Leadership principles, principles common to all successful leaders regardless of their outward presentation have been listed in many different forms and contexts, but are remarkably similar in their essence.

A representative list of leadership principles includes:

· Be professionally and technically proficient.
· Respect and show concern for those you lead.
· Set the example.
· Know your capabilities and seek self-improvement.
· Understand your mission.
· Communicate your expectations.
· Instill motivation and morale in those you lead.
· Build teamwork.
· Make sound and timely decisions.
· Develop your employees.
· Ensure tasks are understood, properly supervised, and accomplished.
· Be responsible for your actions.

While different leadership styles are suited to different personalities and situations, the underlying leadership principles seldom vary and are essential to any successful leader. To the extent that you practice and possess these principles, you will be successful. To the extent that you are lacking in these principles, you will be handicapped, or will fail outright, in your endeavors.

Leadership Traits
By conscientiously and consistently applying the foregoing principles, leaders develop character traits that become the foundation for all the skills and techniques employed to achieve success.

· The will to make things happen.
· Willingness to take and stand by an unpopular view.
· The ability to pace oneself and go the distance.
· Loyalty to the company, superiors, and employees.
· Willingness to make decisions based upon the best available information and analysis.
· Dependability and consistency.
· Integrity and truthfulness.
· Fairness.
· Good judgment.
· Willingness to share praise and shoulder blame.
· Professional decorum, understanding the correct time and place for everything.
· Enthusiasm.

Application of Leadership Skills
Leadership is situational. Different situations and people require the application of different sets of skills and techniques. What works for the General will not work for the Politician. The art of leadership, then, is in the ability to size up a given situation and understand how best to address it.

While some leaders have an innate sense of what to do, most learn through experience. Unfortunately for first-time supervisors, such experience is in short supply. Some of you are lucky enough to have been mentored by a respected senior leader or you have worked for someone who taught leadership by example. But whatever your examples, much of your success or failure will come from your attitudes about the job and the people you lead.

In extreme cases, new supervisors believe that it is only through their efforts that progress is made, that employees can't be trusted, that goals can only be achieved by driving employees hard, and that discipline is the only way to keep staff in line. Quite naturally, these attitudes create an environment where employees are fearful. Such fear-based management is damaging to your service team and, ultimately, to the company. Consider the case of Michael, an eager first-time supervisor.

Michael was bright, young, ambitious, and a recent graduate of a respected university. He was hired based upon his enthusiasm, energy, and obvious intelligence. The company expected great things of him.

Sure enough, there were immediate results. He analyzed his department's operation and identified areas for improvement. He presented his superiors with a detailed action plan and a timeline for accomplishment. As the months passed, he met each deadline and his department's numbers were showing a definite positive trend. Senior management could not have been more pleased. Michael was quickly establishing himself as a rising star of the company.

However, seven months after Michael started, his assistant manager, Willard, a longstanding and trusted employee, abruptly resigned. In his exit interview with Human Resources, Willard was bitter in his denunciation of Michael and of the company for hiring him and failing to properly supervise him.

It seems that Michael's meteoric success had been built upon a hard-nosed, bullying management style. He frequently flew into tirades if his employees did not perform to his expectations, yet he was a poor communicator, rarely meeting with his staff to explain his goals or desires. Further, Willard said he often berated his employees in front of others.

According to Willard, departmental morale had never been lower. When Willard tried to talk to Michael about mounting staff resentment, Michael threatened him, saying that Willard was conspiring to undermine his authority. The last straw occurred when Michael complained to line employees about his assistant's performance.

Unfortunately, Willard could not be dissuaded from retiring, but in the ensuing investigation his allegations were borne out. In reviewing departmental records, investigators found a higher incidence of absenteeism, much departmental rework masked by unauthorized overtime, and a deep and pervasive anger on the part of the staff.

As a result of the investigation, Michael was reassigned to another division. His boss was disciplined for lax supervision, and the company worked hard to regain the trust of its employees. While the situation eventually returned to normal, the affair disrupted the smooth operation of the company for over two years.

Fear-based Management
Fear-based management is rooted in the insecurities of the supervisor. While everyone has insecurities, in this instance, the immature, inexperienced, and untrusting attitude of the supervisor dominates the workplace. Some symptoms of fear-based management are:

· Employees covering their backsides.
· Unwillingness to take a risk.
· Lack of initiative and acceptance of the status quo.
· Employees afraid to express opinions or answer questions.
· Lack of trust.
· Defensiveness and blame placing.
· Lack of communication or only top-down communication.
· Poor motivation and morale.
· Lack of cheerfulness, friendliness, and smiles.

Fear-based management impedes organizational teamwork and effectiveness but can be overcome by a leader with an open, trusting attitude and a willingness to grow as a person and a leader. Because of its detrimental impact on employees, customers, and the bottom line, fear-based management should not be tolerated in any company.

Service-based Leadership
At the other end of the spectrum is the ideal of service-based leadership. With this approach, the attitude and primary motivation of the leader is service to others – to customers, to employees, to shareholders. This approach to leadership naturally creates relationships – the deep and abiding bonds that sustain the efforts of the company. This outward focus of the leader sets up a dynamic where:

· Employees are continually recognized.
· There is an open flow of ideas, opinions, and information.
· Initiative and risk are highly regarded.
· Problem discovery and solution is a focus while placing blame is unimportant.
· Every employee feels energized and part of the team and is valued for his or her contribution.
· Prestige is derived from performance and contribution, not title.
· Customers are treated well because employees are treated well.
· The energy and initiative of all employees is focused on the common effort.

With service-based leadership, you will find that good customer service to both internal and external customers is effortless. Less energy is expended in processing complaints, grievances, and conflicts. Work is more fun and everyone's job is easier.

Building Strong Relationships
Maggie was a retired schoolteacher starting a second career. She applied for a sales associate position with a well-known hotel and conference center. While she had no sales experience, her maturity, calm demeanor, and articulate style impressed the Director of Sales.

The position of sales associate is challenging. In addition to selling the facility and its services to the local community and industry, it is important to have a good working relationship with the hotel's operating departments. Ultimately, they are the ones who must execute the promises of the sales staff.

In short order, Maggie proved adept at winning new business for the hotel. She had a knack for meeting new people and establishing a sense of trust. Much of it came from her genuine, down-to-earth nature. She was short on hype and easy promises, but long on establishing meaningful relationships built upon commitment, confidence, and trust. Her clients knew that she was true to her word.

But as strong as she was in finding new business, she was even stronger at building those key relationships with hotel department heads and line employees enabling her to ensure that promises were kept and expectations met.

Inevitably things would fall through the cracks and some meeting room was not set up properly for one of her clients. Maggie, because she always double-checked arrangements, would find the problem and seek help to correct it. Because she had taken the time to develop good working relations with the housekeeping, maintenance, and banquet staffs, she never had problems finding someone willing to help. As one porter said of her, "She always asks so nicely, there is no way to say no."
Maggie was an outstanding success as a sales associate. In two years she increased her hotel bookings by 18.3%, and more importantly, trend lines promised even more future business from her many satisfied clients. Not surprisingly, when the Director of Sales was transferred to another property out of state, Maggie was asked by her General Manager to take over the position.

Your success in balancing the needs of those you serve lies in ensuring that you build strong relationships with individuals. How do you do this? Begin by:

· Treating everyone you meet with courtesy, respect, and good cheer.
· Focusing on each person you deal with as if he or she were the most important person in the world.
· Taking the time to get to know people, sharing your time and attention with them.
· Learning about other people's jobs and the challenges and difficulties they face.
· Keeping promises and following through on commitments.
· Being principled, showing fairness, and demonstrating integrity.
· Recognizing the ultimate value of people in all you do.

Relationships depend upon how you view yourself in relation to others. If you see yourself as separate and apart from your constituencies, if you view others as the means to your end, if your vision and goals lack a broader purpose than your own needs and ambitions, establishing meaningful relationships will be impossible. On the other hand, when you see yourself as part of a team with a shared mission, then a sense of service will be an intrinsic part of your service team relationships.
The difference is your attitude, your motives, and your approach to dealing with others. Since all of these things are within your power to change, establishing a service-based approach to leadership by building strong relationships is totally up to you.


Note:
Ed Rehkopf is the President of Professional Business Communications, a company providing written documentation to the hospitality industry. He is the author of Leadership on the Line, A Guide for Hospitality and Service Sector Supervisors and is currently working on a book on hospitality benchmarking. He can be reached at REHKOPF6@aol.com.