Wednesday, June 28, 2017 / Perth Australia / By Niekie Jooste

You can also read this e-zine on the WelderDestiny website by clicking here...

Leadership Simplified - Issue #026

• Leadership is Central to Success
• Why is Your Work Important
• How Can We Support You
• How You Are Going

Leadership is Central to Success

Many books have been written on the subject of leadership. I have certainly read quite a few. While each one will teach you something, most will just use a lot of words, and make long lists of the important characteristics of a leader. After a few weeks I forgot most of what was written in those books.

One book does however stand out to me in its simplicity and intuitive approach to leadership. That book is "The One Minute Manager" by Kenneth Blanchard. The name of the book initially put me off, but the contents made a lot of sense to me. Since reading The One Minute Manager, I have always remembered the three basic aspects of leadership explained there.

For us as technical types, a simple distillation of leadership is not only useful, it is essential. We cannot be experts in everything, so we just want the basic concepts that will help us, without confusing the issue.

Leadership as a skill is important for all of us, even if we are not a professional manager. This is especially true for a future where many of us will end up being solopreneurs.

If you would like to add your ideas to this week’s discussion, then please send me an e-mail with your ideas, (Send your e-mails to: compass@welderdestiny.com) or add a contribution directly into the comments form on the bottom of the e-zine page on the WelderDestiny website.

Click here to add your contribution directly to the WelderDestiny website...

Now let's get stuck into this week’s topics...

Why is Your Work Important

Often people do incomplete work, or do not pay attention to important details. We could just write this off to some personality flaw of the person, or we could recognise that many people just do not understand the implications of getting their work wrong. They are not motivated to do it right, because they themselves think that their work is unimportant.

Are you a welder? What would happen if the weld you made in that pipeline failed? Could somebody lose their life? Could your company loose a lot of money? Are you an engineers? What if you missed something that you should have taken into account when designing a critical structure? Are you a welding inspector? What if you missed a clue that a weld was not done right, and could fail during production?

Regardless of what your job is, there are many reasons why it is important to your company, or to people that may use the product your team is making.

As a leader, it is your job to make sure that people know why their work is important.

How Can We Support You

Nobody works in a vacuum. We all need training, financial and material resources to make our jobs a success. Organisations often send the wrong signals to employees regarding where they spend their time and money, and where they do not spend their time and money.

The idea here is not necessarily that throwing money or resources at a problem will make it all well again. Often low cost support for people can make a huge difference in their ability to do their jobs well. What is important is to identify what support people need to do their jobs well, and then making sure that they get that support.

As a leader, understanding what your people need to do their jobs well, and then providing that support, is critical to not only their success, but yours as well.

How You Are Going

People need to know if their work is right or not. Giving feedback that is not linked to financial reward or punishment is therefore important. While negative feedback is difficult, it can be voiced in such a way that it leads to a better outcome for the leader and the worker. It is much worse if unmet expectations are not voiced.

Obviously this feedback is not just about negative feedback. If the person is doing a good job, then they should be told that their efforts are appreciated, and the necessary recognition given. This recognition does not need to be financial. It can just as easily be in the form of verbal feedback. The proverbial "pat on the back".

A final point that is worth making is that none of the three factors mentioned are personality based. While some people naturally have charismatic personalities, which makes their leadership efforts more powerful, we all know some leaders with rather abrasive personalities, that somehow still earn our trust and respect.

While a positive approach to leadership will generally be more successful than a negative approach, the three points given above can be put into practice by anybody, regardless of their personality. None of us has an excuse.

Yours in welding

Niekie Jooste

P.S. What are your thoughts on leadership? Do you have a story about a really good or really bad leader? Please share your stories regarding today's topics directly on the e-zine page on the WelderDestiny website.

Click here to add your contribution directly to the WelderDestiny website...

P.P.S If you know anybody that you believe could benefit from The WelderDestiny Compass, please forward it to them. If this e-zine was forwarded to you, and you are interested in receiving our future editions, please visit the WelderDestiny.com website and enter your e-mail details into the subscription box. It is a big red box on the home page, so you can't really miss it. - I hope!