The Mentor Leader

Tony Dungy retired as coach of the Indianapolis Colts just two seasons after winning the Super Bowl. Since then, he's worked as an NFL analyst, a motivational speaker — and now, as a writer. His new book, The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People & Teams That Win Consistently is about the importance of mentoring.

In his book, Dungy cites former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll as someone who taught him a lot. Dungy played briefly for the Steelers, and then coached under him until Noll's retirement.

"He knew how he could help people," Dungy says. "He was a teacher, he was a guy that was very good at selecting people, getting them to fit in — he wasn't the guy that was going to sit there and motivate you intrinsically. That wasn't what he was best at. So he hired people that were good at that."

Noll even hired other, more motivational speakers to come in and address his team before games.

"That's part of being a good leader as well," Dungy says. "Recognising your strengths and making sure you utilise them, but also recognising your weaknesses and coming up with ways to overcome that."

When he retired from football, Dungy cited the all-consuming nature of being a head coach as one of the reasons for his departure.

For excerpts from the book, please go to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129000617

The Mentor Leader

'Presence' Determines Leader Success

The personal quality of presence is one of the most important factors contributing to a leader's successful performance.

A leader's presence can be classified by three categories: weak, strong negative and strong positive. Of the three, leaders with a strong positive presence are the ones who have the greatest positive impact in building a motivated, high-performing workforce.

What indicators demonstrate a strong, positive leadership presence?  If the following conditions exist, you have a strong positive presence as a leader:

*Your organisation reflects the core values important to you personally.

*Organisational members implicitly trust you.

*Members admire and respect you for who you are (what you stand for) as much or more than what you are (your title or position).

*Your drive and passion inspires exceptional performance throughout the organisation.

*Members are aligned and committed to standards, goals, and the direction you have set for your organisation.

Executives who score low on these factors are likely to experience much difficulty in leading their organisations, especially during tough economic conditions. 

'Presence' Determines Leader Success