Friday, April 11, 2014

FOCUSING ON LEADERSHIP

Whether you like it or not, if you are in the management of your company, your employees look to you to provide leadership in the direction the organization is going. What type of leadership are your providing? It's very important you know. The people are looking to YOU to give them overall direction.

For example, what is the dress code in your company? Do you allow jeans to be worn at all times by your office staff or do you require suit and tie for men and business attire for ladies? If you require business attire, try wearing jeans to work for a couple of days. It won't take long and everyone is wearing jeans because you have set the standard. Have an alcoholic drink for lunch and it becomes standard and "okay". They are watching you every minute of the day and that is not a bad thing if you are setting a good example.

Let's talk about leadership. As we go through these ideas, think about your organization and how it is or isn't performing and if you need changes to occur.

First, the definition of leadership from the dictionary--THE ART OF MOTIVATING A GROUP OF PEOPLE TO ACT TOWARD ACHIEVING A COMMON GOAL.

There's that word "goal". Have you established any for your company? How about yourself? That is probably a subject for a whole year of blogs so we're not going to spend a great deal of time here on how to set goals etc. but one goal that I think  should be the focus of every company is "SATISFY THE CUSTOMER".

You will notice I didn't say provide customer service, I said provide customer SATISFACTION. There is a big difference. One is a concept, the other a demonstration of the concept. Again, the subject for another blog.

So now that I have established the fact that I think one of your company goals should be to satisfy the customer, let's dig deeper into this whole idea of leadership.

I think it is important that we not confuse managing with leadership. You see, there is a major difference and the successful company will make sure they have both. I think the best defintion I ever heard or read on the subject is attributed to former first lady, Roslyn Carter who said "MANAGERS TAKE PEOPLE WHERE THEY WANT TO GO, LEADERS TAKE THEM WHERE THEY NEED TO GO".

Think about that. As a leader of your company you are charged with the responsibility  of taking people in the direction that is needed to accomplish the goals that are established for the organization. This is not always comfortable. You see, it is much more fun and much easier to just make friends with everyone and have a big happy family and try to please everyone, isn't it? You'll probably have a great time but you won't accomplish as much. In fact, you may not accomplish any of the objectives you have established.

Another way I have head this managing vs. leadership dilemma explained is that "managers do things right while leaders do the right things". As I stated earlier, your company needs both and you need to find those people who can do the things right once it has been determined what the right things are your company should be doing.There are many good and honest people who want to do things right. "Just tell me what my job is and I'll do it better than anyone else". Know anyone in your organization like that? If you do, keep them happy.

Most entrepreneurs are great idea people and know what has to be done but don't ask them to do the details. They will mess up the details almost all the time. They know the right things but need key people to do them right. Guilty as charged.

So, in the next blog we are going to take a look at what I think are the 5 major characteristics needed for us to succeed in the contract cleaning business. Be sure to come back next time and see if you agree with my 5.

Don't forget to  sign up for our next webinar to be held Thursday, April 24, at 3 PM Eastern time. The subject is "The Key Elements in Buying and/or Selling a Cleaning Business". You can register at thejanitorialstore.com/products/item943.cfm. Joining me for this informative webinar will be Steve and Jean Hanson and Shaon Cowan. All of us have bought and sold companies so no theory here, just the facts. Look forward to having as many as possible join us. So far, registrations have been brisk which is exciting.

Also, don't forget our FREE weekly pod cast at www.tripodcast.com.

Till next time.

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