Today’s business reality is that CEOs, presidents, managing directors and all other C-Suite executives are struggling with the challenge of ever-increasing competitiveness in the market from both external and internal factors. As a result, leadership is needed like never before.
Moreover, at a time when budgets are flat or shrinking and every decision within the company is being made with extreme caution, the leadership that is portrayed is being closely watched, since executives must set a standard for everyone in the organisation to emulate. If they cannot be good role models, their position will surely be challenged because companies cannot afford to keep low-performing leaders in place.
I have been fortunate enough to work with many outstanding CEOs and leaders in Thailand as well as from overseas, and many often ask me what makes the high-performing leader different from the average. In this article, I will share with you some of my observations.
From my experience, it is safe to say that great leaders are most often those that excel in self-management, relationship management, operational performance as well as strategic performance. But what makes them truly outshine others is the fact that they are more competitive, more visionary, more willing to take risks, more dynamic and extremely energetic.
High-performing leaders are more ambitious, seeking to take the lead while emphasising strong beliefs in what they and their organisation are doing to win over others. Great leaders think outside the box and are never satisfied with the way things are; they challenge the status quo and get others to do so as well. It is true that some might perceive them as dreamers or even unpredictable, but it is these very qualities that help them to become successful, along with letting intuition play its part.
In addition, they are pioneers, open to challenges, and they often enjoy taking risks because they are highly entrepreneurial in nature. They stand out as individuals and actively seek to positively influence others through a greater sense of urgency, independence and inducing “healthy” stress.
They spend their time working with processes, customers, people and measurement and also working on improving the business by formulating strategy, ensuring its execution, holding people accountable, and developing leadership in others and a “can do” culture.
They are willing to learn from mistakes and to confront troublemakers. They are flexible, open to ambiguity and can change direction quickly because they are less conservative, tough and resilient, but also astute about organisational politics. At the same time, they are fun-loving, socially engaging and imaginative and genuinely value teams and people.
Essentially, my personal suggestion if you wish to become a high-performing leader in this era is that not only should you be fiercely competitive, but also you should be open to feedback from others. This is because I believe that a good leader should be extremely achievement-oriented while remaining modest — a good motivator, a person of integrity and a genuine people manager, not just a “drive-by” one.
As a matter of fact, becoming a high-performing leader might not be the ultimate goal for every leader. Some would rather be a boss that no one wants to leave. In reality, you can be a successful and merciful boss at the same time. To begin with, start by taking the actions mentioned in this article while developing people skills that focus on motivating, improving communication, becoming a better listener and appearing less aggressive. From here, you can take a step further to become a high-performing leader that everybody loves to work with and work for.
-----------------------------------
Arinya Talerngsri is Group Managing Director at APMGroup, Thailand’s leading Organisation and People Development Consultancy. She can be reached by e-mail at arinya_t@apm.co.th or https://www.linkedin.com/pub/arinya-talerngsri/a/81a/53b
For daily updates, visit https://www.facebook.com/apmgroupthai