John Crnokrak & Associates

Michael Novak made this comment years ago which I truly “buy into” totally. He said, “Middle managers are the chief community builders; the main trustees of the integrity and moral practices of the company.” In fact he added: “They are the moral and intellectual spine of the organization.”

Over the last couple weeks I have been fortunate to work with a dynamic group of management personnel who are very bright, very focused and for the most part committed to making a major difference in all of the lives of those they lead and are responsible to.

I reminded them they are the steward of their companies resources! When taking responsibility for an assignment (in fact it’s often, in the form of a business plan to be achieved), I reminded them they need to possess the skills to analyze and assign accurately daily, while interacting with those they lead.

The importance of assigning accurately is so leaders can figure out a successful way to achieve the desired results and in the process develop a team that can make it happen. Or stating it in another way: leaders need to whittle the expectations down to manageable pieces and leverage each member of the team up to their optimal performance.

To do this and to do it well, in the context of today’s demanding marketplace, leaders must be able to demonstrate success not only as an individual but also within the context of their ability to recruit, retain, and inspire a team of talented people. Naturally, this requires a deep understanding of the leaders personal mission, within their own “big picture”and have ability to reflect objectively and results. As I tell every executive leader I work with, when we know ourselves, we will know how to lead!

Leaders need to learn as quick as possible how to check their ego.  Let’s face it we all have egos. Some are healthy, some are not. So if and when we choose to lead, and if it is our goal to hone our calling into positive and even great leadership, it is important we understand the health of our own ego and its effect on the team. Ego is defined in dictionaries as self-awareness; egotism, as conceit. Egocentric people tend to view everything in relation to themselves as opposed to the group/team.

So never forget when we take on the responsibility of leadership, we must stay firmly rooted in our values and principles and know what obstacles we must overcome in order to lead our team in as straight a line as possible to meet the results wanted, planned and expected.

John Maxwell said it very eloquently ,”The first step to leadership is servant hood.”as an individual who emphasizes connections between self and organization, between listening and understanding and between language and imagination. Servant leadership places a leader at the nexus, rather than at the pinnacle, of change.

In all my years of leading people I have come to one adamant tenet, the key to becoming an influential and a inspirational leader starts with having a strong confidence in our own abilities. Naturally before we totally can achieve self-confidence, we need to first understand our personal values and goals, and we must have a personal vision. I’m convinced people like to be around a leader with a personal vision, especially if they can integrate the vision into the teams work and engage people in it.

Enough for this blog, hope those of you that are reading this, got something out. John

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