primarily dominated by males. Great leaders would arise only when there is an urgent need of it. It also suggests that leadership qualities are inherent.


Trait Theory. 
According to Trait theory, few people are born with qualities that are suited to leaderships. People who transform into good leaders posses right combination of leadership qualities. Through this approach, people with such leadership qualities could be separated and then people with such qualities could be recruited or selected into leadership positions. This approach was commonly used in military and is even today used to recruit candidates for commission.


Self Investment Theory.
From visiting organisations, I’ve found that the happiest employees and managers regularly invest in themselves and their personal leadership training. People have often sought out useful leadership books and learning material that will help them along the path to happiness and leadership. Leaders invest in their own development either through leadership training 
or leadership coaching.


Contingency Theory. 
This leadership theory focuses on variables that are related to environment and that would determine which style of leadership is suitable for a particular situation. It says that it is impossible to determine which leadership style will suit best for any situation. Success depends on qualities of followers and other variables.

Situational Theories. 
This theory suggests that on the basis of situational variable, leaders should choose the course of action. Diverse styles of leadership will me more suitable to make certain types of decisions

Behavioral Theories. 
This leadership theory believes that great leaders are not born but are made. The prime focus of this theory is on actions of leaders. The focus is not on internal states or mental qualities. This theory believes that people can become leaders through the process of teaching, learning and observation.


Participative Theory. 
This theory defines ideal leadership style. An ideal leadership style takes into consideration the input of its associates. Such leaders encourage contribution and participation from group members. The leader also has the right to say no to any suggestion of other team member.


Management Theories. 
This collection of leadership theories gives more importance to the role of organization, supervision and most importantly the group performance. This theory is based on the system of punishment and reward. Managerial theory is often used in many companies. When employee’s performance is very good, he or she is given a reward. If the employee’s performance decreases below a certain level, he or she is punished.


Relationship Theory. 
This theory also called Transformational theory focuses on the connections that are formed between followers and leaders. These leaders inspire and motivate people. They also help group members in case of any difficulty. Such leaders focus on performance of of members of group. These leaders have high moral values.


Path Goal Theory. 
This theory focuses on what leaders should do to motivate and inspire people so that the employees can perform well.

@There are 5 BIG reasons why leadership and management is failing in many organisations right now

I call them the five harbingers of doom.

Your about to discover exactly what the 5 harbingers of doom are – although you've probably seen some of them in action and you are seeing evidence of their handy work day-in and day out – if not in your company then in many you interact with.

The five harbingers of doom lead to:

• Low staff morale
• Reduced productivity
• Poor customer experience/rising complaints
• Lost sales opportunities and revenue streams
• The best staff leaving…

The monster which has plagued both household names, global organisations, long standing local family businesses and one in three start-up businesses in the UK (3 in 4 in the USA!) – LEADERSHIP. 

The five harbingers of doom which feed the monster are:

1. The autocratic leader
2. Leadership teams who don’t listen to their people
3. Transactional as opposed to transformational leaders
4. Corporate bullies
5. Leaders who don’t do as they say and fail to deliver on their promises

Ring any bells?
If you've worked in any of these organisations I’m sure you will agree:

Clinton Cards; Kodak; Enron; DeLorean; Pan Am; Woolworths; Royal Bank of Scotland to name but a few. There are tens of thousands of smaller businesses and organisations that have faced the same fate. 

Are you working in such a company right now?
If so, its time to break out from the norm.

The change you want to see in your organisation begins with you.

You can change the environment, the atmosphere and the culture. Yes, I know it sounds incredible – it might even sound ridiculous for someone who feels entrenched in an organisation which seems hell bent on self destruction, where staff morale is at its lowest ever.
So whats the secret?

The secret to making the changes needed to turn your company into an:
Iceland; Pets at Home; PWC; UKRD; Admiral Group; or a Shine Communications (source: The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to work for 2012).

What you must do is focus on the following five long term traits and turn them into daily habits and actions:

Become a leader who constantly seeks to develop and fine tuning your skills, using self development tools and practicing a wide repertoire of leadership, management, coaching and mentoring styles at every opportunity.

Become a leader who is open to and constantly seeking feedback from the people you interact with. This includes your boss/senior stakeholders, your immediate leadership team, staff you interact with, suppliers, partners and customers. Using 360 degree feedback in this way will helps you to …Self reflect. 

Leaders who invest time in reflecting and considering the impact of their actions, who are open to admitting their mistakes along the way and showing some humility, always win the respect of the people they work with.

Be a Leader who takes the view that your staff don’t work for you – you work for them. Acknowledging that you can only ever be as good as your team. ..

Nurture and develop your people, acknowledging their talents, inspiring and leading from the front. People respect this kind of leader and will follow them anywhere.  This kind of leader no longer has a ‘morale’ issue, because people love working for him/her.

So, here’s the first step you must take, right from now. From this very moment. I strongly encourage you to create time to begin at STEP 1 – self development.

This issue is so important to leadership and management in the current global climate that I spent over 2 years traveling the world and seeking out the best leadership and management tools to help you to become an accomplished and authentic leader. In that time I had the pleasure of meeting the late, great Dr Stephen Covey, Jinny Ditzler, Andy Lopata, the team at Charterhouse, Profiles International and many other influential people engaged in thought, study and publication on Leadership and Management today.

Combining all their experience, talents, success and I have produced the following leadership toolkit. This is one of the most powerful self-development leadership programmes on the market. This is an exclusive offer specifically to help readers of Leadership-Expert.co.uk. The beauty of it is…
It doesn’t cost thousands of pounds. It doesn't mean your company has to commit to sending you off on a 6 week course to learn everything there is to know about successful leadership. This is something you can do for yourself – no-one at work has to know. This is your gift to yourself to enable you to become 100% more effective as a leader in your workplace, whatever your current role.

@ Attention to Detail

Oh, the life of a manager. You need to give your team space, but you have to make sure they are delivering the task or project on time and under budget, which means you need to pay close attention to details. But what if being ‘detail-oriented’ negatively affects your management style?

For example, say you make it a habit to immerse yourself in overseeing a project, and you resist delegating to others, because you want to control the fine points of a project.

I hate to break it to you, but that is called ‘micromanaging’, and those kinds of managers are not the ones that engage their team. Micromanagers are overly involved in the details of projects and are too controlling of those who should be attending to the details. Think about it, if the boss is going to control every detail, why should the employees even bother with it?

In addition, paying too close attention to certain details can cause unnecessary second-guessing, along with potential redundant work and a resultant inefficient workforce.

On the flip side, if you’re scared of becoming a micro manager, and take a ‘hands-of’ approach to your team, you might miss important, fail to deliver within set deadlines, and be perceived as being too distant from the details.

This is where you need to understand the fine line between monitoring the details and telling people how to do each task.
Efficient managers monitor performance without being too controlling of the details of how the work is accomplished. Learn how to balance the control of details with worker expertise, clarity of work goals, and frequent performance-based feedback.
Here are some tips from our team at Leadership Expert:
When you establish yearly goals with your employees, ask them the level of involvement they want from you. Ask what you can do to be most helpful. Then follow through with their request whenever possible.

When determining the amount of latitude to give to an employee, consider his or her experience and motivation. For example, give more latitude to a person who is highly skilled and motivated in a particular area. Conversely, individuals learning a new skill will likely benefit from closer guidance.
Let your staff go forward with their ideas unless you have a major problem with their plans. Keep in mind that learning from mistakes is one of the most effective and common ways for people to develop.

Learn the difference between holding people accountable and micromanaging. Focus on results, not on whether they are achieved in exactly the same way you would achieve them.
Don’t micromanage, even new people. Instead, train people, break work down intomanageable steps that they can handle successfully, and establish checkpoints. Now it’s your turn. How do you balance the fine line between paying attention to details and micromanaging? Pay Attention to Details – But Don’t Micro Manage!
In General Powell’s Terms “Vigilance in Detail”

Many people in leadership roles, especially those in a high-level leadership position, want to be the ‘visionary’ and leave the details to others.  After all visionary is exciting and rewarding, bringing praise and complimentary feedback.  If the leader leaves the details to subordinates, the result is often failure.  How many leaders protect their self with, “they just won’t implement my plans”.  Such attitude and blame-game antics Is not leadership.

 Like so many of the issues related to effective leadership, attention to detail is a balancing act.  The leader MUST be involved or at least aware of the details of any new initiative, program or project.  To do less is to invite a high probability of failure.

The leader removed from the activity of the organization is caught by total surprise of any undesirable situation.  No surprise must always be the goal.  No Surprise is more likely to be achieved when the leader is involved.  We have all heard the question put to top level leaders about their role.  “Are you committed to quality”? Or “Are you committed to this new training program”?  Or some related question.  My position has always been that the leader can only answer in the affirmative.  The problem is not the answer; the problem is this is the wrong question.  The question should always be “Are you involved in…” whatever the issue is.

Leaders that are not involved lack ownership, they also lack awareness and how, when or where their intervention is needed.

Subordinates are often reluctant to take issues to the boss. 
This brings about a breakdown in communication and the leader is often the last to know when things are not going as expected.

Often when these types of culture exist, by the time the leader finds out that something is wrong it may be too late to make the needed corrections, or the corrections may be very expensive at this point.

These are quotes from Oren Harari’s leadership success book
Early in my career I worked for a superintendent that was totally involved in the operation of his area of responsibility.  Mike, did not micro manage anyone, but he was thoroughly involved in every aspect of his area of responsibility.  On a daily basis, he would tour his department talking to many operators, supervisors, engineers, inspectors, material handlers, etc.  He was always casual but at the same time supportive.  His questions were always around the topic. 

1) What do you need?
2) How can we make this operation better?
3) What would you change?
4) What could we do better?

Asking these type questions allowed Mike to gather first hand information about the “TRUE” condition of his area of responsibility.  

People learned early and quickly that when you told Mike a better way or what you needed to get the job done.  He paid attention, things changed, tools were provided, and equipment was repaired and/or modified.  Innovation was the tool improvement was the goal!  At the same time, Mike held everyone responsible for his or her job.  Whether it was machine operators, supervisors, engineers, etc., Mike knew their job, their responsibility, their requirements, their deliverables and he expected them to perform.
It is noted again that attention to detail is not micro management, over controlling or second-guessing nor is it an excuse for ‘analysis-paralysis’.  The leader must take care to strike the proper balance and become involved, at the same time giving subordinates the tools, support and guidance needed to get their work done. 

Attention to detail is often grueling un-glamorous work that brings the proper level of understanding to the leader.
The effective leader not only pays attention to detail but develops an environment that allows or causes others to also pay attention to detail.


About two decades ago I was assigned as a quality resource for a large organization.  To say this organization was having quality problems was not merely an understatement it would have been an under simplification of the magnitude of their problems.  While there were many initiatives taken by people in multiple roles.  One of the steps I took was to begin to provide quality information to the right people at the right time.  

To accomplish this I created a report that detailed the source (causing individual) of incorrect builds that occurred on the previous shift.  This information went to the department head, the line supervisor, the team leader and was communicated to the individual.  I will not say it was particularly easy to get this process set up, but once it was in place the rate of improvement was astounding.  The timely quality information gave the proper leaders and operators the detail information they needed to understand what had happen, why it had happened and how it was corrected.  

As this process of communication of detailed information grew and strengthened it was no longer possible for anyone in the organization to ‘resort to finger-pointing’ as a defense, blaming some other person, shift or team, now we had the proper detail in the proper hands at the proper time.  The result was a rate of improvement that I have not seen repeated since.  All I did was provide the information.  I did not provide the method of correction, improvement or change.  Once the proper people had the proper information, the proper outcome was inevitable.

Balance – Balance – Balance

“The leader must find the proper center of gravity between; 

detail, 

big picture, 

analysis 

and 

delegation.”

The balance can be found by paying attention to what is happening.  If you (leader) are not seeing proper rate of implementation or improvement you can be ensure your level of detail involvement is insufficient.  

As you make this self-analysis pay attention to the demeanor of your organization, are you frustrating them with micro-management or analysis-paralysis?  

Are you allowing subordinates and peers to 
‘carry-their-own-weight’, 
people want to do a good job, 
people want to feel they are value added.  

If the leader carries all the burden the subordinates won’t have ownership or involvement, thus they will not contribute to their maximum capability.

Powell Principles (by Oren Harari) 

Master the details before and during the launch of a major project or campaign.

Use your mastery of details for great decisions and great execution.

Stay in touch with the “little” things.

Avoid “analysis paralysis”


Remember that discipline in details is discipline in strategy.



Ref: http://www.leadership-expert.co.uk/attention-to-detail/