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If you look at the standard organizational model, the first thing you notice is that it’s a pyramid. It is narrower at the top than at the bottom. There are a lot of worker bees at the bottom of the pyramid — that’s why the base of the pyramid is broader than the top of the pyramid is. There are fewer managers than employees, and there are a very small number of executives at the top of the organization, calling the shots.

Since the typical organization has lots of non-management employees and only a small number of senior-level leaders, it stands to reason that every minute of a highly-placed executive’s day has great impact. The decisions C-level leaders make have huge ramifications on everything from the company’s stock price tomorrow to the firm’s existence or nonexistence five years from now.

It takes courage to listen. Whether it’s a first or fifth transition to a new leader role, these non-profit leadership lessons learned are timeless. Pause, reflect. choose, (from horse-guided leadership & learning.) In the first months, resist the urgent and not important to follow these practical steps to ensure your success.  

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It takes courage to listen & learn, as a new leader.
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What I learned at the University of Michigan early on was the power of the conversation. Listening builds relationship. Listening well has impact as a leader with groups of new direct reports, with peers and colleagues, ALL of them await a new leader’s first steps and actions. Each. Encounter. Equals. Opportunity. To. Connect.

John Taylor, CEO of the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) had this to say about the series:
 

“As a new CEO, the article’s main points to invest time in learning, building relationships, and establishing priorities have been key during my first six months on the job.”  
 

I interviewed John before he left his role at the University of Michigan. His view is a fresh insight to help this year's new leaders.  Note that although we make reference to associations throughout the posts, these tips apply to any non-profit organization and are adaptable to the for-profit sector as well.

EXCERPTS from the full article derived from  -- "Seven Ways New Non-Profit Leaders Succeed the First Year on the Job"

1. LISTEN to Learn

In many high-pressure environments, deep listening distinguishes the highly experienced from the amateurs. ...One association executive advised his peers to “resist the temptation to prove how bright you are; do nothing when you first arrive—just learn.”
   

...Develop a list for listening interviews including staff, board members, active volunteers, randomly selected members, dropped members, industry leaders, subject matter experts, external partners, and others. Everyone has something to say; they ...will be encouraged by your desire to learn. Ask open-ended questions. Prepare to be surprised. Though many relationships will deepen during your tenure, early conversations can provide unique opportunities for candid exchanges unencumbered by baggage, fears, or agendas.

 

2. COMMUNICATE!

...Information for your staff is usually under-communicated by a factor of four.
 

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Way back when (pick your date), senior executives in large companies had a simple goal for themselves and their organizations: stability. Shareholders wanted little more than predictable earnings growth.

1. Address the “human side” systematically. Any significant transformation creates “people issues.” New leaders will be asked to step up, jobs will be changed, new skills and capabilities must be developed, and employees will be uncertain and resistant. Dealing with these issues on a reactive, case-by-case basis puts speed, morale, and results at risk. A formal approach for managing change — beginning with the leadership team and then engaging key stakeholders and leaders — should be developed early, and adapted often as change moves through the organization.

Recently I helped a client get ready for an intense conversation with his team. There'd been some big stuff happening in their division, not all of it great. He had a "state of the union" to deliver as well as some requests. His concern was that if he didn't handle it well, he'd create a mess, not have any clean next steps, waste time, and ultimately demoralize the team. He was nervous.

My good friend was having a challenge with her son. There'd been tension for a while and she sensed he'd been dishonest with her. They needed a heart to heart. Her concern was that if she didn't handle it well, she'd create a mess, alienate him, and create even more resistance between them moving forward.

In another land, my colleague's team was rockin' it and he wanted to do something awesome for them. His concern was he wouldn't honor them well enough.

I today am wrapping up a move, throwing my daughter a birthday party, working with clients, and writing to you. I want to make sure that I'm productive AND that everyone feels honored and seen.

Four scenarios -- I'll bet you can plug yourself into at least 3 of them, if not all.

So what to do?

It's so simple. Happy Monday.

It's often said that even the most respected leaders are considered by many to be ruthless, even brutal at times. Of course, often when leaders are perceived as merciless, that hard perception belongs to those who did not deserve any mercy.

Great leaders have to be tough and decisive. Often their decisions will displease many, but they can't effectively lead if every decision is the result of democracy or consensus. This is the difficult path for the leader. It's easy to stay popular when you appease everyone, but rarely will that drive a large organization to success. They must make the best decision taking all the needs and wants into account. Ultimately, they have to lead the way or step aside.

Here are five ways a leader must be uncompromising and perhaps ruthless in order to benefit a loyal following. See if you have the strength to be tough when needed.

Sometimes scientific research teaches us things we might not want to know. That happened when organizational psychologists studied West Point cadets to learn what personal qualities were most likely to predict success. The No. 1 answer? Narcissism.

Think Napoleon and Steve Jobs. Narcissists achieve amazing things, usually by putting their needs and desires ahead of everything and everyone else. They'll also go to great lengths to achieve their goals. Most important, they can be great at getting others on board as well.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is just the latest in a string of high-profile leaders making the perp walk. What went wrong, and how can we learn from it? Professor Bill George discusses how powerful people lose their moral bearings. To stay grounded executives must prepare themselves to confront enormous complexities and pressures

"Like a well-played symphony, when nonprofit leaders partner well with their staff and volunteers, magic happens.  Leadership & Partnership in the nonprofit sector:"

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Shared leadership can catch new leaders off guard. 

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When discussing business leadership, the distinction between good management and good leadership is often made. Managers are thought to be the budgeters, the organizers, the controllers — the ants, as one observer puts it — while leaders are the charismatic, big-picture visionaries, the ones who change the whole ant farm. But such a construction, those interviewed for this article agree, erroneously leads to a bimodal way of looking at something that should really be evaluated on two separate scales. "Everybody has got a little bit of each in them," says John Kotter, who admits he is sometimes guilty of using the dichotomy in an effort at simplification. "It's much better to think in terms of measuring people on a zero-to-ten scale for each quality."

Stress is part of life, unfortunately. From huge, potentially life altering decisions, to the little things we do every single day, there will be things that cause stress. What matter is how you deal with stress. Do you fold under pressure, or find a way to push through and persevere? As it turns out, famous…

In the latest in our series about The Future of Work, Katie McCrory explores the changing nature of leadership. Some say being a CEO is the loneliest job in the world. Perched right at the top of that org chart, responsible for every tough business decision, knowing you can never forge true friendsh...

Friedman profiles luminaries including Michelle Obama, Bruce Springsteen, and Sheryl Sandberg in his book and shows how they gradually became leaders. He shows the skills they exercised and how they integrate different parts of their life together.

Friedman says he chose subjects who possess what he calls the three principles of total leadership: "Being real, acting with authenticity and knowing your values and vision; being whole, respecting the whole person and knowing there are different parts of your work, community, and personal lives that affect each other; and being innovative, constantly learning and experimenting in new ways to get things done."

While many leaders rely on proven past methods (often learned in B-school), others are taking new approaches that help them transcend what they already know. These fresh methods help them handle the day-to-day, while becoming responsive to other things that matter.

One of these “new” methods is a coaching approach that has been used with individuals, now making its way into the C-suite.

“The ‘coach approach’ asks leaders to define who they want to be at this moment and in the future,” says Jennifer Antolak, president of Learning Journeys, a life coaching academy. “And it’s about helping others understand that we support their choices.”

Sex, murder, dragons, warring leaders, and a wall impossible to scale. Does this sound like any corporations you know today? Perhaps, but I am talking about Targaryens, Lannisters, Starks, and Baratheons in Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones is set in a medieval world of knights, dragons, and magic, characterized by long, cold seasons, and populated with White Walkers. This most amazing and compelling TV series has captured the hearts and minds of people around the world. In the history of mankind, never has a TV series been so downloaded and watched, so are there leadership lessons we can take from this series?

Great leaders come in many different shapes and sizes. They have different experience, skills and knowledge that shape what they are able to do. This can make emulating a great leader challenging; as it is hard to know what the characteristics are that truly make that person great. There are however a number of different characteristics that may be seen as common to many of the truly great leaders out there, past and present.

Much has been written about leadership. There are whole industries based on leadership learning and development and lots of research into what makes great leaders successful. One way to understand what makes a great leader great is to learn it from those leaders themselves, most of whom have a fair bit to say on the subject. Here are the top seven features of great leaders, as identified by leaders who have at some time or another been described as “great” by their followers, using their own words to explain what makes great leaders great: