34. Leaders know: Energy begets energy.
Way back when I was a teen I noticed something strange. I had certain friends I really wanted to be around. It was like they radiated energy, you could literally recharge yourself in their presence. I never forgot those early experiences. At the time I was too young to realize these gifted people were leaders. As of yet I had no idea what a leader was really. Later in my 20’s, in a leadership role myself I discovered the opposite side of this same coin. When I burned brightly, like a brilliant lamp of energy for a cause or purpose, there came others around me who seemed to feed off of my energy. When I slowed down their interest waned when I ramped up closer they came. This frustrated me at the time as it seemed that these folks were being rather self centered. The thing was I did not get it. This is what leadership is about. Someone people are attracted to for the right reasons. I am not talking about charisma but purpose. When you are connected to your deep seated purpose people will be attracted to the energy you radiate for that purpose. They will want to be near you support you and catch on to the dream of accomplishing something great. Likely they will not even realize they are doing it, they will just want to be around you.
Challenge: Who is it that you just want to be near, be around. Who is it that you feel recharged to interact with. Ask yourself what behaviors do I see that make me feel this way. Maybe even offer them some affirmation of what they are doing
33. Leaders wear their passion on their sleeve
In 2005 I conducted a research study into the origins of leadership. My goal was to understand the early signs and behaviors of emergent leadership. My theory was that if you could identify from new leaders the characteristics and behaviors common in them you might be able to look for these characteristics in younger people and see if the behaviors later correlated to leadership ability and action. Hence predict who might become a leader. Why does this matter? IF you can identify an emergent leader early on you can help them to develop themselves even faster and in the process make them an even better leader. Hey I am a leadership coach after all!
I found some interesting things out in the study and I do believe there is a possibility of predicting who might become a leader. However Tom Peters rule about passion reminded me of one of the things I discovered in the research. Leaders have a deep seated passion that influences their behaviors and interactions with others. They truly do wear it on their sleeves. They become the lightning rods that focus human energy and effort toward a noble goal or purpose.
Passion is like the glue of leadership it holds things together.
Challenge: What is your passion? Have you found it? If yes share, if no take my coaching module on finding your inner passion. In it I will show you a process you can use to discover your passion and purpose
32. Leaders love technology.
Yup they do. I am writing a blog managing a website sharing what I know about effective leadership. 4 years ago I did not think that “blog” was a word. Actually it wasn’t yet! I carry an I Phone that makes me feel almost ready to get on the bridge of the SS Enterprise for its maiden voyage into the stars. Yes it’s that good at convergence!
At the same time we must not get so enamored with technology that we forget that leadership is first about relationships. Pay more attention to your I Phone than your team and you will hear about it, trust me!
Challenge: What technology is changing your life right now? How is it doing it? How are you becoming aware of new technology trends? Is your means of discovery effective or placing you at the back of the crowd with the dust and smells?
31. Leaders honor the assassins in their own organizations.
I think this rule is a load of crap actually. Maybe it’s the wording but I have no intention of honoring assassins. Again it’s in the wording. I do believe in encouraging those with alternate points of view, those who challenge the system. Heck I am one of those. I do not like the implication of an assassin to calculating, too cold too brutal, no I would honor mavericks but not assassins.
Challenge: Would you honor an assassin in your organization? If so why? Post a comment on the blog and weigh in.
30. But leaders have to deliver, so they worry about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I love Peter’s argument here, the cognitive dissonance between the need for execution order and systems with the need for creative destruction and rebirth. Holding these two opposing needs in one’s mind can be incredibly difficult. A leader must be able to produce results all the while dreaming up ways to produce results in completely different ways.How can we do this? Now there is a question. Look for game changing answers to the right question. Do you remember in the movie I Robot when Professor Landon’s hologram could only respond to specific preprogrammed questions. He would say “ I am sorry my responses are limited, you must ask the right question”Questions are powerful when used effectively. Ask how to make a process easier for the employees if your goal is to make it faster. Ask why we need specific resources in the first place if your goal is to reduce costs.Ask what barriers or frustrations are in the way if your goal is to improve productivity or quality.Ask how a process can be automated, eliminated, transformed.The key here is to ask the right open ended question Challenge:Ask your team each of the first three questions over the next 1-3 weeks. Don’t ask number four without careful consideration of who is in the audience and how they might receive such a risky question. Do we need to talk about emotional intelligence again? Explain that you are interested in learning how to improve things. Do not commit to doing everything, only to evaluate the suggestions and to implement those that make sense in the short term.
29. Leaders never get caught fighting the last war. Leaders see around corners. They have the ability to take seemingly random bits of information, to take interactions in the world around them and build from these a picture in their intuition of what the future can hold, should hold. Then they look for evidence to support their point of view. Then they jump into action to make the future a better more effective place. They do not get caught making a last stand. How could they? They saw it coming and adjusted their strategy to move in a new direction. This is not easy but is the realm of leaders. Challenge: Practice seeing around corners…Take ten pieces of new and random information. Imagine patterns in the data. Come up with a common theme then create a story to connect them all.
28. Leaders don’t fall prey to their own success.A leader is someone who almost never “arrives” They cannot truly “make it” because there is another hill to take, another change to make, another rule to break. ;-)It is one thing to recognize you are successful but leaders recognize that success as a leader is achieved through one team. Taking credit for this (a necessary prerequisite to concluding you have arrived) is asinine. No real leaders stay humble and often are so busy with the next challenge they often forget to stop and enjoy the moment of success.Challenge: When you achieve your next goal take a moment to celebrate with your team. Buy a round of coffee’s, pastries anything and enjoy the moment. Be sure to give them the credit that is due, take none for yourself.
27. Leaders love rainbows — for totally pragmatic reasons.Group think. Ever heard of it? I wrote a while back about a Fed EX ground video that I love. It is essentially the story of what can happen when a group gets too tight and clique-ish or when everyone just agrees with the boss. Either way you end up with a less than effective team. No, do not fall victim to the disease of surrounding yourself with people just like you. It is seriously bad for business. My guess is that if you are like most other organizations you already don’t spend enough time looking at the external environment. A lack of diverse opinions on your team is a very real risk to your ability to make wise decisions that consider multiple points of view. Challenge: Think back to the last time someone on your team actually disagreed with you. What was the source of the disagreement? Was it values related, strategy, tactics? Did you know where they were coming from or did they make no sense to you in a frustrating way?
26. Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders. YES YES YES they do! This is the core of what they do! Challenge: Who are you developing as a leader right now? If you are not why not?!
25. Leaders have taste.
Yeah I’m not so sure about this one. Sure leaders have taste so do many other individuals. I just do not believe this is a defining characteristic of a leader. Perhaps from a follower point of view it could be said that they do but for me looking at other leaders I am not sure I have noticed that all leaders have taste.
Now I do believe that leaders have a sense of the aesthetic as well as an ability to see what will work for others in a social exchange. I think this comes from a deep seated understanding of human nature and human interaction
Challenge: Post a comment on this article. Do leaders have taste or not?
Posted in leadership
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Tagged challenge, taste
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