better business blog

Tips and stories to add value to you and your organisation

The SRS Of Leadership

27 May 2013

– Structure
– Recognition
– Stimulation

…Yes it’s that simple. Leaders set the rules, give people feedback and control the variety of work people can do.

As a leader our role is firstly to set the boundaries – the structure. Think about your organisation…what are the rules that people need to follow? Who bends them? What conversations do you need to have to effectively enforce the rules?

Our second role is to recognise that our colleagues exist. This might sound odd, but us humans like to feel noticed and accounted for. If we do good work, we like a ‘well done’ and when we return from a holiday we like a ‘nice to see you again’ …and not a cutting ‘hello, who are you?’

Thirdly, people like to do work that they enjoy, which stretches them a bit and which can lead to new and interesting tasks. We need to stimulate our colleagues and make sure that we don’t burden them with work that they’re ill suited for. When was the last time you had a good sort out of tasks and reallocated work, to make sure you had optimised your resources?

We can make leadership as simple or as complex as we like. Personally, I prefer simple. How about you?

Have fun with the SRS of leadership this week!

Next week: Confidence under pressure.