I’m giving a talk this week about becoming a great leader. It’s based upon a great book, THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE, by Posner & Kouzes. It’s a classic text that has been around for many years, but it still rings true every day. I thought I would share three ideas that I will share with my audience this week and hope that you find that they resonate with you.
- Do Something, Even If It’s Wrong: I remember being at the scene of a traffic accident as a teenager and hearing the local Sheriff, who was directing traffic at the scene, tell a motorist to “Do Something, Even If It’s Wrong..” and I thought how odd that advice was, coming from the Sheriff. Having thought about it a while, I realized later that his biggest aim at that moment was to clear the traffic jam and to help my little town get back to a normal flow of traffic. The wreckage needed to be cleared. With that perspective, the Sheriff’s advice made sense. Priorities. So, if you want to be a leader, you need to DO something, even if it’s wrong. You need to do that because doing something is almost always better than not doing anything, or waiting to do something. Summon up the courage, and take some action. It would be great if it had a high chance of being a positive action that would leave a positive impact. We forget too often that we become leaders in the eyes of others, based on what we DO. So do something…
- Model The Way: It is our actions and our behaviors that garner us respect. We must be willing to model the behavior we expect of others, and then encourage people to join us. If your behaviors and actions are consistent with your personal values and with the shared team values and organizational values of your company, all actions and behaviors can align with the guiding principles. When others follow your lead, you will see a significant amount of similar actions and behaviors consistent with what you have shown by going first. As a young lad, my high school coach reminded me often that if you wanted to be a leader, first you had to earn the right to have someone follow you by setting a great example, and then, and only then, would you begin to see followers joining you.
- Enable Others To Act: Always remember that leadership is a team sport, not an individual event. When leaders are at their best, they speak in terms consistent with teamwork, not about individual contributions. When great leaders lead, they make everyone around them feel strong and capable, and then watch the team exceed original expectations. Truly wonderful leaders realize that they can strengthen others by helping them to determine for themselves what is best, and helping them to gain confidence and competence. Fantastic leaders inspire their teams to deliver on their promises, and to make sure that they promise less and deliver more, rather than the other way around. When the team is performing at a high level, it is almost certain that earlier, the leader was busy building trust and confidence in people, so that they would take risks, make positive changes take place, and keep the team focused on the path forward.
There is plenty more to share with you about this great book, The Leadership Challenge, but we will save that for our next blog, next time. I hope you found these initial concepts helpful and encourage you to get out there and do something to begin to move YOUR team forward. Don’t fear failure, recognize that if you fail, you can adjust and correct any mistakes quickly. The biggest mistake would be not taking action and starting to lead the team forward. It won’t happen unless you take the first step…
