Winning Techniques for Company Leaders II

We continue from where we left last week when we discussed two of the 10 techniques that you can use to win as a company leader.

3. One vision:

For company-wide success, there is need for all employees to pull in one direction. Everyone needs to align with the vision of the company and to do their part in trying to realise the vision. A good company leader will ensure that all team members in his or her section, department or division work towards the realisation of the vision of the company or organisation. It is the job of every leader to clearly and regularly state the vision, objectives and goals of the organisation so that subordinates can deliver their actions in alignment with the direction of the company or organisation.

4. Think BIG

– A good leader leaves behind some legacy and history. This is only possible if you think BIG. You need to have good and healthy ambition, the desire to achieve big things in a reasonably short period of time. As a leader, you should not only be concerned with day-to-day operational activities. You need also to drive initiatives and projects that will produce big results in the medium and long- term periods, not just in the present to short-term periods. Many times, most of us are scared of thinking big because we are scared by the sheer size of the expected output. These are the moments to remember the other Rise and Shine column article we published several months back entitled “How do you eat an elephant?” You need to break your big vision in smaller chunks that can more easily be understood and confidently addressed.

5. Compress time

– You need to put in place mechanisms that help you to do more in less time. Time is money, we know. And so, we need to value every bit of time that is wasted and avoid a repeat of that kind of waste. Energise your younger members of the team and inspire them to break records. Maximise the output that you get from all your staff.

6. Create luck –

One of the prominent company leaders likes to define Luck as “What happens when opportunity meets preparedness.” Basically, you can create your own luck. In order to create your own luck, you need to be the best in your field all the time. Be ready for opportunity when it comes and get prepared for it.

7. Deal with Brutal facts

– According to Sean Lance, who is a former leading global leader in the pharmaceutical industry, a good leader needs to be ‘emotional about the future and factual about the past.’ We can learn from historical facts. We need to be very passionate about what we want to achieve going into the future. This means that as we make decisions for the future that we are very emotional about, we need to use facts describing the past and the present.

Many leaders fail to realise their potential because they rarely use facts to make decisions. They use emotions for making decisions. This does not in any way mean that we should lose the human heart or that we should not exhibit empathy towards others – in fact, we ought to. But this just means that we need to use as many facts as possible in guiding our decision making. It also means that we have to trust research, we have to gather a lot of data and information, we need processes to help us get accurate information.

8. Technology accelerators

– Use technology to accelerate your business growth. With the advent of technology, people can now do more with less resources and in less time. Master the art of engaging technology to solve business problems. You do not need to become a technology expert,+ but you need just enough technology insights to be capable of sensing where you need to engage technology and technology experts.

—To be continued next week…