The Goal of Leadership(what leaders should focus on)

PowerPoint Developed by Mark Hempel

• Ask questions• Frame issues• Create debate• Shift the burden of problem-solving to their staff• Construct challenging goals and hold people accountable

High-Impact Leaders:

Leadership Goals

The goal of leaders is to accelerate how fast they can access what other people know, and then bring it to execution as an element of competitive advantage.

High impact leadership knows how to utilize the brain power within the organization.

They know how to amplify Team IQ.

Four Key Areas of Leadership

Key Learnings

Framing Problems & Opportunities

Think in questions, not answers, in order to drive nonlinear growth.

Linear growth means that every increase in revenue requires a proportional or higher increase in employee count.

Nonlinear growth is incremental revenue without proportional infrastructure costs and headcount. It is focused on utilization and radical innovations.

Nonlinear Growth

Think & Operate in Questions

Why?

First, so your team members are engaged in the solutions, not merely listening to the “sage leader” who explains what the solution is and only needs their staff for tactical execution.

Second, so you can tap the experience, insights, creativity and intellects of your team.

(This is how, in part, you get better utilization of headcount and radical innovation.)

Leaders Encourage Debate

Leaders frame the issue or objective, pose a question, and then engage the debate of their team. As the debate ensues, leaders listen and use this listening to guide the debate into deeper levels that will create the best insights and ideas.

Competence is found in We

The byproduct of debate is divergent, interactive and dynamic insights. These insights can be paired up in new ways to create radical innovations and practical solutions to old or new problems and opportunities.

It is we, not I.

Good Debate, Good Decisions

Decision Gradient(leading to convergence and commitment)

People will commit to project decisions even when they disagree, as long as their team listens and deliberates on their inputs.

The Number One Leadership Mistake

Individual contributors are often promoted to leadership because they are the “brightest bulbs,” and with this endorsement they can look at everyone else as followers who are just a little less bright.

This is the biggest mistake leadership makes, and it is precisely why organizational IQ is under-utilized.

Focus on the Opportunities

Leaders must identify the brilliance in their employees, draw it out, exercise it and train it to be focused on the goals, emerging opportunities and problems of the organization.

Leaders need to take away the fear that tends to permeate organizational culture.

Take the Fear Away

Shift the Burden and Accountability

Shifting the burden of problem-solving to employees—to the “We” instead of the “I”—is what leadership does.

The shift is two-part:

1. The team’s IQ is utilized to create ideas, strategy and tactics to build competitive advantage.

2. The team or specific members are held accountable to the execution (not only the idea or strategy).

Final Thoughts

If leadership can operate in these spheres of behavior and truly embody these principles in their day-to-day activities, their employees will be able to unleash their creativity and ideas to the needs of the organization, their utilization goes up and they contribute greater productivity, which is precisely how organizations create nonlinear growth.

PowerPoint Developed by Mark Hempel