Leadership skills — seasoned or dinosaur-like?
Aug 8th, 2008 by spaceagesage
Leadership is a highly valued attribute, but many of us were never taught the fundamentals or given a chance to work out all the bugs. It’s not easy either. According to John C. Maxwell in his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership:
Leadership is complicated. It has many facets: respect, experience, emotional strength, people skills, discipline, vision, momentum, timing – the list goes on. As you can see, many factors that come into play in leadership are intangible. That’s why leaders require so much seasoning to be effective.
How do you get seasoning without becoming a dinosaur who finds a few tools of leadership and beats people over the head with them repeatedly?
Here are some insights I’ve gained over the years and from Maxwell’s books:
1) Develop your own character, history, sense of self
In some Japanese martial arts the teacher is called Sensei, which loosely translates as, “One who has gone before.” We need to know ourselves and much of the journey before we can lead others.
2) Realize that attitude is infectious
I love the Eeyore character in the Winnie the Pooh books, but I don’t want him as a leader. We can look around at those who inspire us by their energy and enthusiasm and let that rub off on us.
3) Leadership is more about influence than titles
Two words: “Mother Theresa”
4) Learn that perseverance is required
Great leaders aren’t a flash in the pan. They show their followers that adversity is expected, setbacks are overcome, and the vision is worth the sacrifice.
5) Be willing to make a stand
“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” As leaders, we can change our mind, our direction, and our plan, but the overall vision and leadership have to be solid enough to stand up to criticism or challenges.
6) Help those below grow
A leader who wants “Yes men,” “Mini-Me’s,” or puppets isn’t really leading. It’s more like reproducing. Real leaders help others explore their potential, even if that means the followers outgrow their leaders.
7) Develop self confidence
There is nothing so tough as to watch an insecure leader, whether they are an employee or our boss. We can be behind them and supportive, but their self-consciousness or overcompensation require a lot of patience. As leaders or leaders in training, we can always work on overcoming any lack of confidence, and those under us will appreciate it.
What has life taught you about leadership? Have you gained most of your knowledge from watching others or from experience or from both?
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“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt ~
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Photo credit: speech path girl
I have a confession to make: I do not aspire to be a leader. Just not interested. But you do make very good points here, especially about self-confidence, which is important even if you’re not a leader, by the way.
Vered,
John Quincy Adams would disagree with you Vered because this is true of you, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Remember, you wrote
“How to be a Great Mom — 12 Awesome Tips.”
Hi SpaceAgeSage,
I love the quote by Theodore Roosevelt. I’ve heard many times that when we’re looking for employees (on any level), we should try and pick the very best. By choosing individuals who know their “stuff” it allows us to focus on that which is important to us (and the business) and aren’t having to ‘baby sit” our subordinates.
Show your employees that you trust their decisions, and they will do great things and make you shine.
Barbara —
I agree that trust and leadership go hand-in-hand. I find the trick is helping them trust and believe in themselves, too.
Hi SpaceAgeSage,
I really like how the points really talks about how to “lead” people, rather than how to “manage” people. I think the old dinosaur approach was to treat people as resources, but the most effective leaders in my opinion are the ones that inspire people.
Al —
Treating them as resources … and as ways to stroke an ego. I’m glad much is being written about Servant Leadership, to quote Wikipedia:
“Servant-leadership emphasizes the leader’s role as steward of the resources (human, financial and otherwise) provided by the organization. It encourages leaders to serve others while staying focused on achieving results in line with the organization’s values and integrity.”
Like Vered, I never wanted to be in a leadership position, and have usually bailed when put into them despite my protests. I’d rather assist a leader or work in collaboration with a group, than to have all of those pressures and responsibilities on my shoulders alone. Great leaders are extremely valuable and I applaud them all. Love the quote from Teddy Roosevelt too — wise man!
Linda,
The pressures of leadership can be a pain. It isn’t for everyone (but you’d be surprised how many can adapt to it quite quickly). I’ve learned a lot about leadership in pressure cooker situations where strong leadership is a must; but when survival isn’t at stake, yes, collaboration is often the way to go!
Spaceagesage,
I am not in a real leading position, but I know a lot of people who are, and some of them (only a few) do a good job and most of them don’t. They don’t do a good job because they’ve never been taught how to be a “good” leader. They’ve got the special skills they need, but they haven’t got the human potential. How to motivate other people? How to critize them without demotivating them? Leaders must be trained to be good leaders.
Ulla —
Unfortunately, people in leadership positions aren’t always leaders in the best meaning of the word. It is far easier to be remain insecure and immature. The character necessary for those kinds of human interactions — critique in inspiring ways, motivate without fear, and be a loving, encouraging mentor — are actually rare to human culture, or so I’ve found. This is the time to change the old paradigm of leadership.
I love the Teddy quote you ended with. Perfect.
Have you gained most of your knowledge from watching others or from experience or from both? – Both. I have worked for some true leaders. They have a vision, they stick to it, but are open to hearing about, and encourage, creative ways to achieving that vision, and they empower their staff. I think over my lifetime I have learned to trust others, and have let go of the need to micro-manage. The day I knew I was doing a good job was the day one of my contractors, with years of valuable experience under his belt, came to me with reams of paper and said “I have an idea on how to best meet the client’s needs. We design X for them, with A, B, and C features” I responded “Okay.” And he just stared at me, “But!” “But what?”, I asked. “Don’t you need me to convince you and argue my point? I totally prepared to do that.” he said, totally confused. “Um, no,” I said, “I’ve seen your work, it’s fantastic. Mock it up! See what the client has to say.” He went away, and came back 10 minutes later and said “In 20 years I have never had a manager say ‘Go for it’. They all say, ‘it won’t work’ and then I have to convince them.” OKAY!!! HOW SAD IS THAT?!
Urban Panther,
Sad, but true and yet, I hope things are changing!
I have had the wonderful experience of working for a wonderful leader. She is gentle, patient, very tactful and truly allows all of her staff to grow beyond what they ththink they are capable of. I started out not knowing anything about managing an office, and since she has always, ALWAYS, trusted me, I find that growth came as a result. Now I have an assistant, and am trying to do the same for her. The results are great. She is becoming more confident in her abilities also, and starting to stretch, the same way I did. It’s a neat thing to see someone else grow and develop their skills as a result of your encouragement.
The other part of my boss’s leadership is that she has a clear vision of where she wants to go, and shares that on a regular basis with her employees. She is open to new ideas, and has the self-confidence to allow others to express their negative ideas as well. Sometimes this results in a complete change in plans, for the better. I believe there truly is wisdom in numbers. She respects that and takes all input seriously. Everyone loves her. I try to emulate that in my own life now also.