as i have been traveling lately, i have had a bunch of time to think about life and leadership. my wife & i have talked a lot about the things we could live without. in leadership i think there are those things that you can’t lead without… (i recognize the poorly worded sentence)
- integrity | stated in every book on leadership, recognized as a universal leadership truth and dispensed with as rapidly as a clerk can make a change error in your favor at the grocery store. we all have at least one area in our lives where this leadership value will be challenged, but our followers are expecting our best, all of the time, not just inside the hours of the work day. so be above board with your boss. don’t oversell your performance, the reality of a situation or hide in the fog of confusion in the work place.
- vision |have a techni-colored dream bigger than your currently reality but based on the planet earth; enough said
- strength | people don’t get behind those who aren’t strong in the direction of the organization and the delivery of objectives that it will take to get you there. I add to this strength the notion of determination in a leader to not give up; others feel this about you and watch for it in you as you face defeats along the way.
- enthusiasm |who doesn’t want to have some fun? all of us aren’t in the army and even if we have been we are done with that now. Charisma (natural, not contrived) and ‘pep’ might be some of the most under mentioned qualities that make for great leadership. bring some joy to your environment — the people around you need it.
- clarity |HOW are we getting there? or WHAT is expected?, simple and straight forward is what most contributing members on your team need. whenever possible, don’t be ambiguous.
- relationship |you wouldn’t hear about this all of the time if it weren’t in-fact missing from most work environments. you can have a big organization w/ big perks or a small organization with every possibility to really know each other and in both settings what most people desire is some connection relationally to the success of your endeavor. make it a habit to connect over a dinner, activity, exercise or refreshing beverage. get to know those around you — life is too short to not enjoy the process of getting to your goals.
- trust |synonym = freedom. leadership isn’t giving the goals and then every associated step about how to achieve them. help is nice, but ‘have to’s’ can be suffocating for developing the leadership in those around you. major in the strategic objectives and make it a practice to minor in the tactical execution. the more those around you succeed, the more latitude they ought to be given. success isn’t limited commodity.
see an essential missing? help us out and leave it in the ‘COMMENTS’ for the rest of us to glean from.
continuation of financial thoughts for young leaders who are steering clear of this area because the want to focus on ‘their specialty’.
- make a budget (or find out what it is) for your area
- start watching it weekly for 2 months, then bi-weekly for 4 months then move to monthly as you are ready and have a handle on things
- if your budget worksheets from the accounting dept. are too complicated, consider making your own excel spreadsheet to keep track of things.
- set a goal for a speicifc program or line item that is audacious then work your butt off to hit it.
- it might be a sales goal, a savings/under budget goal or change of procedure
- take leadership of the bottom line
- as you watch the budget more closely you will begin to see things that didn’t stand out to you before (waste, over spending, un-needed expense lines, low revenue numbers, etc.). rather than letting them be money in and money out, take control — make a positive change for the betterment of your organization.
- take it personally as a reflection of your leadership
- in most leadership environments (i am not familiar with government work) how you manage the bottom line is the most direct measure of your leadership. you will not be given more responsibility if you can not manage money. there are very few places where you can climb in leadership and not have to savvey and sound with the dollar.
- read regularly
- your reading list should include 2-4 books annually on some aspect of money and you should be learning the importance of investing PLUS the markets.
from a distance it is way too easy to see other people’s success as the inevitable outcome of their leadership, timing and enviromental conditions. however, as you have probably read in other places, great gains certainly do not come without great risks. what i would like to add to this thought for next leaders is that small gains don’t come without small risks. often, when we are young and head strong, we just want to make a change because we don’t like the thing we have inherited or taken over and anything seems better than where the condition of it currently stands. but don’t change something for change sake. a place to start is to take some calculated, thought through, small risks in your organization and leadership. think them through. reason around the perimter of the risk with some wise people. look at the risk from all of the angels and when you are done, if it still looks like the risk will move you ahead…. have the courage to take it. be a strong enough leader to have others standing beside you when you do who are there to support you from those nay-sayers who like the comfort of the status quo BUT take the risk. if you won’t take some small risks you won’t be prepared to take bigger risks. if you aren’t willing to take some risks, then you aren’t ready to be a leader. Dr. Leroy Lawson, a veteran leader I respect and a man who has lead a church of over 4,000 members and also been the president of a university reflected back on his leadership in a conversation we had together and said, “i wish i had taken more risks”. his risks, decisions, leadership and returns have been plentliful. he started by taking small risks in leadership. he wish he had taken more.
which risks do you need to take to move your leadership enviroment forward?
Recent Comments