Leadership: The Eight Paths to Virtue

 Leadership: The Eight Paths to Virtue

who wrote it: Brent Filson
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This article is in the "business and finance" category and was saved on 2007-07-25 at 12:30:08.

The Greeks had a proverb that read: "When Aschines speaks, the people say, 'How well he speaks,' but when Demosthenes speaks, the people say, 'Let's march against Philip!'" .
If you want to be an effective leader, your followers should be responding to your calls to action with cries of "Let's march!"

What matters most when you speak to people as a leader is not what you say but rather what they do after you have spoken. Also, you're not doing a good job of leading, earning your followers' trust, and fulfilling their desire to act on your behalf if you can't get them to do the right thing.
To get people moving in the correct direction at the right time for the right reason, here are eight correct actions to take.
Prompt action is required.
I am physically fit. The audience's thoughts and feelings have no bearing on the action. What the audience does in reality is this. The audience typically uses their feet, hands, and tools to participate. To keep on track with the kind of physical activity you want your audience to do, see them actually executing it. A direct challenge to your audience to execute a single action is the surest way to get them to do the right thing. Shockingly, the Cold War took a dramatic turn when Ronald Reagan proclaimed, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" in his speech delivered at the Berlin Wall. Even though you may not be facing as monumental a task as winning a war in your day-to-day leadership responsibilities, you may still apply the idea to significantly enhance your leadership effectiveness.
2. INTENDED. An organization cannot benefit from individuals who take action. Only individuals who actually do something to improve things are really helpful. Verify that their activity is not in vain. Staying committed to your goals is the key to achieving success. Your audience should be well-informed about the steps they are taking and the reasons behind them when they do take action. There are three facets to purpose in leadership discourse: logic, emotion, and self-awareness. People should be completely aware that they are acting, have an emotional investment in the action, and know the rationale behind it.
Thirdly, TRUE. Using deception or trickery to coerce others into doing anything will erode their trust, the bedrock of all motivation. After that, you can give them orders, but they won't be motivated to execute the work. When crafting your call to action, be truthful with yourself. The Roman Emperor remarked, "Never esteem anything as an advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect." Tell them the truth when you ask them to do something. Not only do I think it's a good idea, but there are also very practical reasons why you should consider this. Indeed, as leaders, we can never truly gauge our effectiveness unless we push our followers to surpass their own expectations. They will not accept our challenge if they believe we are trying to trick them or if they believe you are trying to trick yourself.
(3) SIGNIFICANT. When you put your audience's emotions into action, they gain significance. Just feeling good about it won't cut it. The key to success is taking action. The relationship between emotion and action is symbiotic.
Those in positions of leadership should either find something else to do with their lives or find more fulfillment in the achievements they achieve. It is something that the majority of leaders are cognizant of. The work that their subordinates do, how they feel about it, and the outcomes that are expected are all aspects of meaning that very few leaders take into account.
The individuals who will be responsible for implementing your cause should care about it. What they do won't matter much if it's just your cause and not theirs. When the steps they take to address the issues of your cause also help them with their own needs, then your cause will truly mean something to them. Determine their requirements and the steps to resolve the issue before you issue a challenge to them.
(5) FOCUSSED ON NEED. What really matters to the people are their needs. It goes without saying that you, as an order leader, are exempt from knowing what they require. The mentality of "my way or the highway" is all you're displaying. Realizing this is essential if you wish to inspire them to act. Reason being, their incentive is something they've chosen, not you. Your job is to convey information, and theirs is to inspire others—and themselves. They get to decide. Take it or leave it. Accordingly, their requirements are not just a reality for them, but the sole reality in terms of the leadership equation. Your needs are of no concern to them. Your reality is irrelevant to them. All that matters to them is their own world. The behavior you desire from them should be based on what is best for THEM, not you. So, it goes without saying that you need to figure out what they require.
Sixth, pay close attention: patience is both a virtue and a tender trap. Time is a powerful outcome multiplier. The two words that sum up a Roman centurion's advice for making the soldiers feel the need to act quickly was, "hit them." Not in a literal but more significant psychological sense, his credo is still with us today in the order leader. However, getting individuals to feel a sense of urgency by trying to "hit them" is much less effective than inspiring them within. Here's a method to motivate individuals to act quickly: LISTEN TO WHAT THEY NEED, DETECTE ANY ISSUES WITHIN THE NEED, AND THEN HAVE THE ACTION THEY TAKEN PROVIDE SOLUTIONS.
For example, a teacher at a police academy once entered a classroom and yelled out, "CLEAR OUT THIS ROOM IMMEDIATELY." A group of cadets were expelled by the first cadet. However, the majority of cadets remained. A second cadet begged his fellow students to disperse as the teacher passed the note to him. Still, the majority remained. The teacher then passed the note on to a third cadet. This cadet had a natural knack for seeing problems and motivating others to do something about them. With those two sentences, he silenced everyone in the room. "Lunch break!"
As long as their needs are met, people will always be eager to take passionate action. Being able to recognize those requirements is the key. Doing so will put you halfway to achieving your goal of having them do that.
(7) MATCHED DATE: There must be a due date for anything you ask your employees to do. Otherwise, they may stop seeing it as a top priority and won't feel any extra pressure to take it. Asking, "Have I a set a deadline to this action?" will help you keep track of how you're driving others to take action. Really, you should.
(8) FED BACK: What drives people isn't what you see them do. What people do once you've lost sight of them is the true measure of their motivation. The "head fake" is a common tactic used by those under a leader's influence, in which the follower appears to agree with the leader on the surface but secretly feels differently. When you're not around, kids act independently of you. To ensure that both you and the person you're challenging are aware of what they're doing, it's a good idea to have some kind of feedback system in place.
To be a leader is to get results, and the only way to obtain results is for people to take action.
Problematically, most leaders only achieve a subset of the possible outcomes because they erroneously define action and, as a result, misuse it.
Remember the eight ways of correct action when you communicate to individuals so they can take the right steps to reach their goals.

The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. has all the rights reserved since 2006.
This article can be reposted in newsletters and on websites as long as the author is given credit and the copyright, resource box, and live link to the website are included. Please send an email to brent@actionleadership.com to let us know that you intend to publish, but it is not necessary.
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