Leaders know they can’t make people happy. People have to take ownership and control of their own happiness. Leaders do not focus on personalities factors. At times, individual self-interests of a team member may be in opposition with interests of group. Leaders concentrate on shared interests and team goal. Consequently, driving force behind a team is a leader who treats team members with respect, while keeping vision in mind. People are different and you have to treat people differently yet fairly.

The process of transitioning into a leadership position can be smoother if leaders can monitor and manage their outlook and perspective. Leadership training, education, tools, and systems are very important. However, without right outlook, new and even veteran leaders will experience serious difficulties and unrest. Reflect and examine your own leadership attitude and perspective. Develop an intentional plan to work on areas that need improvement. Build your skills, and get a coach or mentor to help you. Be proactive, set goals, and track progress. Notice your behavior patterns. Don’t take over a task when someone is just looking for your input. Be patient. Leadership training is a life-long development process. Don’t be afraid to share your goals and vision with your team members. Positive change can occur with commitment and persistence.

CMOE was founded in 1978 with the vision and mission to help improve individual leadership and team member skills within organizations.

For professional information on leadership training, visit CMOE

To make elephant jump -- not now and then but consistently, i.e., to lead people to consistently do great things -- deep, human emotional bonding between leader and people must take place. And fundamental to that bonding is nature of heart of leader.

This is secret: You can't get elephant to jump unless you have a kind heart. Kindness in leadership means following Leadership Imperative: "I will lead people in such a way that we not only achieve needed results but they become better as leaders and people."

Most leaders focus on first part "getting better results" and forget about second part. But in truth, when you have a kind heart, getting results and helping people be better are not two things but one.

From now on, see every leadership challenge you face as a way of having people increase their knowledge, their skills, their courage, their tenacity, and their leadership abilities. Cultivating that perspective is a kindness.

But don't mistake kindness for being nice. Don't mistake kindness for having people simply feel good. Don't mistake kindness for allowing people to indulge worst aspects of their character, laziness, inconsiderateness, selfishness, etc.

Furthermore, you may be kind and have people be frustrated with you. Many great leaders I've had relationships with got me frustrated as they had me go through trouble of tackling challenges I might not otherwise have tackled. (In fact, deep, human, emotional bonding cannot happen without a great deal of frustration.) But I was motivated despite my frustrations because I recognized that they essentially had my best interests at heart.

Yes, through skill, persuasiveness, understanding, forcefulness, education, and guidance, you can get elephant to jump -- as long as you do it through kindness of your heart.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.