SELF LEADERSHIP IN NURSE NEXT DOOR IMPROVED THE COMPANY'S PERFORMANCE AND CREATED BETTER TEAM MEMBERS

• Nurse Next Door's CEO, Cathy Thorpe, realized that the company was not seeing the desired results after two years at the helm.
• She found that the middle management team in the organization was inefficient because processes were often taking too long to resolve.
• After reading an article on LinkedIn, she realized that there were basic adult skills that were missing from her staff members in the organization: staff members were arriving late and unprepared for meetings, and they were used to taking orders from managers above them and were complacent and not proactive in their work.
• Together with her team, they realized that middle management could not teach people good work ethic or personally motivate their staff, and she realized that everyone in the staff had to take personal accountability.
• Together with her team, she supplied several copies of the article, “10 Things That Require Zero Talent,”. The article taught valuable self-leadership skills. 
• Staff members were encouraged to develop and grow their personal and professional goals, as well as being proactive and identify any inefficient processes that they came across in their work.
• She created a flat organizational structure by eliminating a lot of the middle management.
• They embarked on attracting, hiring, and keeping self-motivated staff members and supporting them to ensure they achieve success.
• The work environment was largely autonomous, and they eliminated annual performance reviews and instead gave feedback and guidance.
• The results were increased productivity, increased job satisfaction as staff members took ownership of their work, a larger team of leaders, and improved business performance.
• The improved performance was due to the fact that team members were now driving innovation.

THE SUCCESS OF ZAPPOS THROUGH SELF-LEADERSHIP

• Zappos originally started by only selling shoes.
• Zappos has achieved tremendous success and this has been attributed to the company's CEO Tony Hseih, who came into the company and decided that the company needed to sell more than just goods; they had to sell an experience. 
• To survive, the company also had to change their business model, and they started retailing men and women's clothing and accessories.
• He decided to change the company's values to achieve the desired success, and he attributes the success to focusing more on self-improvement and self-leadership. 
• He states that through his own personal development, he encourages his employees to better and efficiently overcome obstacles.
• In Zappos' company culture book, an employee states values that have helped him embrace personal leadership in the organization.
• He states that the company is full of employees who have "fear of stagnation, genuine desire to watch others succeed, thrill of the unknown, restless quest for truth" among other attributes.
• The CEO is known to tell employees to do what "they think right for their client" and hence giving rise to self-motivated employees that are continuously looking for ways to contribute, innovate, and to make an impact.
• Through these values, the company went from not making any profit to making over a billion dollars annually.
• The company was later acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion in 2000, and it is still a vital part of Amazon.

PERSONAL LEADERSHIP IMPACT CASE STUDIES UNITED STATES

Case study #1: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

• The leader involved in this case study is Satya Nadella (CEO).

• The company involved is the Microsoft Corporation.

• Before Nadella's arrival, Microsoft was experiencing trouble writing its second act even after the success of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office Product packages. When he was chosen to serve its CEO in February 2014, he discovered that rivalry between the company's business units was to blame. Also, he realized that the employees lacked motivation and purpose at work due low morale. He undertook a vital restructuring of the company with the objective of ending destructive internal competition.
• In 2016, Nadella merged the Microsoft Research Group with Information Platform Group, Cortana, and Bing to form a brand-new AI and Research Group, which is one of Microsoft's greatest achievement.

• He empowered all employees in all units towards "a positive sense of purpose" while teaching them empathy and the importance of enhancing communication through clarity to achieve the intended goals and objective set by the organization and for themselves. Thus, he instructed them to work together and focus on developing the artificial intelligence innovations of the Microsoft brand.

• Microsoft employees experienced a significant achievement of an integrated Microsoft product line and their employees have fresh sense of purpose, and they appreciate their work.

Case study #2: Cheryl Bachelder of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

• The leader involved in this case study is Cheryl Bachelder (CEO).

• The organization involved is Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.

• Bachelder's case study is a perfect illustration of how personal leadership can lead to organizational success. Before she was chosen to be the CEO in the year 2007, the restaurant was loosing customers and their profits had been declining for years. Its stock price fell from $34 in 2002 to around $13. Overall, the company was sluggish, and relations between Popeyes and its enterprise owners were uneasy. Bachelder decided to enhance the experiences of the franchisees using servant leadership by instilling company culture that values the people.

• She believed that serving the individuals that had invested the most in the company, namely the restaurant owners, and listening to and acknowledging their requirements would produce a different system where employees are treated with respect and at the same time challenge co-workers to perform.

• Due the turnaround, the franchise had improved customer experience, resulting in more loyal customers. About seven years later, the franchisees were ecstatic with the modifications and started reinvesting in the company, with several of them conducting renovations on their establishments and constructing brand-new ones worldwide. Their sales and profits simultaneously increased by 25% and 40% respectively. The company's market share increased to 21% by 2014, up from 14%, while its stock price was more than $40.

Case study #3: Kristen Hadeed, founder and CEO of Student Maid

• The leader involved in this case study is Kristen Hadeed (Founder and CEO).

• The organization involved is Student Maid.

• In 2009, Kristen Hadeed established Student Maid, which has employed hundreds of young individuals, and immediately experienced leadership failure. More than half of her employees quit. Eventually, she discovered that her poor leadership skills were to blame for her employees leaving and wanted to change.

• She recognized that leadership is an obligation to perform more. Hadeed developed "a culture of values" in her organization and lead her workers to strive and achieve them. Besides training workers to clean, she taught them to relate better with others and the customers to supply everyone with an exceptional experience.

• Her company has an employee retention rate that leads the cleaning industry, with student turnover period of over two and a half years, which is better than the industry average (every two months). Additionally, her company was able to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Unending Communication

• Prosci is a thought leader in being successful in organizational change. They identify executive sponsorship as the primary marker of success in any transformation in an organization.
• Their annual review of change projects nationally shows that only 19% of leaders completely understood their role in a significant organizational transformation.
• There are key activities which the leaders must perform to be effective executive sponsors, and therefore there are key personality traits which the leaders must recognize and cultivate.
• Leading a successful organizational change does not mean allocating funds, attending the kick-off meeting, and retreating to the office.
• Employees of an organization that is involved in a major organizational change want to hear about it from two people — their immediate manager and the head of the organization. 
• Leaders and sponsors of an organizational transformation need to be present, communicate often, and build a coalition of support.
• The personal skills requiring development include the ability to speak clearly and often about the change, the impact of the change and its value, and the ability to mobilize other stakeholders to build a coalition of support throughout the organization.

Show vulnerability

•  Projecting strength is seen as a prerequisite to being an effective leader, and to a certain extent, that is true.
• However, leadership requires authenticity more than anything else, and vulnerability is a component of authenticity.
• If a leader wants to connect effectively with their team and staff, they must be prepared to show vulnerability.
• Vulnerability is seen as a tool a leader can use to put themselves on the same level as their employees. 
• If leaders are approachable, likable, and respected, they have a better chance of the organizational transformation being successful.
• Vulnerability has been described as "the courage to show up when you can't control the outcome."
• The leader must be confident enough to let themselves be seen as they are. A humble leader knows their shortcomings and is not afraid to shine a light on them. The team needs to know that leaders know their limitations. Making light of foibles, quirks, and routines reveals a leader's vulnerable side, which shows self-confidence
• In a study in Germany, the managing director of a leading German beauty corporation received some harsh feedback. Workers told him he was too direct and his style was creating dysfunction among the team. Rather than hiding this information from his staff, he chose to be open about his feedback. He discussed his failings and desire to improve in front of his top 60 managers. The team pledged to help him achieve his goals. The organization has outperformed its competitors in the six years since the meeting.

Business and the Art of Wabi-Sabi

• Wabi-Sabi is a traditional Japanese aesthetic worldview. The most beautiful things are asymmetrical, rough, simple, or broken ones. Perfection is not a goal.
• While it may be challenging to make the connection, several reliable leadership applications use this advanced philosophical concept.
• An organizational culture that demands perfection is doomed to failure, as is a change project with the same demand.
• An existing organization, with its well-known and understood policies and processes, is seen to be perfect, and changes will lead to imperfection.
• People prefer stability and perfection. The leader must be able to convince the stakeholders that impermanence and imperfection have their beauty.
• A research study on online reviews from customers observed data covering 15.5 million page views for 1,800 unique products from 7.8 million visitors, over 12 months. They were surprised to find that products with some negative reviews had a greater boost in sales than those who had all five stars. People understand nothing is perfect, and not hiding the imperfections builds trust.
• To do that, the leader must be comfortable living in an imperfect world.

Trust increases performance and eliminates waste

• A research study indicated that "only 49% of employees trust senior management, and only 28% believe CEOs are a credible source of information."
• When trust is low, in either a company or in a relationship, it levies a hidden "tax" on "every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every decision is taxed, bringing the speed down and sending costs up."
• A high trust organization, on the other hand, is more likely to be efficient and effective. A recent study by Watson Wyatt found that high trust companies metrics and KPIs outperform low trust companies by nearly 300%.
• Lack of trust is evident when power is hoarded, not shared. Information is power, and people who wish to retain and grow their power do not share information.
• A leader can build trust in an organization by communicating clearly and listening intently and by respecting the truth, even when it hurts. By far, the most effective strategy is promoting people who collaborate and mentioning that skill in the announcement to the organization, as this sends a clear message to all employees.
• Trust is a two-way street. A leader must have the personal skill to delegate and trust, assuming that an employee or team can be trusted until they give the leader reason to think otherwise. It can be a high-risk strategy with a high reward.
• One of the examples of the value of trust in a leader comes from Warren Buffet, who is generally considered one of the most trusted leaders in the world. Usually, mergers and acquisitions of regulated companies are subject to intense scrutiny, take months, and require millions of dollars for services from attorneys, accountants, and auditors to validate all kinds of information. Recently, Buffet acquired a $23 billion company from Walmart in one two-hour meeting and a handshake.
• The deal was completed in less than a month. It is just one quantifiable example of the value of trust in a leader.

Be the leader the team needs

• Although not as easily quantifiable, there is significant anecdotal evidence about the value in a leader understanding what a team needs.
• Anxious and stressed out leaders can become coercive or controlling, which restricts the freedom of individual employees from growing and succeeding on their own.
• Leadership requires being aware of the responsibility to help employees develop the skills and resilience needed to achieve their goals.
• Moving through a significant organizational transformation can be frightening to employees, especially those that have become entrenched in their roles. 
• Not surprisingly, the same personality traits that are required in building solid personal relationships are necessary from a leader to help the project be successful.
•  Kindness, confidence, patience, and affection are all personal traits the leader must have or develop to successfully lead an organizational change.
• Employees need their leader's time, compassion, and respect, as well as their guidance and counsel throughout the project.
• More than anything else, though, they need their leaders' faith to be evidenced and articulated. Having faith in a team means not micromanaging, but letting them rise to the occasion and solve the problems they encounter on their own.