One might think that because I have been advising others in the area of leadership and planning for over thirty years, and my company has both of those areas as the major portions of its mission, that I would emphasize the need to plan as more important than anything else a leader might do. However, as much as I cherish and believe in planning, all the planning in the world will accomplish little unless a leader dedicates himself to working on that plan, because no plan has ever been implemented on its own. Jim Rohn wrote, "If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you." Please realize that Mr. Rohn purposely said that it would go to work on you, and not that it would go to work for you.
1. Creating a plan is certainly an essential part of effective leadership, however it is neither the first step or the only one. The first thing a leader needs is a reason to be a leader, or in other words a driving vision that motivates him to commit to the necessities and obligations of a leader. This vision must be in line with the organization's mission, and must recognize realities, historical information, the organization's heritage and where it would like to go, where it is in relation to where it would like to be, short- term, intermediate- term and long- term, etc.
The leader's vision must motivate others to follow and adopt the vision as important enough to be their own, and then the leader must grasp the momentum and create goals to achieve along the way. Once that is done, then a real leader creates an action plan, with definitive time lines and reporting intervals, as well as assigning and overseeing vital areas of responsibility to others. Leaders must delegate carefully, and only delegate to those he is convinced will adequately commit and get done the specific tasks and/ or necessities. True leaders, therefore, must also be oversight specialists.
2. This plan will go nowhere without action being taken. Far too often, individuals in leadership positions rhetorically are great leaders, but fail to translate their words to actions, or as I like to say, their talk to their walk. Therefore, effective leaders must lead and not follow others, daring to have the courage to set the agenda as they believe is needed, and directing others to being more creative, more committed, and more willing to take the necessary actions required for the organization's well being.
Do you want to be a leader, or are you simply a wannabe? Will you commit to the vision, goals and planning required, and then step forth and lead by example, setting the agenda and taking the courageous actions you feel necessary to achieve your vision, for the good of the organization? A true leader's objective must always be to make his organization better, more relevant, and to provide added value to others. Leadership is a form of selflessness!
Richard Brody, with over 30 years consultative sales, marketing, training, managerial, and operations experience, has trained sales and marketing people in numerous industries, given hundreds of seminars, appeared as a company spokesperson on over 200 radio and television programs, and regularly blogs on real estate, politics, economics, management, leadership, negotiations, conferences and conventions, etc. He has negotiated, arranged and/ or organized hundreds of conferences and conventions. He's a Senior Consultant with RGB Consultation Services, an Ecobroker, a Licensed Buyers Agent (LBA) and Licensed Salesperson in NYS, in real estate.
Richard has owned businesses, been a Chief Operating Officer, a Chief Executive Officer, and a Director of Development, as well as a consultant. He has a Consulting Website, and his company PLAN2LEAD, LLC's site ( http://www.plan2lead.net/ ), and can be followed on Twitter @rgbrody and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Plan2lead
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