Great Leaders Know How to Achieve Their Goals
One of the great leadership gurus, Dr. Warren Bennis, defines a leader as “a person who knows who they are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how to fully deploy their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. They know what they want, why they want it, and how to communicate what they want to others, in order to gain their cooperation and support. Finally, they know how to achieve their goals.”

But wait, we think there is more. Today, a leader must be able to follow and comprehend what is happening in the world around him (or her) in terms of science, technology, finance, politics, and marketing just to name a few vital factors that can and often do provide bottom line breakthroughs. Today’s leader must seek out any resources that can be imported and/or developed within a company that will ultimately lead to the creation of more value for that company and subsequently its bottom line. Leadership often plays an active role in the assembling and direction of a company’s internal staff, whose collective knowledge and experiences can affect the success or failure of a company. In order to be a truly great leader, a certain amount of foresight is needed. This ability to interpret today’s business moves and project their effect on the company and the industry in the immediate and long term future is vital to the company’s future. There are many companies that have experienced the reality of doing nothing with the unfortunate result that the lack of action to prepare for the future by acquisition, merging, alliances, etc. has placed them in jeopardy. Being able to formulate policy and direct internal and/or external resources to exploit certain situations, can mean the difference between success and failure. In recent years, most corporate policy directives, rather than being mandated, have ensured that all interested parties participate thus making it easier for each person to buy in. By each one being a part of the policy from the outset, the overall degree of achievement and success is greatly increased.

A Dynamic Leader’s Charisma Can Boost a Company’s Fortunes
Can a leader boost his company’s fortunes by exhibiting charisma? Some familiar names who have met this criteria include Jack Welch, former President of General Electric and Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway. These larger than life personas can and do impact their respective companies in a very positive way. They appear on business panels, TV interviews, they author books, and keep their profiles very high with that of their company. On the other hand, when a business leader transgresses, it can hurt the company as well as the individual and immediate steps are taken to sever the leader from his official position. This situation is not unique to business leaders and has involved sports, entertainment, and political figures as well.

In our opinion one of the hardest jobs a business leader faces is to successfully manage change. That is, making change work for them instead of against them. Couple this with all of the other assigned tasks that a corporate leader has and we realize that being a leader, is indeed a formidable job. In addition, the Board of Directors, stockholders, stakeholders, employees, all are looking to his insight, policies and directives to make the company profitable and successful. Fortunately or unfortunately today that success usually has a very strict timeline attached to it. If it cannot be accomplished in twelve, eighteen or twenty-four months, the leader is fired. Does a leader who is very well compensated function at a higher level than one who is not? We don’t think so. Throwing money at any person or any task does not make them perform better. One of the best policies is making compensation over and above salary commensurate with performance.

Passion- An Important Ingredient
And yes, there is a certain amount of passion that a leader must bring to his or her position. It is often that this passion is the very thing that inspires the financial community, the manufacturing community, the employees, and all of the interested parties. A leader must be able to create value from almost any situation that can produce a bottom line breakthrough. Sometimes it may be a combination of situations that can provide the value factor. The Board of Directors or governing body of an organization must outline clear and concise objectives for its leader to achieve. The characteristics then can be measured to chart the progress. Other times, the governing body together with a new business leader will develop objectives that can benefit the bottom line.

Leadership has been a vital resource in organization management for a long time. It shows that strong leaders do achieve great goals and benefit their organization. Academic degrees do not necessarily guarantee great leaders. It is the academics in conjunction with experience, individual skills, common sense, and a little passion thrown in that make a dynamic leader.