"Are You a CEO, Director, or Founder interested in a Feature Interview?"
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
At a time when economic uncertainty plagues our communities, strong, authentic leadership is essential. We need effective leaders at all levels of society to paint a clear and inspiring vision, earn trust, and demonstrate compassion.
Having started an award-winning company that employs over 100 people and built over 6,000 homes, I’ve thought a lot about leadership and management. In truth, what it takes to lead in challenging times is no different than what it takes in “normal” times.
Whatever the external environment, effective leadership has three requirements.
vision
Without a vision to inspire others, there is no leadership. Early in my career, I worked for a company whose slogan was “A New York Stock Exchange Company.” It wasn’t “We build quality homes” or “We create great communities,” it simply referred to the New York Stock Exchange. Where was the vision?
When I think about vision in leadership, I am reminded of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he painted a picture of a future that anyone who heard it would want to join and help build. It was a clear and inspiring vision.
This is what I had in mind when I started my company. Our vision statement was simple: “TW Lewis Company will be America’s premier homebuilding company, measured by product quality, customer satisfaction and profitability.” This vision was the foundation of my leadership; it was a vision that expressed my dreams, values ​​and personal journey, and it inspired all of our employees.
Related: How to develop your company’s vision and values
Trustworthiness: Can I trust you?
Think of someone you really respect and admire. You see that person as someone you can trust. They demonstrate trustworthiness in both intent and ability. They promise what they say they will do. The same is true with leadership. True leaders are people you can trust. They promise what they say they will do.
One recent example of a failed “leader” in this space is Adam Neumann, who was fired as CEO of WeWork. From questions about how the company spent its money to involving his family in the business, many concerns were raised about Neumann’s credibility. Ultimately, he was fired because he lost the trust of his subordinates.
Do you care about your followers?
Leadership requires compassion: compassion for employees and compassion for customers. This means understanding and valuing other people’s perspectives and demonstrating “compassion in action” – empathy, concern and kindness towards others.
This has always been important, but compassionate leadership is more important than ever: pay attention to detail, engage with individuals, solve problems, make exceptions to the rules, and do the right thing.
Related: 5 traits we need to develop more leaders
The four fundamentals of management
You also need to be a good manager. Over my long career, I have seen both successful and unsuccessful managers. My takeaway is that there are four fundamentals to management: plan, organize, motivate and measure. Leadership requires the above traits, but leadership alone is not enough to keep a business running.
1. Planning
Whether you’re a C-suite executive or a middle manager, you need to have a plan before you can move forward — that means starting with a vision and then creating concrete steps to work toward it.
Another way to become a better planner is to set goals. You won’t achieve your goals until you identify them and have a game plan to achieve them. I’ve learned that it’s best to set goals in different time frames: daily, monthly, yearly, etc. Daily goals are important because they emphasize the importance of today. Monthly and yearly goals are helpful because they help you focus on what’s really important, not what’s urgent.
Once you know your goal, you can create a plan to achieve it. What do you need to do? What does your team need to do? What role will each of your direct reports play?
Related: The Four Pillars of Leadership Success
2. Organisation
When I ran a company, I would always look at my org chart and ask myself if there was a better way to organize around our goals: Who reports to who? Do we have enough people working on X? Are there too many people focused on Y?
Good management means proper organization of internal resources, both human and financial resources.
3. Motivate
Motivation goes hand in hand with having a leadership vision. The best way to motivate your employees is to present them with an inspiring vision or worthy ideals. If you’re a manager, imagine you’re leading 3, 5 or 15 direct reports. How can you express a vision that will motivate your employees to do their best?
Show you care. People respond to personal encouragement, and they want to know that you listen to them, value their opinions, and use them.
4. Measurement
Without metrics to act as guardrails, you have no way of knowing if your processes and systems are working as planned. Regular measurement lets you know when your goals are being met and when it’s time to move on. If your metrics aren’t being met, you’ll know what’s not working so you can get back on track.
At my company, we carefully measured customer satisfaction throughout the entire sales process, down to the last detail. If we found anything about which customers weren’t completely satisfied, we focused on that and thought about how to improve.
Our world may not be normal in many ways, but effective leadership and management remain the same. Now is the time to get back to basics and ensure you are doing everything it takes to lead your team and organization into a new future.
"Elevate Your Brand with an Exclusive Feature Interview!"