Impactful Leadership (Part 1)

What Do You Do As A Leader To Be Most Effective?

Be Yourself.  Be Authentic.  Build Your Brand.  Be Consistent.  We hear those vague and often conflicting words often.  It is all our responsibilities to work on our leadership skills.  If you want to define and improve your leadership skills, read on!

This post (Part 1 of 3) discusses Who are Leaders and What We Do and Should Do.

Who Are Leaders?

Basically, anyone that influences others to get something done or to a new or altered position is a leader.  Anyone who has formal authority is (or at least should be!) a leader.  People who guide others toward a goal are leaders.

Some people seem to be born leaders.  They just paid attention to their leadership skills earlier than the rest of us!  Leadership is a set of complex skills that can be learned by almost anyone.

If you are a knowledge worker, you are most certainly expected to lead others, at least from time to time.  Now more than ever, we work in a collaborative economy inside and amongst external organizations.  Even without formal authority over others, you will need to influence them daily to your point of view on at least small process topics, if not strategic decisions and approaches.

What Do Leaders Do?

Some leaders are managers too.  We will speak to management in another post series, for now, we address Leadership.  Leaders inspire others to buy-in to their vision.  They gather like-minded people, or bring people around to their vision, to get something accomplished.  Leaders collaboratively construct a vision and encourage others to help bring it about.

Think of the leaders in the various organizations you belong to or have observed in the past: work hierarchies and informal working groups, churches and other nonprofits, and professional organizations.  What do they do?  How do they direct or inspire others?  What makes them likable vs. unlikeable?  How effective are they?  What could they do better?  What could you do better?

While many leaders are somewhat unique, you may find some commonalities in their behavior such as: active listening, systems and possibly agile thinking, empathy, and in almost all cases, key communication skills.  Think Steve Jobs and his presentation skills or any great sports coach and their mentoring and strategy skills.

What Leaders Should Do

Leaders should be honest and brave.  Leaders should be consistent and true.

Leaders should have a plan!  They should be able to work out both high-level strategy and drive that down to a series of Next Actions that when taken as a whole, completes the effort.

Sounds like the definition of a Project Manager, doesn’t it!  That is because one of the prime definitions of a Project Manager is being a Leader!  Influencing those you do not have direct hire/fire authority over.  Persuading and team building are certainly important skills for any project manager as they are for any type or level of leader.

Norman Schwarzkopf, the famous US General, has a great set of leadership guidelines here http://www.elephantsatwork.com/norman-schwartzkopfs-14-rules-on-leadership/.  When I still carried a paper planner, it always had a laminated copy of his great 14 rules.  Another point of his, which I will paraphrase, went something like this, “Debate behind closed doors during planning stimulates me.  But once a decision is made, every team member must back that decision as if it were their own.”  I like to think of this as the Everyone Pulling in the Same Direction edict.  I have seen many organizations that allowed some of their members to pull back from decisions, causing endless debate, backbiting, and stagnation.

Muhammad Yunus, whom I have had the pleasure to dine with, wrote the classic “Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty” and it is still incredibly relevant.  Dr. Yunus saw a pressing need and turned it into his life’s work.  He had a vision, infected others, spent time building relationships, and drove his ideas world-wide to help probably millions by now.  You can go to https://amzn.to/2NWuiS7 to get a copy of his book on Amazon.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s famous speech, and almost all his actions for decades, revolved around his leadership idea of peaceful demonstrations and other acts for equality.

He, along with others, had a dream.  He focused on that dream, encouraged others to come along, and changed history.  He was able to clearly communicate his vision and inspire so many to follow him.

In case you want a refresher, here is his speech: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/martin-luther-king-i-have-a-dream-video-washington-dc-lincoln-memorial-civil-rights-movement-a8286926.html.

These examples do not mean you have to be a celebrity, great orator, or a person in high command.  They are out at the end of the bell curve.  You just need to be somewhere in the center with abilities to communicate, empathize, rethink, and gather others to execute.

What Should Leaders Do? – Your Thoughts?

Thoughts on how you can best apply leadership that we did not touch on?  Good luck and keep your eye out for ways to improve your leadership skills!

Your path to business success.