Seven Disciplines of A Leader

2Who Said It Would Be Easy?Scope of the Leader's Job

Leadership is a tough job, one that places you in difficult positions, facing vexing dilemmas. Regardless of your level—supervisor, manager, general manager, president, or CEO—leadership is challenging.

Five Fundamental Goals of Highly Effective Leaders

Let's examine those five goals:

1. Bring people together to work as a team. You guide your team, department, or group, and it's not easy leading a group of diverse people. The workplace today is more diverse than at any time in history: Greatest Generation, baby boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y. Each group has its ideas, values, and thoughts regarding what should be done and how to do it. Effective leaders work hard to build strong teams that accomplish great things. People who work together cohesively offer a competitive advantage.
2. Motivate people to perform. You can't lead without inspiring people to do great things. They must be willing to take that next step, the one that allows them to reach beyond their perceived capabilities and step out of the proverbial box. Each employee has distinct values and needs, wants and desires. Effective leaders spend time coaching people one-on-one to find out what makes them tick, which challenges confront them, and which types of motivation will spur them to perform at a higher level.

   People are motivated in two ways: intrinsically and extrinsically. Extrinsic motivation involves outside factors: money, power, or position. Intrinsic motivation ...