Section 1: Achieving Business Results
What specific business results did you achieve or do you anticipate as a result of an action plan in the leadership role?

Consider what results are related to how you manage individuals on the team and what results are linked to performance of the team?
As a leader all eyes are on you and the organization will look to you and how you deal with circumstances and follow or flee based on your reaction.

As a young leader I learned that many emulate your actions and it is important to set the bar for others to follow. I always come to work early and stay late and although I have never asked others to follow they do. For my entire work career I have evaluated myself quarterly using the same form my boss uses on me and the form I use on my subordinates. I also ask a peer to give me a grade also and since I have thick skin I ask my peers to be brutally honest. By evaluating oneself and always looking to improve yourself, and giving your team a leader they want to follow.

The quest for becoming a better leader is first an inner quest to discover who you are. This is especially inherent in the pieces by Quinn and by Charan, Drotter, and Noel. McCall reminds us that leaders can get derailed unless they know their weaknesses, as well as their strengths, and Buckingham and Clifton tell us to pay particular attention to those strengths. Van Velsor and Guthrie remind us that learning to lead is a lifelong process, not some quickie course you take on a weekend, or on the Web. If you’re going to prepare yourself to lead, prepare to go on a deep dive. You cannot separate leadership from the person leading, and the person leading cannot separate himself or herself from those they lead (Jossey-Bass, 2003). Continuing education and learning the jobs of others on your team is very important for self-evaluation.

Each year I take a course related to the latest innovations in my craft to ensure I am doing what is needed to stay current. When others see that you are striving to be the best, they will emulate this plan of action. In my staff meetings, I always include a portion on self-improvement and share with the teams relevant courses and ways to advance themselves. The greater a leader’s skill at transmitting emotions, the more forcefully the emotions will spread. Such transmission does not depend on theatrics, of course; since people pay close attention to a leader, even subtle expressions of emotion can have great impact. Therefore, the more transparent a leader presents him or herself will be expressed by their own enthusiasm, for instance, others will feel that same contagious passion. Leaders with that kind of talent are emotional magnets; people naturally gravitate to them.

If you think about the leaders with whom people most want to work with in an organization, they probably have this ability to exude upbeat feelings. Its one reason emotionally intelligent leaders attract talented people for the pleasure of working in their presence. Conversely, leaders who emit the negative register,who are irritable, touchy, domineering, coldrepel people. No one wants to work for a grouch. Research has proven it: Optimistic, enthusiastic leaders retain their people, compared to those bosses who possess negative moods. I always ask myself if I can handle what I just gave someone else and if I cannot I reflect why I asked of others, what I cannot handle and then design the task in a way that I feel is fair to all. If I am conducting training, I take all exams and sit through the training myself to view what I am asking others to sit through. If you start with yourself you will be your hardest critic and be sure never to be complacent and always look to improve (Jossey-Bass, 2003).