3 Ds For Leadership Action... Dedicate, Direct, Dialogue!

"...And winged hope, with heart of fire, To gain the bliss of thy desire." - William Winter

Are you among those leaders who daily lament the general lack of dedication, direction or fruitful discussion within your workplace?

I'd like to suggest three strategies leaders can use to:

=> Instill stronger commitment to organizational goals and missions;

=> Sharpen the focus of managers, employees and partners on the intent or leanings of your organizational strategy;

=> Enrich and nurture deeper communication of shared beliefs, meanings and feelings.

Dedication - Building Commitment Through Participative Strategies

How often do you involve or seek the input of your associates before making a decision?

Great leaders rigorously ask for and listen to the advice of their colleagues when analyzing situations, evaluating problems and formulating courses of action.

Additional ways to involve your people are through the following processes:

1) Developing the strategic plan and when supervising progress through the strategic plan,

2) During your annual budget forecasting and control sessions

3) Creating the year-end performance review format, criteria and of course, when conducting the reviews themselves.

Engaged, participating, involved people will usually take ownership of and responsibility for the success of your endeavors.

Boost their dedication to the enterprise using these strategies.

Direction - Drive Performance Through Powerful Intentions

People are generally motivated to be of service to others when that service helps fulfill a noble or higher purpose.

Jesus Christ taught us that, "the greatest among you shall be servants of all"! His lesson was based on the fact that we usually seek ways to make a significant difference in the lives of others.

Leadership always describes a vision, that glorious sight of some far-off desirable place or situation the group hopes to discover through their efforts and hard work.

By using your strategy to discipline your people to execute and work on the most important, value-adding tasks, you can increase their sense of the organization's strategic intent.

Wisdom contends "a picture is worth a thousand words." Why not map or build a model of your strategic plan - people find it easier to relate the ideas of strategy when that strategy is transformed into a roadmap. [A 2-Volume Manual entitled, "Creating Fail-proof Plans...!" shows you how to do this - to learn more visit:
"Creating Fail-proof Plans for Strategic Advantages!" at:
http://www.leadership-toolkit.com/planning.html]

Dialogue - Empowering Vitality By Sowing Confidence

"The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted." - William Shakespeare

Leaders who succeed are those who continually speak sweet sounds of encouragement, commitment and authenticity.

Effective communication is always a two-way process - it involves:

=> Give and Take;

=> Searches for understanding and comprehension;

=> Sacrifices of kindnesses and praise

=> Taking a firm stance and yielding to persuasion

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Everyday your leadership is tasked to do these three critical things: to boost dedication, to sharpen direction and to enrich dialogue.

When you concentrate your energies on performing those tasks to the best of your ability, you will uncover numerous opportunities to enjoy blessings of joy, love, enthusiasm, commitment and personal strength for your team and yourself.

Study the methods suggested above and then practice doing them a little at a time, each and every hour.

When you do, you'll see positive, energizing results in less than a month!

"Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot"
- James Thomson

The 'delightful task' is yours - stoke the embers of innovative creativity that lay dormant in your people.

Use these strategic techniques to add the spark of empowered vision, sincere dedication, unwavering direction and vibrant dialogue to your organization today!

Copyright © 2005, Mustard Seed Investments Inc., All rights reserved.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bill Thomas is author of "Leading A Creative, Evolutionary, Innovative Organization!" - an idea-packed, 2-Volume set of manuals to help you electrify, empower and infuse your leadership with scientifically-proven, evolutionary, results-producing strategies. Energize your innovation!
http://www.leadership-toolkit.com/innovation.html
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