Leading employees and team members effectively.

Being a leader in an organization (CEO, senior manager, line manager or team leader) is never easy, nor is it simply a matter of holding a particular position. The management position ensures that you’ll get the corner office but it doesn’t ensure that the employees will actually follow you!Here are some tips for leading effectively:1. Provide a clear road-map of the way forward. First and foremost, a true leader conveys with crystal clarity the core of the business plan (or comparable statement of organizational direction). Every employee on the team should be utterly familiar with this plan and completely committed to it.2. Choose good subordinates and empower them. A true leader understands that he or she can’t do everything (depending on the manager’s level) and chooses strong individuals as direct subordinates. When those subordinates are in place, the leader offers them real empowerment – realizing that in this era it is impossible for one manager to monitor everything his or her team is doing.3. Reward excellence and challenge mediocrity. This is one of the toughest parts of the leader’s role. It is absolutely essential that employees see that work performed to the highest standards will earn recognition while work done to low standards will be deemed unacceptable. Since the natural human tendency is to expend just enough effort to meet the minimum acceptable standard, the leader must indicate clearly that the minimum level has now been raised!4. Show passion and emotion. The true leader is comfortable displaying passion and even occasional emotion. Employees connect more powerfully with a flesh and blood human being showing real emotion than with a PowerPoint presentation setting out goals and objectives to be achieved. Seeing that the leader has a personal stake in the group’s success motivates employees to do the same.5. Celebrate achievements. Because the goals set out in the business plan are not only company goals but personal goals, it makes sense to celebrate when an objective is achieved. This provides an opportunity for the tension of all the months of striving to be released and for the bonding that comes with experiencing a shared sense of accomplishment to occur.Leading employees effectively requires a wide range of personal qualities and professional competencies. It also requires a level of energy and intensity that not everyone can maintain. The true leader magnifies the talents and abilities of his or her team in order to achieve common goals.