
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 23, 1993                   TAG: 9305240241
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

THE CURRENT interest in "leadership" for the Roanoke Valley is good. Leaders have delivered the valley to its present position, and they will take it to new positions in the future. We recognize we need effective leadership. But will we know it when we see it?

Effective leaders have four fundamental attributes:

They set specific, measurable goals. The valley has no use for ambiguous, pie-in-the-sky goals that cannot be measured. Many have established goals that were not measurable, in an effort to avoid accountability. They were not effective leaders.

Effective leaders develop plans and have ways to monitor them. Goals are useless without written action plans that state what will be done, by whom and when. Intermediate milestones need to be established to monitor progress toward goals. We have seen too many leaders establish goals with no plans for meeting them. They were not effective leaders.

Effective leaders have a systematic way to determine the cause of problems. As the valley works to achieve its goals, unforeseen events will arise to take us off course. Too many times in the past, the very leaders who have established our goals have stood by and not determined the cause of problems, resulting in no corrective action. They were not effective leaders.

Effective leaders focus their communication on performance, not personalities. We need leaders who remain objective and evaluate performance. Far too much energy has been wasted by those who point fingers and engage in personality assaults. They were not effective leaders.

Where will we find these leaders? Will they be politicians, business people, government administrators or economic-development officers? Will they be black or white, male or female? Will they be soft-spoken or charismatic? Will they be dictatorial or consensus-building leaders? Will they come from Salem, the county, Vinton or the city? Go back and examine the characteristics of effective leadership. Leaders can come with any or all of these backgrounds, but they must understand how to implement these fundamental leadership principles. Effective leadership . . . will we know it when we see it? CHARLES R. HOLCOMB JR. ROANOKE

by CNB