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Here in the United States, we are undergoing a massive change in leadership across the federal government.  This got me thinking about the subject of leadership, and how it is done well.  The NACM CORE® Leadership Competency[i] begins by defining leadership as “an energetic process of creating vision resulting in commitment to a common course and preferred future.”  Here are two other definitions that I like:

  • Warren Bennis – “A leader turns ideas into reality and sustains them over time, independent of the leader.”
  • President Eisenhower – “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

But how do leaders lead effectively?  What techniques and actions should they use?  A couple of years ago I saved an excellent column on this subject by Bob Lewis in his Keep the Joint Running IT newsletter.[ii]  Lewis clearly defined how effective leaders must master eight tasks of leadership:

  1. Setting direction: Leaders must be clear about their organization’s mission, vision, and strategy. The mission is the reason the organization exists – what it’s supposed to accomplish. Vision is a clear and precise account of how tomorrow will be different from yesterday. Strategy is how the leader expects to deliver on their organization’s mission and make the vision real.
  2. Delegation: Effective staff get things done. Effective leaders build organizations that get things done for them. The process of getting staff to do the leader’s work and do it well is the essence of leading.
  3. Staffing: To build organizations that get things done, effective leaders must be adept at determining who to recruit, hire, train, and promote so the organization is staffed with people they can delegate to.
  4. Decision-making: Decisions commit or deny staff, time, and money. Everything else is just talking. Decent leaders don’t necessarily make good decisions, but they do take the steps needed so good decisions get made.
  5. Motivating: An obvious, but important point, is that motivated staff work harder and better than apathetic staff. Leaders motivate by (1) avoiding de-motivating employees;[iii] and then (2) energizing them.
  6. Managing team dynamics: Most of the work that gets done gets done by teams – collections of employees who trust each other and who are aligned to a common purpose. The best leaders don’t consider themselves part of the teams they lead, but do take responsibility for creating the conditions that result in trust and alignment.
  7. Instituting culture: Culture is how we do things around here – not on a procedural level, but on an attitudinal one. Employees who share the same unconscious assumptions and thought processes collaborate more effectively than those who don’t.
  8. Communicating: For the most part, the way leaders accomplish the first seven tasks is by communicating – the eighth task. Communicating means they listen, inform, persuade, and facilitate.[iv]

This is a great list that synthesizes the reams of information and advice on leadership into a succinct and actionable guide.  Leaders who make these eight tasks a priority will do a great job and lead their organizations to greater success.  Let’s hope that those charged with leadership roles in our organizations and our government do so as we move forward.

[i] Leadership – National Association for Court Management

[ii] Leading – still the toughest job

[iii] This may be the most important task – DO NOT DO THINGS THAT DE-MOTIVATE!

[iv] The most important of these is LISTENING.

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Published by Norman Meyer

After 38 years as a trial court administrator in the state and federal courts in the U.S., Norman continues to write, teach, and otherwise participate in judicial administration activities world-wide. In particular, he is active in the International Association for Court Administration (IACA) as a past Regional Vice President and Advisory Board member, in the National Association for Court Management (NACM) as a Past President (having received NACM's Award of Merit), and as an Associate of the Justice Speakers Institute. Norman has extensive experience working on international Rule of Law projects, particularly in the Russian Federation, Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Albania. Norman is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of New Mexico (Political Science and Russian Studies), and he received the Master of Science in Judicial Administration from the University of Denver College of Law.

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