I often think of what it takes to be a good leader. Providing a culture of leadership that allows employees to grow and excel in their roles is important in building a winning team. Leadership styles vary in how to do this. I believe in a culture that finds employees doing something right. When you finding them doing something right praise them in public. Let them know you appreciate what they are doing. Many employees work hard to be successful with just a small token of appreciation. In my program at work we have started a new approach to increase safety awareness. My leaders and I find employees doing something right for safety and give them a small token of gold $1 coin. To many this may seem small but the response has been terrific.  Positive reinforcement outweighs negative reinforcement when a leader is trying to provide a culture of winning. My role as a deputy program manager allows me to work with a diverse group. It is gratifying to see this diverse group come together to meet our program and company goals by influencing them with a culture of positive reinforcement.

Having been in several different leadership roles I have found that I cannot be one type of leader. Each situation asks me to use different skills to help resolve the issue. An important issue I learned this week is to listen to what other leaders are saying. Too many leaders want everything to go their way but I believe it is important to develop leaders to be able to make decisions in my absence. This isn’t easy in stressful situations. It take several types of leadership styles to be a good leader

Karl