As a leader, we each have our own strong attributes that contribute to us being an effective leader, as well as areas for development that when developed, could raise our capability to an entirely new level. And often, we can take things for granted and allow things to simply happen. This is something I observed many years ago which provided me with a very timely and important lesson in leadership – the importance of urgency.
One of the Sales Managers in the company I was working was a very laid back and laconic individual, who was well liked by his team, however, wasn’t delivering the outstanding results that he was capable of delivering. He was almost ‘one of the boys’ rather than being the leader he was capable of being. And being so laid back, he almost appeared to operate in slow motion, with no sense of urgency whatsoever. In turn, his team started to take on similar attributes and didn’t operate with any sense of urgency either. By contrast, another Sales Manager recognised that time was of the essence and therefore acted with a real sense of urgency and this played out in the actions and energy of his team, and their performance was always towards the top of the sales achievement ladder. This manager was balanced, focussed, and from my observation, made great use of the time available each day. He understood that urgency was one of the hidden gems of leadership and he was getting great results. Continue Reading