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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 41 – An Interview with Susan Bagyura, author of The Visionary Leader

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 41 – An Interview with Susan Bagyura, author of The Visionary Leader explores how to lead one’s employees to have a success-focused mindset and then translate that mindset into the actions that will not only move the organization forward but also help it achieve greater levels of success. During our discussion, Susan Bagyura, author of The Visionary Leader: How To Inspire Success From The Top Down shares with us her insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • what is a Visionary Leader
  • observable benefits Visionary Leaders realize
  • characteristics and personality traits of Visionary Leaders, including their observable behaviors
  • how Visionary Leaders link the organization’s goals with those of individual employees and then maintain accountability for their achievement
  • key actions individuals should take to become Visionary Leaders
  • challenges Visionary Leaders may encounter when working with individuals who are positionally senior or more experienced and how to overcome these obstacles

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Susan shares in The Visionary Leader and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from her websites, www.TheVisionaryLeader.com and www.SusanBagyura.com.   Susan’s book, The Visionary Leader, can be purchased by clicking here.

About the Author

Susan Bagyura is author of The Visionary Leader. With over twenty-five years of sales, marketing, and entrepreneurial experience, Susan works with clients to attract, motivate and develop their employees, starting with the leadership team and then going throughout the organization. Her coaching and consulting practice is centered on helping small businesses grow by increasing sales and profits, improving communications, and reducing staff attrition. To read Susan’s complete biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:25 — 44.6MB)

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Portfolio Management Warning Flag 1 – Management Distractions

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At times, organizations undertake ‘bet the company’ projects, initiatives so risky because of their sheer size, strategic importance, and/or operational impact that the project’s failure could bankrupt the company. ‘Bet the company’ projects necessarily demand heightened management awareness and focus, however, excessive diversion of leadership’s attention to these types of projects and away from others and/or day-to-day operations could also jeopardize the organization.

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Decision-Making Best Practice 10 – Establish Decision Execution Performance Measures

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StrategyDriven Decision Making Article | Decision Performance MeasuresManagerial decisions often deal with fluid conditions and high risk situations. What might be prudent at the time a decision is made may not be appropriate soon after and could even adversely impact the organization. Therefore, execution of these decisions and the circumstances they seek to address should be actively monitored.

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Additional Resources

Additional information regarding the construction, maintenance, and analysis of performance measures can be found in the StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures topic area and Organizational Performance Measures whitepapers.

Leadership Inspirations – Credit Where Credit is Due

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“Great discoveries and improvement invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.”

Alexander Graham Bell (1847 – 1922)
Scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator; credited with inventing the telephone

Leadership and Conflict: For Better or for Worse

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There is no doubt that leaders of organizations have enormous influence on how often, how intense, and what impact conflict has on their business. Organizations can not avoid conflict: how it occurs is the question. There is constructive and destructive conflict that can occur. Constructive conflict allows the participants to disagree, perhaps argue, without losing sight of organizational goals. Destructive conflict occurs when the conflict is personal, thus causing individual goals to override those of the organization. Destructive conflict stops the open flow of communication, and ultimately affects the bottom line.

Leaders are human, so some leaders are comfortable with conflict, while others are not. Some leaders enjoy conflict, and actually set coworkers against each other to see who comes out on top. For those leaders that are not comfortable with conflict, their organizations usually have cultures that reflect their discomfort – difficult messages are not delivered, thus lowering the quality of communication and productivity. Disputants speak about their conflict with everyone else, but not the person they are in conflict with!

Managers that are comfortable with conflict usually allow it to occur and encourage creative problem-solving. They know that conflict will occur: they also know it needs to be resolved in order to have a healthy organization.

Think of your favorite retail establishment. Why do you like it? Are you treated well, is there a positive interaction with salespeople? That goes directly to the manager and how he/she treats conflict, among other things. Amiable, disciplined managers know how to have an emotionally intelligent team that is creative, collaborative, and communicative.

Leaders who lead through intimidation or autocratic rule usually have organizations that incorporate shouting matches, blaming, and responsibility avoidance. Internal competition becomes so intense that it hurts overall organization results. Very few leaders like to admit that is their style, but if your organization has these symptoms, you really need to take a look at how you are leading.

What can be done to ensure that the relationship between leadership and conflict results in more collaborative problem-solving? Here are a few suggestions:

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About the Author

Dr. Diane Katz has worked with organizations, professionals for over 40 years. With a Masters Degree in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Conflict Resolution from Union Institute, she has applied her education to organizations large and small.

Diane has spoken to groups across the United States in over 20 cities, reaching thousands of professionals. She has spoken about decision-making, conflict resolution, organization development, and professional development. She thoroughly engages her audiences with intelligence and wit.

Dr. Katz started her consulting company, The Working Circle, in 1995. The Working Circle provides organizational development, human resources, teambuilding, training and coaching to organizations of all sizes, having served over 150 organizations. Some of her company’s clients have included Pricewaterhouse Coopers, The University of Arizona, Raytheon Missile Systems, U.S. Border Patrol, Westin La Paloma Resort, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, DR Horton Homebuilders, YWCA of Southern Arizona, and the Pima County Attorney.