It All Begins With Leadership

It All Begins With Leadership
By Brian Anderson BA Search Group, RRC


Business leaders often ask, “How does my organization get results?” Very simply—it all begins with leadership.

Great leaders inspire and serve their people. They provide vision and direction and equip their people with the skills and knowledge needed to generate results. Great leaders understand the needs of their employees and utilize different leadership styles depending on specific developmental needs. They understand that people need to be coached and supported as they bridge the learning-doing gap and transfer what they learn into everyday practice. Surprisingly, great leaders can be found at every level in the organization, because leadership happens whenever people use their ability to positively influence others.

Unfortunately, many people’s ideas of leadership boil down to exercising power and control over others. That might get people’s attention, but it’s no way to tap their innate goodness and inspire great results.
Too often, the leadership many people see is characterized by the phrase, “It’s all about me,” and all the money, recognition and power move up the hierarchy. These leaders act like the sheep are there only for the benefit of the shepherd. It’s often an unconscious practice based on years of watching poor role models, yet it’s a trend that needs to be changed.

Impact studies conducted with leading companies highlight the critical role that leadership plays in determining a company’s success or failure. Poor leadership doesn’t just hold employees back from reaching their full potential, but actually sends them in the wrong direction and seriously impacts morale, employee retention and financial performance.

The development business is all about people and results. Our life’s passion is to unleash the power and potential of people for the common good. Working with thousands of organizations, we have learned that leading at a higher level is a transformational journey that begins with self-leadership, moves to one-on-one leadership, then team leadership and, finally, organizational leadership:

· Self-Leadership: Before leaders can hope to lead anyone else, they must know themselves well enough to realize that leadership is not about them. It’s about serving their vision and values, their customers, their people and the bottom line. When leaders truly know themselves, they develop radical self-acceptance and are able to take full advantage of their strengths and most positive qualities.
· One-on-One Leadership: Once leaders have life in proper perspective—they know it’s not all about them—they are able to develop trusting relationships as they lead other individuals. This is where leading situationally comes into play. Great leaders know how to tailor management styles to individual employees. They realize that they must understand their people well enough to give them the direction and support they need to succeed.
· Team Leadership: As leaders develop trusting relationships with people one-on-one, they become ready to develop teams. Effective leaders working at the team level must realize that to be good stewards of the energy and efforts of those working with them, they must honor the power of diversity and acknowledge that “none of us is as smart as all of us.”
· Organizational Leadership: The final stop on our transformational leadership journey will be organizational leadership. This is when leaders are not just leading a team, but a number of teams and departments. The focus here is managing change and developing an organization that creates both great results and high satisfaction.


Leading at a higher level is more than an announcement—it is a commitment to lead in a different way. It isn’t a change that happens overnight. The great thing about this journey is that there are personal and professional rewards every step of the way.

There is no best leadership style. A good leader knows it takes different strokes to lead different folks. What works in one situation or domain may not work in another. For the time being, remember: Great leaders are here to serve, not to be served.

Brian Anderson is the principal founder of BA Search Group an executive search, coaching and consulting practice in the Naperville, Aurora, IL market.
www.basearchgroup.com