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3 key points to remember about leadership

In my 32 years of developing leaders, I have often told my clients, “Leadership is all about change, change is all about choice, and choice is all about dialogue.” This sequence of relationships is important for all leaders to understand and demonstrate in their planning and behaviors.

Let’s look at these three relationships. First, leadership is all about change by definition. You can’t lead people to where they already are. If you are leading, you are taking people to a new place, implementing a vision, or teaching them a new set of behaviors. If you are working to incrementally improving the present state, you are, in reality, managing not leading. Managing is a needed skill, but it is different than leading.

The second relationship, change is all about choice, explains where leaders should work when attempting to implement change. People are willing to change if they see clear choices that will benefit them personally and benefit the organization. Of course, there are many different feelings about change among our population. However, for most Americans, we prefer change where we have a say. So, when effective leaders are planning an introduction of a particular change, they should identify the real choices available to the employees. False or insignificant choices weaken their cases. There are times when leaders are mandated change by other leaders higher in the organization. In these cases, the relevant choices may be how to implement the change. Choices give people ownership, which is critical to success.

The third relationship is the “how to” part of leadership. Through dialogue, the leader communicates the elements of and reasons for the change and listens to the concerns and fears of the followers. When fears and concerns are openly addressed, emotions are calmed and positive action can be embraced. Ignoring the need for dialogue is generally a failed strategy. Without dialogue, fears and concerns will drive your employees’ behaviors.

Most leaders spend a lot of their time thinking about changes needed in their organizations. I know this is true because most of my conversations with leaders are about vision and implementing change. Once the desired change is clear in their minds, the best leaders discuss it with their staffs and couch the change in terms of available choices. The dialogue with all employees is the most time-consuming and expensive step of leadership. Remember, if you try to skip this step, you don’t save time and money; you waste money. People who are not clear about the hows and whys of the change, do what they think is right but may work at contrary purposes. Alignment of action is best created by dialogue.

R. Glenn Ray, Ph.D., is the president of RayCom Learning. To learn more about Ray’s completely revised, third printing of “The Facilitative Leader: Behaviors that Enable Success,” visit his Web site, www.raycomlearning.com or call him at 740-629-4536. Everyday Leadership appears each Wednesday on the Business page.

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