The Light Is Green: NADA 2008 Highlights: What makes a great leader? (Part 3)

San Francisco Coppola bar If you missed NADA 2008, this series of articles recaps the major issues covered at this year's event.

The National Automobile Dealers Association represents 19,700 new car and truck dealers. Every year, NADA organizes the world's largest convention for auto dealers, where thousands gather to see the latest products and services geared to dealerships, attend workshops on best practices, and hear industry leaders.

This year's event was in beautiful San Francisco and spanned 80,000 m2 (700,000 square feet), included 700 exhibitors and 36 workshops, and received 24,000 attendees from all over the world.

Focus on Leadership

A major focal point of the NADA 2008 workshops was leadership, more to the point: what it means to be a leader, and how we can foster a suitable environment within our company so that leaders can flourish.

Several straightforwardly applicable lessons stand out:

Lesson #1 was: Be slow to hire, quick to fire

Lesson #2 was: Our people can and will drive growth

And today...

Leadership Lesson #3: What great leaders do

One of the keys to successfully run companies is the leader’s ability to build teams, and to motivate the entire workforce.

Great leaders are a wellspring of positive energy, and naturally inspire all those around them. Uninspired leaders breed uninspired employees, a “sleepy” culture, and tend to focus on “maintenance” issues instead of “momentum” issues.

Winston Churchill tophat Great leaders know that they need all hands on deck in order to get things done, and are convinced of the need to tell everyone where they're going and why, and what each person needs to do in order to get there.

Great team leaders have a vision for their department, something specific and measurable, and in line with the company’s objectives.

Great leaders sustain momentum after the initial launch of key initiatives, persistently keeping everyone energized and focused on the right issues.

Great leaders renounce excuses, and don't allow their team members to use them to explain why things don get done.

Great leaders are catalysts and enablers, not micro-managers. They facilitate decision-making, encourage risk-taking and insist on bi-directional feedback.

Other NADA Highlight posts: