Jul 08 2009
Leadership has been defined as “the ability to inspire willing action”
In that statement, emphasis is placed on the willing. But to understand leadership, we need to delve a little deeper than that.
One thing which experience has proven over and over again down through the ages is that when any group of people are thrown together for any length of time or for any project, a leader will emerge from the group – one to whom they will listen and give their confidence and support.
Their position on the organisation chart or their title alone cannot make a person a genuine leader. They must have certain traits and skills, or they will surely fail.
In business, it has been shown again and again that these skills can be learned and the traits can be developed in any individual who is willing to exert an effort based on strong desire and a true hunger for success.
Generally, a leader or teacher does not actually “develop” another person. They encourage and inspire that person to develop themselves from within.
Thus, leadership is in a large sense, self-initiated.
Once we understand and identify the methods and characteristics of admired leaders, we can take steps to develop these skills and traits ourselves. We can analyse ourselves – honestly, ruthlessly, objectively – and identify which skills we need to acquire or improve (and those which we need to play down).
No One Is Perfect!
The perfect leader has yet to be born. We all have room for self-improvement.
If we can agree upon what it takes to be a good leader – what are the traits of leadership, what are the skills – we will at least have made a good start.
We should analyse every genuine leader we know and try to learn which qualities influenced us to consider them a good leader. We can probably agree upon at least five – you may have a leader in mind as we consider these.
My five? Oh, that’s easy:
Integrity – always comes first.
Courage
Vision
Communication skills, and last but not least….
Enthusiasm
What do you think?
Today’s News: Those of you who accepted my invitation to listen in on Harlan Goerger’s TSE Masterclass last night, clearly had a treat, judging by the feedback.
Tomorrow (Thursday)
Tim Wackel is presenting:
Anatomy of a Lousy Presentation: The Six Worst Presentation Habits and How You Can Avoid Them
Thursday July 9th 2009 1:00 PM EASTERN
And as usual, I have just a few FREE places for you, which you can claim here
I agree with the 5 aspects of leadership discussed. I do, however, believe we must define before we say yes so quickly and move on.
Integrity, for example, is such a complex word. One of the best definitions comes from renowned anthropoligist Gregory Bateson and means “the ability to integrate all aspects of a situation”. This is a powerful, systemic view that would leave so much ego and power-based thinking at the door.
When all aspects of a situation are considered it is impossible to run away from doing ‘the right thing’ since employees, shareholders, community, the board, and oneself, are all taken into account in equal parts.
Push this definition into personal relationships and affairs would fall through the floorboards. What would happen if we really considered the impact of our actions on everyone and thought about long range implications? Not an easy task, yet worthy of true leaders.