Leadership Trait Theory

by mark.shead

Leadership trait theory is the idea that people are born with certain character traits or qualities. Since certain traits are associated with proficient leadership, it assumes that if you could identify people with the correct traits, you will be able to identify leaders and people with leadership potential. Most of the time the traits are [...]

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The Definition of Management

by mark.shead

If you look up the dictionary definition of management, among many examples you will find clues as to the real definition of management. This article simply takes an assortment of definitions and looks at what they say and what they imply about management. “Management” (from Old French ménagement “the art of conducting, directing”, from Latin [...]

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The Functional Leadership Model

by mark.shead
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Functional leadership is model that concentrates on how leadership occurs, rather than focusing on who does the leading. It defines the types of behaviors that guide an organization and then looks at how those behaviors occur. Under this model, leadership is a distributed function. People at all levels can participate in guiding the organization. One [...]

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Leadership of the Future

by mark.shead

The last 20 years has seen an incredible increase in technology. Most of the principles of good leadership remain the same, regardless of how technology changes. However, technology presents new challenges for leaders. Virtual Contact Leadership One of the benefits of modern technology is the ability to communicate with anyone anywhere in the world. While [...]

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Creating Confidence

by mark.shead
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As a leader, you need to cultivate your team’s confidence. Your team should have confidence in themselves as well as confidence in your leadership skills. The best way to create confidence is through a series of victories. In general, people will judge the probability of future success based on past performance. As you work with [...]

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Vision and Efficiency

by mark.shead
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In any organization, effort can be divided into two categories. Effort that helps achieve the vision and effort that does not. There is some work that is difficult to correctly categorize–especially in complex organizations with a great deal of complexity. However, most of the time there is a great deal of effort expended on items [...]

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Setting Goals

by mark.shead
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I was working for an organization that was attempting to go through a re-branding to become more relevant to their customers. They had hired an outside consulting firm to come in and help walk them through the branding process. After talking with several of the employees, it became clear to the consultants that the employees [...]

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Leading through Example

by mark.shead
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As obvious as it seems, many leaders forget that their actions speak louder than their words. I was managing a department at a medium-sized organization that had a casual dress code on Friday. One of the vice presidents decided that casual Fridays were a bad idea and mandated that everyone wear corporate casual every day. [...]

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Management Systems

by mark.shead

A lot of leaders know what they want from the people they lead, but are not particularly skilled in getting the desired results. Often, leaders in this position end up blaming the people they lead. Most often, the fault lies with the leader’s inability to focus effort toward a particular result. A successful leader finds [...]

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Cultivating Respect

by mark.shead

Respect is something that is earned. It doesn’t just happen because you are in a leadership position. If your subordinates respect you simply because you can fire them, you are a very poor leader. You earn respect in different ways. The biggest way to earn people’s respect is to do what you say you are [...]

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