http://www.bizcovering.com/Management/Effective-and-Ineffective-Leadership-Skills.149851 Discussion about: Effective and Ineffective Leadership Skills http://www.bizcovering.com/Management/Effective-and-Ineffective-Leadership-Skills.149851#comment182553
So what is leadership? Leadership applies to people and denotes the sending of value standard messages to people which most of them then follow/use. Thus we say that they have been "led" in the direction of those standards. Leadership is one side of the coin called values, the other side being followership.

Leadership in the workplace consists of the value standards reflected in everything that an employee experiences. Most of what the employee experiences is the support or lack thereof provided by management - such as training, tools, parts, discipline, direction, material, procedures, rules, technical advice, documentation, information, etc.

Leadership is not a process any manager can change. It happens inexorably every minute of every day because of the way people are. The only choice available to a manager is the standard (good, bad, mediocre or in between) sent by the manager's support, standards that people will follow.

For instance, the top-down command and control technique is a specific method by which to manage people. Top-down concentrates on producing goals, targets, visions, orders and other directives in order to control the workforce and thereby achieve organizational success. Top-down treats employees like robots in the "shut up and listen, I know better than you" mode, and rarely if ever listens to them.

In this way and others, top-down demeans and disrespects employees sending them very negative value standard messages. The standards reflected in this treatment "lead" the employees to treat their work, their customers, each other and their bosses with the same level of disrespect they received. This is the road to very poor corporate performance as compared to the results that would be achieved using a better approach. Top-down managers are their own worst enemies.

If you want your employees to produce very high performance, get rid of all traces of a top-down approach. Start treating employees with great respect and not like robots by listening to whatever they want to say when they want to say it and responding in a very respectful manner, thus leading them to treat their work, their customers, each other and their bosses with great respect. Everyone wants to do a good job and don't want to be told what to do. They do want to be trained and coached so that they can do their work well. They don't want democracy in the workplace and they do want someone to discipline the slackers.

Hope this helps.

Best regards, Ben
Author "Leading People to be Highly Motivated and Committed"
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