Tantalizing Tips for Pursuing Leadership Excellence

There are dozens of good books on excellence, but not all are readily applicable to leading the small- or medium-sized business. The following keys to excellence will be of particular benefit to the leader looking for a brief, high-impact reference. 

1. Constantly put yourself in the employee's shoes. Look at your decisions from their perspective. Your intentions may be good, but perceptions are what count. Do a constant perception check. 
2. Communicate your vision. Give your teammates the opportunity to buy into your goals. Make your vision their vision. Break down your vision into small increments. Reward each incremental achievement. 
3. Make sure everyone on staff has a reason to feel important. The quickest way to accomplish this is to be sure you don't have too many people. Within a working environment that has a sense of urgency, a need for everyone to carry weight creates the opportunity for self-importance. More people cause more problems, not the least of which is an awareness by employees that not everyone getting a paycheck is necessary. Paranoia sets in, energy level goes south.
   Limit participants. Keep the organization trim to create a better working environment. Rather than ride the ego trip of adding people to support your growth, work with current staff to find ways to increase productivity. When individual productivity increases, find a way for it to benefit everyone—not only increased profits for the owner, but better pay and increased job security for productive employees.
4. Take a chance on gifted people. Sometimes they are a delight, sometimes difficult. But you can't achieve prominence or create substantial wealth without surrounding yourself with talent. Find a way to let winners win. 
5. Establish regular, consistent opportunities to communicate. Bring in a pizza for lunch, show videotapes on relevant topics, or make departments responsible for staff meetings on a rotating basis. Be creative. Keep everyone feeling good about their work and their future. 
6. Celebrate events and accomplishments unexpectedly. Rigidity is out. Flexibility is in. Find ways to change the pace, to create excitement. Offer an extra afternoon off on a beautiful summer day. Do the unexpected. The more people expect something, the less they appreciate it and vice versa. 
7. Put employees at risk. I don't mean on the edge of their seat waiting to see if they are about to lose their jobs. Simply be sure they know what they do is necessary work and that you are counting on them. Add importance to their daily duties. Give them a feeling of ownership in positive results.
8. Develop outstanding incentive compensation opportunities. This is a great way to convey a sense of ownership. Make everyone a bean counter. Give them a vested interest in providing customer delight, as well as prudent management of expenses and growth. ‍
9. Treat each employee like your best customer. The hard reality is we can't expect an employee to care for customers unless the employee feels cared for by the employer. Unhappy employees create unhappy customers. Delighted employees create delighted customers. The choice is yours.