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Coaching is just as important in business - the ultimate team sport - as it is in sports.
Define: What is leadership?
Every dictionary appears to have a different definition of leadership, none of which really provides a good start point for a discussion of leadership. The US Army defines leadership as “Leadership is influencing people—by providing purpose, direction, and motivation—while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization.”[i] There is nothing here about improving your career, getting promoted, or getting a pay raise. However, if one provides workers and organizations with purpose, direction, and motivation and gets the job done while at the same time improving the organization, that person will probably get promoted, get a bonus or get a pay raise as a collateral benefit.
“Great leaders inspire their teams to believe so deeply in their mission that they become immersed in what they’re doing… Average leaders inspire their subordinates to do just enough to get by, just enough to get raises or keep their jobs… Bad leaders destroy their followers sense of commitment.”[ii] What type of motivation do you provide your employees? Are they content to adopt the mantra, “Minimum effort, mediocre results,” or are they motivated to “become immersed in what they’re doing?”
[i] US Army Field Manual 22-100, Leadership, August 1999.
[ii] Smith, Dean and Bell, Gerald D., The Carolina Way, The Penguin Group, New York, NY, 2003, p. 33.
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