"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes."
Peter Drucker's statement above helps a lot of people understand what seems like anomaly's and uncertainty in business leadership, as many times effective leaders use different styles and still get great results. The reason is why Drucker says: great leaders know they have to produce results. Anything else is irrelevant.
If someone isn't getting results, they're not in leadership ... whether they have a title or not. Having a title is meaningless other than as an ego booster.
The key in leadership is to know when and how to motivate and push our people. Sometimes they need a nudge and small adjustment, other times they may need to get a fire lit under them to get a sense of urgency.
When you consider the people we talk about on managersrealm like Jack Welch, Mary Kay Ash, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and Margaret Thatcher, among many others, you can see they're very different in personalities and temperaments, but they have attained great results in their chosen endeavors.
It doesn't matter in the end if you're liked, feared, respected or hated, if you get results, you're a leader. Results are the only true measurement existing to distinguish who is and isn't. It's also what we should look for when hiring and promoting people for or within the company.
If they have proven results, they have a great chance when hired or promoted to continue producing results.
The only thing I would add to Drucker's comment above is the inclusion of integrity. A person in leadership with integrity, who also produces results, is as good as it gets for a business.
Other Peter Drucker Resources:
The Man Who Invented Management
Beyond the Information Revolution
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