{"id":2455,"date":"2016-06-11T15:33:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-11T20:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=2455"},"modified":"2016-06-11T15:38:01","modified_gmt":"2016-06-11T20:38:01","slug":"3-questions-extraordinary-leaders-answer-correctly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/3-questions-extraordinary-leaders-answer-correctly\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Questions Extraordinary Leaders Answer Correctly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: \u00a0The author Curtis Chocholous, a seasoned executive and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, has written a whitepaper on\u00a0The 80\/20 Law of Leadership, which is available for free on Flevy here<\/a>. \u00a0This whitepaper is based on Lean Culture thinking. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * *<\/p>\n

Question 1. \u00a0Do You Understand What\u2019s Really Important?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"leadership\"When a leader can truthfully and accurately answer this critically important question, the power of the\u00a080\/20 Principle<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0can be tapped to motivate behaviors that unite organizational oneness in ways of purpose, attitude and labor.<\/p>\n

The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things that matter least.
\n– Johann W. Von Goethe<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If everything is important, then nothing is. When an organization has too many\u00a0urgent and important\u00a0<\/em>things routinely in process, the organization becomes disconnected and disables its ability to successfully keep\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0progress<\/em>\u00a0in motion.<\/p>\n

Too many competing and changing priorities will naturally dilute and weaken employee focus; steal valuable time, talent and energy, and will consequently lead to high employee frustration, team dysfunction and an increased number of\u00a0low-value-added<\/em>\u00a0outcomes<\/em>. Relationships begin to wither, trust starts to wane, and as result the organizational community and business as a whole suffers.<\/p>\n

Leaders that fail to set the right priorities and tone for their organizations accelerate the effects of the\u00a0Second Law of Thermodynamics<\/em>\u00a0that says,\u00a0\u201cEverything in the universe is running down, becoming less organized and more disordered<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0In essence, these leaders become the primary source and cause of compounding distractions, chaos and dysfunction.<\/p>\n

Why do so many organizations seem to live in a reactive mode? There are many reasons, but three major factors are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The leaders in these organizations lack\u00a0Self-Management Skills.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. They have weak\u00a0Leadership Management Systems.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. The\u00a0Organizational Structure<\/strong>\u00a0counter-acts productive teamwork.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The combined negative effect of these three destructive forces will dramatically reduce employee relational-capacity, engagement, morale and organizational potential to the extent and proportion of their existence.<\/p>\n

    The key to overcoming these three negative factors is to develop and integrate an\u00a080\/20<\/em>\u00a0Leadership Management System<\/em><\/a>\u00a0into your organization that will lead to identifying the issues that have the greatest possible impact on the success of your business. Then invest the majority of your time working on the one-fifth (20%) of the opportunities that will deliver four-fifths (80%) of the desired results. That is the power of 80\/20 simplicity. I call it\u00a080\/20 Leadership\u2122.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Question 2. \u00a0Do You Really Understand People?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    It is with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
    \n– Antoine De Saint-Exupery<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Human design and health are intrinsically linked to a person\u2019s emotions. You can really know and master a multitude of facts, but still be miserable if you are controlled by negative emotions.<\/p>\n

    Human emotionality has been studied for centuries and understanding how emotions work is a critical leadership skill as well as a key factor as it relates to one\u2019s success in life. Emotions are commonly found at the heart of most workplace matters and are manifested as human behaviors in 100\u2019s of ways.<\/p>\n

    Organizational fitness is predominantly a people issue \u2013 after all, people are the company.\u00a080\/20 Leadership\u2122<\/em>\u00a0recognizes that humans are genetically designed with an\u00a0<\/strong>80\/20 DNA. Great leaders know and act on this fact because emotional balance is key in both the workplace and life. Therefore, it is wise to know how to manage human emotions because it is the pathway to emotional health and business success.<\/p>\n

    The human personality is said to consist of roughly four-fifths (80%) emotions and one-fifth (20%) intellect. To engage in confrontation or even a discussion without taking emotions into account is to be only 20% effective in your dealings with people.
    \n– David Ferguson & Don McMinn, Emotional Fitness<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Question 3. \u00a0Do You Know How To Become the Best Leader You Can Be?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    The\u00a080\/20 Principle\u00a0is simple to understand intellectually, but not so easy to implement organizationally.<\/p>\n

    80\/20 Leaders\u00a0know that intellectual preparation is not the same as emotional readiness. The mind and the heart work at different speeds and on different timelines. The\u00a080\/20 Leader\u00a0is admission-minded\u00a0master of singular-focus who honestly cares about the growth and development of people and is absolutely driven to improve total enterprise well-being. As result, the 80\/20 leader discovers and realizes more of his\/her own hidden leadership potential while simultaneously elevating and bringing out the best in others.<\/p>\n

    Theodore Roosevelt\u2019s assertion;\u00a0\u2018nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care\u2019\u00a0can be a reality built on authentic words and actions.\u00a080\/20 Leadership\u2122\u00a0provides a way for leaders to engage all their people on an emotional and intellectual level that motivates them to take inspired action that consistently achieves positive results.<\/p>\n

    80\/20 Leaders\u00a0realize that their role and purpose is not about them so they aren\u2019t obsessed or worried about matters of presentation. Instead, they diligently pursue an ongoing conversation with their people demonstrating an earnest desire to make deep genuine connections (i.e., remember, humans are 80% emotional beings).\u00a080\/20 Leaders\u00a0see themselves much like a flywheel working to maintain momentum. They continuously build and store productive organizational energy that becomes self-sustaining and proportional to the growing employee interaction created and fueled by enthusiasm and focused action.<\/p>\n

    Buckminster Fuller said, \u201cIf you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don\u2019t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The BIZ\/OP\/EX,\u00a080\/20 Leadership\u2122 Management System\u00a0was designed and created to serve the entire leadership team and their associates. It lifts the veil and bridges the gap between embracing 80\/20 concepts and making them real, actionable and transformational in your business. Your\u00a0GREATEST OPPORTUNITIES\u00a0lie with simplifying your company and unlocking the hidden potential of your team.<\/p>\n

    To your true success!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Editor’s Note: \u00a0The author Curtis Chocholous, a seasoned executive and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, has written a whitepaper on\u00a0The 80\/20 Law of Leadership, which is available for free on Flevy here. \u00a0This whitepaper is based on Lean Culture thinking. \u00a0 * * * * Question 1. \u00a0Do You Understand What\u2019s Really Important? When a… 3 Questions Extraordinary Leaders Answer Correctly<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":2457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[408],"tags":[106,845],"class_list":["post-2455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-leadership","tag-leadership","tag-lean-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2458,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions\/2458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}