As a leader, we can be the best at presenting reality, driving change and overcoming resistance; however we can only achieve consistent success by motivating our people. In my experience, great management and leadership skills combined with the ability and willingness to motivate, make an unbeatable combination in optimizing performance and realizing consistently positive results. Indeed, our most important responsibility as leaders is to recruit, motivate, and retain great people.
Change. It is the single biggest challenge for every leader at every level. Change creates disruption, conflict, confrontation, and fear. Change requires effort, exertion, and adjustment. It strikes fear into people and often causes people to dig in their heels and resist or outright defy it. Yet without change, every organization is doomed to irrelevance and eventual failure.
The first rule of leadership is to present reality. Presenting reality requires a candid and thoughtful appraisal of performance, connected to objective and measurable criteria, upon which both parties can agree.
About this series: Our CEO and President shares his experiences and insights as a thought leader for 39+ years in the technology industry.
Over my thirty nine years in the technology business, I have had the privilege to work with some of the finest leaders in the world. Great leaders are distinguished by their consistently outstanding results regardless of changes in the economy or changes in their industry. While each of them imparts their own special signature on their approach, I feel that all of them incorporate the below aspects of leadership into their unique styles.
