Leadership Secrets: 50 Strategies of the World’s Best Leaders

By Blake DuBose and Mike DuBose
Republished May 15, 2014

 

Along with outstanding staff, effective leaders are the driving force behind thriving businesses, private non-profits, government agencies, and houses of faith. Successful leaders define great organizational cultures, clarify the vision, and spur their teams to transform difficulties and obstacles into success.

Becoming a great leader doesn’t just happen overnight, though. Effective leadership is an endless, evolving journey, and what works today may not work tomorrow. As Peter Drucker wrote, “While leadership concepts are the same today as centuries ago, modern business leaders are faced with more complex challenges.” To keep up with these challenges, leaders must grow and change as quickly as the world in which they live.

If you asked 100 entrepreneurs and leaders why they are successful, you would get 100 different answers. There are many common elements, however, that help organizations and leaders succeed, and the key is getting as many of these variables to operate simultaneously as possible. Let’s look at what works.

 

The People

 

1)      Build a great organization from the top down. In researching his bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins determined that employees want leaders to be consistent, caring, ethical, direct, honest, and humble—and above all, to make good, prompt decisions and ensure execution. We have found the servant leader model to be most effective, and we work quietly behind the scenes at our companies to guide staff.

2)      Emphasize smart work, not long hours! Employees who are given time to enjoy their personal lives are happier in their jobs and produce higher quality work. We view employees as family and provide good salaries, profit-sharing, generous benefits, and liberal leave. Build a caring company where employees look forward to coming to work most days, and they will reward you with high-quality results, increased productivity, and strong profits.

3)      Employ passionate, intelligent, and outstanding people with strong work ethics and place them in the jobs that fit their skills and passions. Our motto is “Hire tough and slow.” Look for people who not only produce good work, but also have the personality to mesh seamlessly with your organization’s culture. If an employee fits your culture but struggles in a certain job, try placing him or her in a different position rather than just firing the person.

4)      Train, coach, and reward staff who are working as a team. Harmonious teamwork takes your organization to the next level.

5)      Trust your staff to do their jobs. Once you have employed the right, outstanding staff, mentor them, coach them, and define your expectations; then, delegate! As General George Patton once said, “Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

6)      Define your culture and values with input from everyone. Our employees developed a clear list of the behaviors they desire in themselves, their peers, and their leaders. We use this detailed document to educate new employees and to remind existing staff of our expectations. You can view our culture statement at www.duboseweb.com/culture.

7)      Coach employees who make mistakes. According to the principles outlined by Spencer Johnson’s bestseller The One Minute Manager, leaders should look for things employees do well and reward or publicly recognize them for their efforts. When employees are not performing well or if you see problematic patterns, give them specific examples of your concerns (privately and professionally, of course), provide suggestions for improvement, and then monitor their progress. Reward them when they improve.

8)      In a sensitive (and legal) way, help the wrong employees find other jobs outside the company. Unhappy, unproductive, troublesome, rule-breaking, or incompetent employees who do not share your vision will keep other staff and leaders from achieving the mission. Proactively screen out employees who won’t fit into your workplace environment by improving your hiring practices. Frequent, thorough performance reviews can help change existing staff’s inappropriate behaviors.

9)      Perfection is unrealistic, but effective leaders constantly push for high quality standards. “Good is the enemy of great,” Jim Collins writes in Good to Great. Staff and leaders should constantly seek improvement; however, don’t kill employees with overwork and perfectionism, which slows decision-making and project completion.

10)   Inspect what you expect. When you establish goals and objectives for staff, set up assessment mechanisms to measure performance and outcomes. Don’t rely solely on gut feelings or observations.

11)   Keep your temper. You will sometimes want to tear into an employee, but first, take a day or two to calm down and look for the right moment to talk about the problem. Be sure to allow the person to tell his or her side of the story.

 

The Plan

 

12)   With help and input from staff, create a strategic plan with a mission, vision, and purpose. Write the plan in simple language so everyone understands where they are going and how to get there. Then, execute its steps.

13)   Develop custom marketing plans based on research and facts. You can have the best products, staff, and services in the world, but if customers are not aware of them, you are “dead on arrival!” Contrary to what sales reps may say, there is no cookie cutter marketing program that works for all businesses. Tailor your plan to what you know works, experimenting with new methods from time to time. Leading DuBose Web Group (www.duboseweb.com) has taught us that properly designed and coded websites, along with word-of-mouth, now drive a majority of consumers to businesses and non-profits.

14)   Analyze your competitors. Study what they are doing, the products and services they offer, and their prices. Stay one step ahead, but build alliances whenever possible.

15)   Take a cue from Collins’ “Hedgehog Concept.” As a company, focus on what you and your team members are most passionate about, what is very profitable, and where you excel. Everything else? Stop doing it!

16)   Plan for controlled growth. Success can kill a company if expansion comes too quickly. Grow capacity alongside demand.

17)   Predict problems before they occur. True leaders anticipate the unanticipated. Plan for failure, and you’ll always be prepared for success.

18)   Seek guidance from human resource, legal, insurance, and accounting specialists. Your team of experts will ensure that all aspects of your business are protected and operating within legal realms.

19)   Implement succession and back-up plans to avoid dependence on owners, leaders, or key employees. Prepare to die tomorrow!

 

The Money

 

20)   Construct a detailed, closely-monitored budget allowing for few (if any) surprises and share it with staff. By involving and educating employees on the budget, you will inspire them to generate income and reduce costs. Always underestimate revenue and overestimate expenses. Build a system that keeps cash flow accessible and all bills paid, with budget cost centers to ensure that activities are profitable and losses can be pinpointed in their early stages.

21)   Stockpile savings for rainy days. Live within your means and strive to be debt free, both corporately and personally. Establish credit lines when they are not yet needed.

22)   Diversify revenues (while sticking to the mission). Keep money coming in through profitable activites your company already does well, but also experiment with new ideas so you have other revenue streams coming in. The 3M Company allows staff to spend up to 15% of their work time on any new product they want to develop…which paid off when one employee created the highly profitable Post-it Note!

 

The Service

 

23)   Impress upon all staff that exemplary customer service is everyone’s responsibility, regardless of their job description. Our goal at one of our companies, Columbia Conference Center (www.columbiameetings.com), is simple: give customers what they want, when they want it, and in a caring, outstanding way. If you have this attitude, customers become your sales force; in fact, 92% of our business comes from word-of-mouth!

24)   Establish brief, simple evaluation systems that send customer comments directly to the business owner or key leaders. The leaders should then share the information with all employees in a caring way. Customer feedback allows you to identify areas that need improvement and reward employees who have provided exemplary service.

25)   Constantly ask, “Can we do this better?” Always look for creative approaches to success. Your staff and other business leaders can both serve as great sources of new ideas.

26)   Generate new products and services as customers’ needs change. Don’t let your organization become stale. Consumer will get bored, and competitors may make cheaper imitations of your products. As Kouzes and Posner say in The Leadership Challenge, “Leaders, by definition, are out in front of change, not behind it trying to catch up.”

27)   Maintain a philosophy of “underpromising and overdelivering.” Strive to impress your customers by going above and beyond satisfactory service and creating a memorable, positive experience for them. Stewart Mungo of Mungo Builders told us that the customer’s experience is the defining factor leading to success or failure.

 

The Infrastructure

 

28)   Build strong communications so that everyone knows what is happening. Being open and honest with employees is one of our company values, and it builds trust throughout the organization. Encourage each division to generate minutes for important meetings and e-mails to explain big decisions. Distribute these documents to all employees.

29)   Develop a culture where people can speak their minds (in a professional manner), challenge the status quo, and make suggestions without fear. Then, LISTEN!

30)   Establish clear, concise policies and apply them consistently. Update policies annually with everyone’s input to reduce confusion and enhance communication.

31)   Outline your expectations in clearly-defined job descriptions, and give employees ongoing informal feedback so they know what they are doing right and the areas in which they can improve. If this is done correctly, their annual formal performance reviews will contain few, if any, surprises.

32)   Implement current technology in the workplace. Even the best employees can’t be productive if they’re trying to work with outdated equipment and software!

 

The Mindset

 

33)   Practice—and reward—humility. According to Jim Collins in Good to Great, the leaders of the great companies he studied exhibited “compelling modesty.” Don’t ask anyone to do anything that you are not willing to do or have not done yourself. By practicing humility, you can focus more attention on the business than on feeding your ego. Do not allow people with arrogant, bullying, or Lone Ranger personalities to run loose in your organization!

34)   Build trust. Kouzes and Posner say that when it comes to their leader, employees “want to assure themselves that the person is worthy of their trust. They desire to know that the person is truthful, ethical, and principled.” To establish credibility with your staff, maintain a reputation of “under-promising and over-delivering” in your comments to them and think carefully about the commitments that you make.

35)   Talk less and listen more, especially in meetings. Being a good listener will keep you engaged and help you grow as a leader.

36)   Be accessible. All of our staff members, at any time, have direct access to us or any other leader through a variety of ways, like face-to-face meetings, telephone, e-mail, and cell phone.

37)   Every day, get out of your office and walk the halls. Look for things that are going right and things that could be improved within your organization. Try to view everything from a customer’s perspective. “By consistently living in your customer’s shoes, you will have a chance to see your business through your customer’s eyes—a hugely important advantage in today’s fast-moving marketplace,” notes Jeffrey A. Krames in his book Jack Welch and the 4E’s of Leadership.

38)   Be a proactive problem-solver. Look for signs of trouble before problems occur. Praise employees for admitting mistakes so that they will feel comfortable bringing problems out into the open before they escalate. Removing fear of “the blame game” will make staff more willing to face problems and find solutions. When issues do arise, find the root causes and solutions rather than focusing on symptoms or “whodunit.”

39)   Learn from mistakes and failures. Your attitude can transform bad decisions into something very profitable. Look at all of your mistakes as opportunities to do better next time. Famous leaders such as Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison did not see failure as bad, just as a path to success. Leaders should openly admit their mistakes to help everyone within the organization feel comfortable doing the same.

40)   Accept responsibility. Regardless of who directly caused a problem, if mistakes are made, look into the mirror and ask yourself, “What could I have done better as a leader to prevent this?”  Then, put your findings into action.

41)   Make timely, smart decisions. Good leaders gather facts on an issue, solicit input, develop options, weigh the odds, and make a prompt decision. They look for “win-win” situations and allow others to give advice and feedback openly and without fear. Although no business can be run as a total democracy, workers’ input should be heard and considered, even if it is not ultimately used.

42)   Take calculated risks. Seek input from a wide range of sectors, weigh the odds, and then pull the trigger—but never place all of your resources in one or two risky ventures.

43)   Ignite excitement. Leaders should be enthusiastic, positive, and energetic cheerleaders. Employees need to feel passion in your actions and words. It’s contagious!

44)   Have fun! Leaders should look for occasions to celebrate with their staff, like birthdays, profitable ventures, births, and marriages. People need to feel that they are part of a caring team, and celebrations can provide momentum as employees march toward accomplishing the mission. They also send the message that the leader cares about his or her employees and appreciates their efforts. At our companies, we established an employee liaison committee to provide regular celebrations and fun activities (lunches, bowling outings, etc.) for our staff. They love it!

45)   Support the community. Engaged staff members want to be a part of an organization with a higher purpose than just making money. We have a community service committee at our companies that allows employees to volunteer during work time, provided they are up-to-speed on their duties. They appreciate the opportunity to give back, and it makes them proud to work at a caring organization.

46)   Don’t overwork yourself. Being a leader can be an exciting adventure, but it can also expend all your energy. Make sure you take some time for family, friends, fun, rest, and faith. Don’t let titles, greed, the need for recognition and power, or the love of money drive you.

47)   If you don’t feel good about something, be cautious. Jack Welch gave us this wise advice, and we stick to it!

48)   Seek knowledge. We have learned some incredibly useful tips from great business authors like Kouzes and Posner, Collins, Ziglar, Welch, Drucker, Blanchard, Bossidy, and Covey. See “Recommended Readings” on www.mikedubose.com for an extensive list of books that we have personally found helpful.

49)   KISS: “Keep it simple, stupid!” Too many leaders fail to realize the wisdom of simplicity.

50)   If you are spiritual, seek God’s help, guidance, and wisdom. There is a lot of power up there!

 

There is no simple, easy, and fast way to become a great leader. It has taken us trial and error—and sometimes failure!—to succeed, but these 50 research-based suggestions are a solid start. The most important step is selecting the right people and then gaining their trust, respect, and allegiance. It’s not an easy path, but it is well worth taking!

 

About the Authors: Our corporate and personal purpose is to “create opportunities to improve lives” by sharing our knowledge, experience, success, research, and mistakes.

 

Blake DuBose graduated from Newberry College Schools of Business and Psychology and is president of DuBose Web Group. View our published articles at www.duboseweb.com.

 

Mike DuBose has been in business since 1981, authored The Art of Building a Great Business, and is a field instructor with USC’s graduate school. He is the owner of four debt-free corporations, including Columbia Conference Center, Research Associates, and The Evaluation Group. Visit his nonprofit website www.mikedubose.com for a free copy of his book and other useful articles.

 

Katie Beck serves as Director of Communications for the DuBose family of companies. She graduated from the USC School of Journalism and Honors College.

 

© Copyright 2014 by Mike DuBose and Blake DuBose–All Rights Reserved. You have permission and we encourage you to forward the full article to friends or colleagues and/or distribute it as part of personal or professional use, providing that the authors are credited. However, no part of this article may be altered or published in any other manner without the written consent of the authors. If you would like written approval to post this information on an appropriate website or to publish this information, please contact Katie Beck at [email protected] and briefly explain how the article will be used and we will respond promptly. Thank you for honoring our hard work!