5 Rules of Leadership For Women in Business To Succeed
Posted by Vicki Donlan on Thu, Mar 17, 2011 @ 06:02 AM
Women continue to start businesses at twice the rate of men, but not every woman possesses the necessary leadership skills to be CEO. Traditionally, men have been taught better leadership qualities while growing up, but that is changing in the 2011 homes across America. Both Moms and Dads know that their sons and their daughters equally need the necessary talents to succeed in an ever-changing gender neutral world economy.
There are 5 basic leadership rules that both men and women must learn in order to be effective and successful leaders. These 5 rules are developed from the best-selling book The Five Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni.
(1) Results not ego are the the most important measure of personal success. A true leader understands the importance of the contributions of others. You can't be a leader without followers. Collaboration and cooperation create shared goals and winning outcomes.
(2) Having the respect of your staff is more important that having their affection. Leaders can't expect to befriend every staff member. Being liked is not the goal of leaders. Genuine leaders walk the talk and earn respect for their actions.
(3) Be decisive. Leaders make decisions. Making the wring decision is not as risky as making no decision at all. No one is right all the time. But indecision is a sign of weakness.
(4) Disagreement breeds new ideas. Leaders encourage debate. The more ideas that are placed on the table the greater the opportunity for growth. Leaders have no fear of not having all the answers all the time.
(5) Trust your people. Leaders trust freely and prove that they can be trusted in return. Honesty at all levels of the organization breeds creativity.
We are in a precarious time in our history when many are asking, ""Where are the leaders?"
Think about the people you know who embody the 5 rules of leadership mentioned above. You may observe, as I do, women in business have embraced genuine leadership.
Let me know who you believe are America's true leaders?