Читать книгу Soft Management for Decisive Results - Marco Bensen - Страница 7

Leadership is easy: Take care of your people and both you and your organization will be successful.

As simple as this sounds, obviously it is more difficult in day-to-day life. There are so many great managers out there, but finding the right leaders is another issue. How do you recognize leaders? Well, leaders move us and they inspire us to perform at our best. True leadership is not tangible, but you know when it is there; it works through emotion, inspiration ... and through success.

Leadership is all about people; it’s about inspiring people to believe in themselves. To believe that anything is possible and to believe in something much greater than your own self-preservation. When we have that kind of influence as leaders, great things happen. Thomas Gifford

In the several decades that I have been working in the hotel industry, I have met countless executives at different levels. Some were my direct superiors while others worked at a different or higher level in the organization, but many were also colleagues on an equal level or managers who reported to me.

And of course, I also ran into many executives from other organizations and industries. There were so many inspiring executives who really had something to show for themselves, who could think outside the box, and from whom one could really learn a lot. They understood how to set an example, how to communicate properly with others, how to get people going, and how to focus on the right things.

On the other hand, I have also met executives who (mostly unconsciously) slowed others down, who covered up their insecurity with arrogance, and who had their focus on anything but the team. You can learn a lot from both types of manager; however, the important thing is understanding what to apply and what to avoid from what you have learned.

In any case, the leadership styles of these two manager-types can clearly be differentiated from each other. Executives who don’t have their employees behind them, lead with a clear focus on the hard side of management. Executives who understand leadership and who are able to inspire others, generally have a soft leadership style.