5 Skills of Good Leaders

Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi recently told Training+Development magazine that she believes that each one of PepsiCo’s 18,000 employees is a leader.

She names five skills that she believes are the hallmarks of a good leaders:

1. Competence. You must be an expert in your function or area of expertise. You will become known for that.
2. Take a Stand. You must be known for your courage and confidence to act and say what you believe is right.
3. Communication Skills. Communication skills are critical. You can never over-invest in them.
4. Coaching. Surround yourself with good mentors. Listen. Learn. Your mentor is a major force.
5. Your Moral Compass. Have the strength and courage to do what’s morally right, not what’s expedient. Your moral compass must be your true north.

On building leaders she says:

We are building talent with an enterprise mind set. We strategically build skills for key talent through carefully planned developmental assignments.

Succession planning is also critical. Our succession planning process is designed to identify the kinds of experiences our leaders need.

Once identified, we put people in assignments that enable them to build those skill sets.

Spiritual Formation and Leadership Formation

The New Testament speaks clearly that God's call upon our lives is to be transformed into the image of Christ.

So, how does this process of transformation connect with the concepts of leadership formation? Does leadership formation happen alone or in an organizational context?

In this session, Drs. Bekker and Gomez encourage leaders to delve deeper as they discuss the connection between leadership and Christian formation and how our innermost being affects how we lead, our organization and ultimately the world.

To listen, click http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/leadershiptalks/home.htm

In Pursuit of Excellence

Psychologist and executive coach Graham Jones believes that the real key to excellence is mental toughness. In the current Harvard Business Review he writes that the most successful keaders do five things to get better and stay that way.

1. Learn to Love the Pressure. To do that you must dedicate yourself to constant self-improvement. That is made a lot easier if you learn to compete with yourself and block out the drama of those around you. It’s a choice. “Greg Searle, who won an Olympic gold medal in rowing, is often asked whether success was worth the price. He always gives the same reply: ‘I never made any sacrifices; I made choices.’”
2. Fixate on the Long Term. Map out short-term goals in every area that affects your performance to make sure you meet your long-term goal. Long term success is paved with small achievements.
3. Iron Sharpens Iron. Spend time with people who will push you the hardest. “Smart companies consciously create situations in which their elite performers push one another to levels they would never reach if they were working with less-accomplished colleagues.”
4. Reinvent Yourself. Once you become the benchmark, you need to keep reinventing yourself. To do this you need to develop an insatiable appetite for feedback; you need to be “hungry for advice on how to develop and progress. One word of caution, however: While it’s good to feel challenged, you need to make sure that any feedback you get is constructive. If criticism doesn’t seem helpful at first, probe to see if you can get useful insights about what’s behind the negative feedback. Get more specifics. You should be able to see concrete improvements in your performance after getting detailed coaching advice.”
5. Celebrate the Victories. Think of it as constructive celebration. Otherwise it can lead to complacency. “Celebration is more than an emotional release. Done effectively, it involves a deep level of analysis and enhanced awareness. The very best performers do not move on before they have scrutinized and understood thoroughly the factors underpinning their success.”

In the end, the keyword is resilience. Jones concludes, “Most of those participating in the Olympics this summer will walk away from the games without grabbing a single medal. Those with real mettle will get back into training again. That’s what truly separates elite performers from ordinary high achievers. It takes supreme, almost unimaginable grit and courage to get back into the ring and fight to the bitter end. That’s what the Olympic athlete does. If you want to be an elite performer in business, that’s what you need to do, too.”

Why Does God Allow Hardship In a Leader's Life?

[From Pastor Steven Furtick by Steven Furtick]

To force our need to the surface … So we can comfort others with the comfort we have been comforted with.

To force the issue to the surface … So we can recognize it, and speak into it.

To force our faith to the surface … And produce a deeper gratitude in our lives.

Church Leadership Book

A CHURCH LEADERSHIP book has been written which is privately produced in the USA and can be previewed /purchased at http://www.albertsferguson.com/.

This book unveils various “leadership gaps” within today’s churches, without regard to denomination. It pinpoints the root causes why so many leaders of churches (of all sizes) are failing so miserably in their leadership. The matter-of-fact and straight-talking style of the author is balanced by the sound advice he gives from his international background in religious and corporate leadership. Use this volume to audit the state of the leadership within your local church.

You might also be interested in an article this author wrote in yesterday's NASSAU GUARDIAN newspaper. The On-line version can be accessed from the following link - http://www.thenassauguardian.com/religion/318187693176408.php

These are excellent resources.
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