Managing All-in-One For Dummies

Book II

Embracing Leadership

Five Key Roles That Leaders Play

• The truth seeker: Effective leaders seek the truth and adjust their sights according to what they learn. These leaders know to listen to the meanings of words rather than simply to the words themselves and to extract additional information from between the lines.
• The direction setter: The leader's job is to select and articulate the target in the future toward which the organization should direct its energies. To be a good direction setter you must set a course toward a destination that others will recognize as representing real progress for the organization.
• The agent from C.H.A.N.G.E.: For a leader merely to articulate a vision isn't enough. A good leader also is responsible for being the catalyst in making changes in an organization's internal environment. (Hence the acronym — the action you take Can Have A New Great Effect.) The changes make it possible for the organization to achieve its vision or reach its goals.
• The spokesperson: Being a spokesperson is often a necessary role for a leader of a new enterprise. A leader motivates people who are skeptical, which involves making the impossible seem merely difficult, and the very difficult seem to be just another day's work.
• The coach or team builder: To be an effective coach, you have to let your team know where you stand, what the vision means to you, and what you will do to make it happen. You must also be committed to the success of everyone in the organization, ...