Self discipline, support, trust and empowerment: the pillars of a modern management culture and are topics covered on leadership training programmes.

All the pleasant sounding names for reorganisation measures such as "Lean Management", of "Business Re-engineering" have one thing in common: they are frequently linked with personnel policy decisions. Staff are cut back, hierarchies are flattened, responsibilities are redefined, abilities are evaluated.

For some people feeling they have been unfairly treated and not understanding the situation results from these measures.

Leadership skills are required for your team to understand and tolerate changes. Any managerial structure that remains intact not only during difficult times rests on four things:

Self Discipline: In conventionally managed companies, employees are managed by means of defined hierarchies and command structures. Superiors give orders, and staff carry them out. This authoritarian form of management creates obedience, but not self discipline. Any let up of management pressure will cause a loss of discipline; like the old adage says when the cat is away the mice will play.

An organisation must develop self discipline from within. It will be reflected in all aspects of daily life within the company: employees do more than just follow instructions and meet requirements. They are friendlier to customers, visit more customers than asked to and do not grumble about decisions which, officially, they appear happy with.

Climates of this kind are created through the target orientation which management exhibit, this is an important leadership skill which is covered on good leadership training courses:

· Set your people long term goals and discuss with them how these can be achieved. · Do not require permission to be given for every little thing, work with budgets which staff themselves determine.

Support: Authoritarian management systems operating within any organisation, for example the affiliation between superiors and subordinates should be governed by clear, formal rules. Communication is limited to the employee reporting to the superior and therefore is very one sided. Modern management systems rest on two way communication and mutual support.

Assign an adviser, in the form of an older, more experienced colleague to new staff. By doing this you will create a system of parallel relationships within your team, which gradually will breakdown the hierarchy.

Organise work in teams. Teams orientated reward is important. Insisting on team work while only recognising individual achievement is a contradiction.

Trust: The relationship between your staff and your company is regulated by employment contracts in the first instance. Both parties have agreed on a set of rights and obligations. In well managed teams there is also a sense of family, an emotional relationship between the person and the company. This kind of familiar, trusting climate arises through transparency, openness and honour.

Access to important information should be freely available to your staff. This includes supposed confidential data, such as rebates given to major customers, which you, as team leader authorise and are responsible for.

Make fairness towards your staff a priority in all your decisions. This is particularly important for all critical decisions. Justify your decisions and make the basis of your decisions transparent for your staff. Above all do not take any decisions on a whim, which you cannot reasonably justify later.

Far-sightedness and liberalism: Companies and their teams which only think in terms of 3 month plans, annual budgets and objectives etc, will run out of motivation.

Any body who thinks ahead, will not respond well to those who constantly talk to their team about past events, restrictions and regulations. Talking instead about new opportunities and perspectives will get the desired result.

Encourage your staff to express unconventional ideas. Allow them (limited) finances, even when the outcome of an experiment is uncertain.

Have regular discussions with your staff, without any taboos. You can only be creative in finding new solutions if you can question everything.

Consider these words by Kenneth Goode - Stop and compare the significance to you of your own affairs with the lack of importance you show for the affairs of others, and acknowledge that every person on this earth has these feelings. This will create the one, solid basis required for human interaction. In other words: success in dealing with people rests on your understanding of the other person's point of view."

Effective implementation of these in the work place will enhance the performance of your team and will also develop your management skills. For further ways to develop your management skills attend a good leadership course.