Learn To Lead......And To Follow

Learn to lead…and to follow
By David Grusenmeyer

We’re all leaders and we all need to be led. The trick is to know when and how best to do both

In life, we are all, at some time, leaders who attempt to influence the actions or decisions of another person. But we’re also followers when someone influences our actions or decisions.
Today, few of us like the old military leadership style of command and control: “Do what I say because I’m the commander.” We’re more likely to follow a leader whom we respect and trust and who has a vision and mission we believe in.
Today, few of us like the old military leadership style of command and control: “Do what I say because I’m the commander.” We’re more likely to follow a leader whom we respect and trust and who has a vision and mission we believe in.

Four leadership traits. For the most part, successful leaders possess these traits:
1. Vision is based on what leaders want in their personal, family, professional and social lives.
Before you can develop a clear vision for your life, you must know what’s important to you. Answering these questions can help with this:

What values do I hold that I will not compromise?
What characteristics do I want to portray to people?
What principles do I stand for?
How do I want to be seen or thought of when I interact with people?
What do I want in life?
What do I want people to say about me when I’m gone?

2. Energy makes leaders exciting and enjoyable to be around. A contagious personal energy comes from attitude, which you can choose, and health, which you can promote.
A positive, high-energy attitude results if you feel good about yourself and can answer the questions that develop your vision.
Personal health, proper diet, physical fitness and lifestyle impact our energy level. Working to eliminate bad habits, excesses and obsessions improves self-esteem, well being, attitude and energy.

3. Power sources include position, task, personal, relationship and knowledge. The president of the United States, for example, has more position power than any of us. As a business owner or manager, you have more position power than a night milker.
     If you have more knowledge about replacements than your calf feeder, that gives you knowledge power. A parent has more knowledge power than a child – except when it comes to computers.
     If you’re good friends with Joe Torre, manager of the New York Yankees, and use his influence to get several pairs of World Series tickets –that’s relationship power.
     Successful leaders know their strengths and weaknesses relative to their sources of power, and how to use power wisely. If you’re uncomfortable supervising people, and delegate that power and responsibility to someone else, you increase your power base.
     That’s one example of how successful leaders cultivate more power. We increase knowledge power through learning. We build relationship power by tending to existing relationships and meeting new people. We develop personal power through improving communication ability, people skills, upholding our values and being committed to a personal vision. We develop task power by building new skills and doing our job well. We increase position power by striving for promotions at work or taking on more responsibility.

4. Direction means that you have a plan to make your vision reality. A vision without a plan is just a dream. Effective leaders chart a direction and set goals, objectives and benchmarks for achievement.

Leading with style. The first step in leadership is to know where you want to go and how you plan to get there. Then you must effectively communicate that to the people who will help you achieve your goals.
The next step in leadership is to understand the stages everyone goes through to learn new skills or concepts. To be a successful leader, you must match your knowledge of the development stages people are in to the leadership style most helpful to them at that time. This is called situational leadership.
There are four stages of learning a new skill and four leadership styles best suited to each:
1. Learning stage: When we’re learning a new skill or task, we’re excited and enthused. This can make us blind to challenges. And because we don’t know all of what’s involved, we believe the skill or task will be easier to master than it actually is.
Leadership style: Directive leaders tell us what to do, when, where and how to do it. We need this in the first stage of learning a task because we don’t know enough yet and need lots of direction. In some cases, a directive leader may need to hold us back so our uninformed zeal doesn’t get us into trouble.

2. Learning stage: After we have some experience with our new knowledge or skill, but haven’t mastered it, we still need some direction from our supervisor. But we also need to learn the “why” behind the things we must do to complete a task successfully.
When we fail, we also need encouragement from our supervisor that we’re doing OK and if we keep trying, we’ll eventually get it.
Leadership style: A coaching leadership style gives both direction and support. A coach encourages people when things don’t go as smoothly as planned.

3. Learning stage: As we become more proficient with our new skill or knowledge, we have the technical capabilities to perform at a high level of competence. But we may not believe we do.
Leadership style: A supportive leader encourages us but doesn’t provide direction since at this stage we generally know how to competently complete a task. More importantly, supportive leaders let us know that we have what it takes to get the job done.

4. Learning stage: Eventually people master the knowledge or skill and develop the self-confidence to accomplish tasks consistently and proficiently.
Leadership style: A delegating leader turns responsibility for a task over to this person and gets out of the way. At this point, people need virtually no direction from a supervisor because they know the task and can independently make decisions about it. Top-performing professionals get their support from within by feeling satisfied for completing a job well.

What’s your style? Most people have a default style—one that is natural to them. My default style tends to be a delegating style. I once hired a secretary and delegated an assignment to her on the first afternoon of her employment.
I didn’t realize that she needed considerable direction in order to be successful. She failed miserably at the assignment and was so overwhelmed that she never returned, not even to pick up her pay for the day she worked.
As a manager I failed to adjust my leadership style to match her skill development level.

Frustration can also occur at the other end. Another secretary I had was highly skilled at a number of complex tasks. If I had tried to closely supervise her on those tasks, she would have eventually said out of frustration, “If you want to give that much direction, why don’t you just do it yourself!” She might even have quit. Plus, by not delegating to her I would have failed to effectively use a great resource.

To learn more
PRO-DAIRY staff provides training on this type of leadership. For information, contact your local Extension educator or call Dave Grusenmeyer at (607) 255-0756.
E-mail: dcg10@cornell.edu

     The challenge leaders face, whether dealing with friends, coworkers, siblings, parents, children or employees, is to diagnose an individual’s skill or knowledge level and then provide the appropriate leadership style.
     As followers we need to understand development levels and leadership styles. Once we do, we can ask for the leadership we need and want.
     Once we learn the importance of matching leadership style to a person’s stage of competence, we have a powerful tool to reach our goals and to help others be successful.

Dave Grusenmeyer is a human resource management specialist with PRO-DAIRY.

Make yourself a better leader
Besides the PRO-DAIRY leadership training programs, these programs also develop leadership skills.

Cornell Dairy Executive Program
This is designed to help dairy executives and agriservice personnel learn leadership and management skills. National experts will lead three multi-day sessions during the year. Participants will develop strategic business plans, perform business analysis and network with other dairy executives.
For information on the 2001 Cornell Dairy Executive Program, contact Dee Brothers at (607) 255-4478 or check the web site: www.ansci.cornell.edu/pro-dairy and click on Cornell Dairy Executive Program.

LEADership Enhancement Program
These LEAD New York-sponsored programs are multi-county agricultural leadership education opportunities. Since late 1998, four programs have been held in different regions of New York.
     The programs give participants an opportunity to sample the two-year LEAD New York program in their local area. Generally, there are five to seven sessions over several months. Topics covered are similar to those offered in LEAD New York: leadership styles, communication skills, creative problem solving, influencing local government, agricultural policy development and the diversity of the local agriculture and food system.
     The LEADership Enhancement programs introduce participants to others in their region who share similar interests and goals. “It (the program) got me off the farm and exposed me to many people I never would have met,” said one participant in the Take the LEAD program held in Wyoming and Erie counties.
     Another participant noted: “It’s exciting to see the amount of opportunity in agriculture.”
     And another said, “Being around other people who are enthusiastic about agriculture helped my attitude.”
     Diane Held-Phillips, a dairy producer in Erie County, coordinates the LEADership Enhancement programs. For information about upcoming programs or to develop a LEADership Enhancement program in your area, contact her at (716) 337-0261. E-mail: PFFInc@aol.com
     For information about LEAD New York, contact the office at (607) 255-7907. Or check out the program’s web site: www.cals.cornell.edu/LEADNY