Tips for Stress free life  >  Expert Zone   > Leadership

       Leadership Tips by experts


Blowing Your Own Leadership Horn


There are two streams of competitiveness running through every organization. The first goes outward: It's the organization's competitive activities toward its competitors. The second goes inward: It's the competitiveness of leaders inside the organization who are vying against one another for power, recognition, privilege and promotion.

To be successful in the second, leaders must not only do well in their jobs but they must also be able to have their bosses and colleagues perceive they do well.

In other words, they must be able to publicize themselves -- or, to use the vernacular, blow their own horns.

I submit, however, that if one simply puts lips to the horn of publicity and blows hard -- i.e., makes an outward show of publicizing oneself -- such efforts will turn out to be discordant and counterproductive. The result will be people turning their backs on you rather than having them hum your tune.

Though it is necessary to blow one's own horn as you climb your career ladder, it is also necessary to know how to do it. After all, there is an art to the effort. Here are four steps that you can follow.

(1) Identify an area in your organization that needs better results. The art involves not just selecting the right results but doing so in cooperation with others. Make sure that when you shine light on the lack of results, you do not embarrass somebody who has been tasked to get those results. Instead of making beautiful music, you could end up on somebody's enemies list! Get the responsible person's permission to focus on the area.

(2) Put together a team whose task it is to achieve those results. Blowing your own horn means that you want to be seen, not as the Lone Ranger, but as a team player. Ensure the results can be achieved with a team. Enlist members to join the team by giving leadership talks. (What's in it for them to be part of the team?) Be aware, as you form the team, of any hard feelings or rough edges that might surface between and among team members and others in your organization who have a stake in the results. If you lead an endeavor that causes hard feelings, it's better to have never started it in the first place.

Moreover, the new team must be not only be formed, it must be MARKETED. Both of these efforts require communications tools and skills, which can take numerous forms. First, to describe the new team or service, communications must be employed to fully define its purpose and operating principles, and the people who are involved in it. These communications tools are descriptive in nature and may include everything from biographical back-grounders to product descriptions and data sheets.

(3) Achieve the results. Execution and achievement of the targeted results is absolutely critical to this phase of horn blowing. Make sure you score a win even if it's only a partial win. The idea is to get the low hanging fruit at the outset to show others that your team is succeeding, and then go for the bigger results later.

(4) Publicize the results. This is one of the most important steps of all, and it is a step that few leaders follow. They might put together a team that gets a few wins, but they have no idea how to publicize their efforts. The first rule in this is: To blow your own horn most effectively, make sure YOU DON'T TAKE CREDIT FOR THE RESULTS -- YOUR TEAM MEMBERS TAKE CREDIT INSTEAD! Your efforts will get torpedoed if they look at all self-serving.

To highlight the successful products and services achieved by your team, you can put together white papers, data sheets, presentation papers and case-history articles.

Don't make this a one-time effort. You must be continually looking for results that are flagging, putting together teams to achieve the results, then marketing and publicizing the achievements.

In this way, when you blow your horn in your organization, the music you'll be making can accompany you on a fast-rising career-trajectory.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. - and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at http://www.actionleadership.com For more on the Leadership Talk: http://www.theleadershiptalk.com


MORE RESOURCES:

See the complete list of Articles on Leadership here

Have a look at Best Selling Books on Leadership

 

Google

See also : Other articles on

Depression, Grief Loss, Happiness, Humor, Inspirational, Motivation,
Positive Attitude
, Meditation, Spirituality Goal Setting, Leadership Public Speaking Time ManagementWealth Building, Ethics, Stress Management
Yoga, Alternative Health, Build Muscle, Exercise,   Aerobics Cardio, Fitness Equipment Pregnancy  Dating, Elder Care, RelationshipAcneBeauty, Hair Loss
Cooking Tips, Recipes,Top Tips for everything Crafts Hobbies, Creativity, Fishing Photography, Pets,


Latest info on : Leadership

 


An absence of leadership
guardian.co.uk, UK - 1 hour ago
While governments talk of providing leadership, there has been a signal absence. Governments need to counteract the effects of the credit crunch using ...


Gay support group criticizes Mormon leadership
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - Oct 11, 2008
Leaders of a support group for gay and lesbian Mormons on Saturday criticized their church for its efforts to ban gay marriage in California. ...


Reliance on the US will never be the same
Times Online, UK - 2 hours ago
Secondly, the ability of European governments to launch their own financial rescue without waiting for US leadership represents a fundamental shift in ...


South Africa’s leadership succession
The Punch, Nigeria - 20 minutes ago
By Editorial Board For a continent that has become notorious for violent power struggles, the recent peaceful leadership succession in South Africa is ...


Earthtimes (press release)

Without real leadership, we face disaster
guardian.co.uk, UK - Oct 11, 2008
Without collaboration and leadership, we face disaster. On Friday, there were terrifying signs that the contagion was spreading to the foreign exchange ...
The panic of 2008 Socialist Worker Online
all 1,010 news articles


McCain: Voters are angry at 'failure of leadership'
DesMoinesRegister.com, IA - 15 hours ago
They're angry at the failure of leadership at this hour of national crisis." McCain promoted his plans for the federal government to buy the delinquent ...
WRAPUP 2-Obama thanks McCain for remarks, presses attack Reuters South Africa
McCain: America is angry and I am too FOXNews
all 140 news articles


E! Online

Obama fails to show leadership when needed
Hilton Head Island Packet, SC - 20 hours ago
In the game of politics, one-up-manship is everything. Sen. John McCain just upped Sen. Barack Obama but good. Obama's first gaffe, of course, ...
Europe's Financial Crisis, McCain's Campaign Challenges, and the ... Council on Foreign Relations
all 1,649 news articles


Economy, leadership in BC voters' minds in Tuesday's federal election
The Canadian Press, VANCOUVER - 5 hours ago
Strategists for the main parties' BC campaigns agree leadership will be on the ballot, sharpened here by the need to fix damage done well before the ...


Brown offers Europe a lesson in leadership
Financial Times, UK - 6 hours ago
By Wolfgang Münchau I had a bad feeling on Friday night when I heard that finance ministers from the Group of Seven countries had prepared a draft ...


Jackson sophomore offers quiet leadership
Southeast Missourian, MO - 17 hours ago
By Christopher Smith Jackson's Ryan Gibson receives a second-place medal in the 100-yard butterfly at the Cape Rock Invitational on Saturday. ...

Leadership - Google News

 

Why not be an expert yourself  ?

 If you can write on any of the above topic, you are welcome to submit your
 articles in our database :

 Submit your article here   Our Article Area

You are here Home > Tips for Stress free Life > Expert Zone > Leadership Tips


| Leadership Tips Home | Leadership Tips - Complete list 

| Main Home | | Meditation Corner

                |Health Tips  | Workplace Tips  | Soul Tips  |Expert Zone  |

Recommend us  |

 Books, DVDs and accessories on meditation & yoga  |

[About us] [Contact] [Privacy Policy]

Copyright 2006, Meditation is Easy.com, All rights reserved