The Best Leaders Are Masters at This
I have had the opportunity to lead as an officer in the military and in different senior roles in the commercial world and there are four things that I learned from great leaders regardless of the environment they worked in.
It's not just about the employees, but about the families. The leaders that stand the test of time understand that their business decisions impact not just their employees but the employees' families. When taking important strategic decisions, they weigh how these will benefit the organization and the people in it. Leaders realize that many people may suffer from a poor strategic choice. For this reason, the best leaders weigh important choices very carefully.
It's not about the task to be done, but how that task impacts the world. I have seen too many executives try to motivate their troops by focusing on the task at hand. People don't come to work for the task they do for the same reasons military personnel do not come to work simply to conduct the work assigned. In both cases, great leaders find a way to relate every employee's job to the overall impact of the organization on the world of their customers.
It's not about the share holders, it's about the customers. This debate has been heating up for awhile. How many times have we seen corporate strategic statements place "increasing shareholder value" at the top of their strategic list. Even worst, at the top of the employee values' statements. Poor, short term decisions can always be made to increase shareholders wealth in the short term, but it is carefully selected long-term actions aimed at increasing customer satisfaction, retention, and growth that creates long term wealth.
There is always time to think. Finally the best leaders are masters at creating windows of time when everyone else appears to be overwhelmed or panicking. These windows of time allow them to slow things down and think clearly and bring that clarity to those around them. Creating time to think about the problem at hand and understanding the context is a critical skill that differentiates the best from the rest.