Leadership - Every day in every way

John and I were halfway through lunch for his turn. It 'was the night shift, and John was a police sergeant, one of the best.

"I have not talked with Spalding again tonight," he said as he scrutinized a list of people who worked for him. "We head that way next. And I got to talk with Smith on this complaint, so we will meet for a coffee later."

Leadership books make it seem that the leader is not in much of the strategy and most cosmic. The reality is different.

For most of the leaders, most often, leadership is a matter of everyday actions that help the team accomplish the mission, while helping team members to do better and grow. In other words, the results of the spring of leadership for the most part from what you do every day as part of the natural rhythm of work.

Every day you must make your expectations clear. Master the art of giving clear directions. The delivery of the same core messages over and over again.

Every day you need to check for understanding. Do not let people leave your presence without checking to make sure that they understand what you want.

Every day you must make sure to touch base with people. Ensure that are transforming the understanding of the performance. Great supervisors touch base a lot.

Every day you need to use every one of these contacts as an opportunity to improve team performance and morale. They are real "moments of truth". Here's what to do in those moments.

Coaching team members who need them. Help them succeed, along with the team. Encourage good behavior and honest effort to do better. Praise the improvement and effort. Correct what needs correcting. Small course corrections are best. Think of problems as dinosaurs that are much easier to kill when they are small.

Counsel people who need them. For those who can not or will not change, lay out the consequences if things do not improve. So make sure to hand the consequences. It 's your job. Every day you must do the hard work to weed out the unfit and the like. Make sure you meet all the requirements for a fair and final cooking is hard work, but has a big impact on productivity and morale. Slackers and malcontents are cancers that kill your team.

Do not succumb to magical thinking on management. And 'what you do every day, does not deal magic that improve productivity and morale of your team .......