by Donald Finley

Created on: August 12, 2009   Last Updated: August 14, 2009

Leadership skills are almost a dime a dozen. Anyone who has ever supervised an employee considers himself a great leader, and hugely successful. He'll gladly provide reams of tutorial material to help the next guy. Leadership books abound, written by corporate CEOs and other big business leaders, all with more time on their hands than they know what to do with, thus their books. Their books provide their secrets to leadership success, always include "communication", and provide examples from levels of business few of us will ever see first-hand. Few of them have anything new to offer, their secrets are not really secrets, and their stories were applicable once-upon-a-time, but that time is usually not right now.

Here, I'll give you two "secrets" that aren't secrets either, but they will always apply at every level of leadership, and trust me, they are unique. And I won't just list them; I'll tell you exactly how to accomplish each.

First, bring your subordinates into the fold. This does not mean to buddy up to them and become friends. It means to tell them your "secrets", not things you can't tell them, but what you should tell them. Every organization should have goals, perhaps even a vision. Many have objectives. It doesn't matter what you call them; what matters is that every action employees take should be in accordance with them, and each employee should fully understand how their actions, or job performance, contributes to achieving the organization's vision. This lets them know exactly where they fit in the chain, and shows them the importance of their link within the chain.

Say your company makes sterces (secrets backwards). Your vision is to become the leading manufacturer of sterces in the state. You have competition, other bigger sterces manufacturers, but your goal is to surpass them in orders. In order to do that, you first have to increase your production rate. Sterces are made of five subcomponents, and each has its own production area, Foreman, and production team. When all the subcomponents are made, they go to the assembly area where they are put together into sterces.

Mary Ann works in the assembly area. She is a good worker, and is happy with her job. She has little stress and can easily keep up with the pace. She comes to work on time and leaves promptly at quitting time. She doesn't own company stock, asks few questions, makes no suggestions, and appears to have little concern beyond her own tasks.

Bring Mary

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