A series on leadership — insight two

Recently I thought I had reached a level of wisdom that I could offer thoughts on a number of things in a blog; one of which was Leadership. In my brief overview on the topic, I said this:

Leadership is defined when times are difficult: with vision, decision making, and ownership. This applies to character for that matter.

It struck me that maybe it was impossible to define leadership in a single sentence, and even if I did accurately hit on the three key elements, it’s obviously a very deep subject which warrants more than a sentence. With this in mind, and the need to explore a very important topic further, I thought I’d share some insights from those leaders I have known over the years. I suspect most will fall into what I’ve pointed out as decision making, with vision and ownership being figurative bookends. As I make my way, hopefully I will find something I didn’t pay enough attention to — a reminder that reflection is a powerful tool.

insight two

I remember being informed the Chief Commercial Officer had decided to cut the marketing budget by fifty percent. When asked why the reduction was so drastic, the answer was to drive more innovative thinking and action — his thinking was having less money to work with would force different thinking and actions. There were other things going on at time that influenced his decision, but his point and decision was nonetheless valid.

In a discussion about goals and objectives I heard recently, a leader reenforced she was more interested in what was done opposed to what wasn’t done — the primary message was to drive action, review what was done and learn from it. It should be noted the only thing you learn from inaction is that nothing was done, and that isn’t much of a learning opportunity.

In both these examples, deciding to create an environment (and a culture) to drive action, measure it and learn from it, was the goal.

There is also another consideration to why action is an important indicator of leadership — action is something you can own and as mentioned, ownership is a key component of leadership; whereas inaction reflects nothing, and you can’t really own “nothing”.

ac·tion /ˈakSH(ə)n/ noun : the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim.

The definition of action itself does a pretty good job of suggesting the decision to drive action may be a crucial part of defining leadership.

iamgpe

PS — We all believe we’re making things happen and getting things done. It is important though to either spend some time with honest reflection or get honest feedback, and then ask the question, “Am I driving action or just keeping busy?”

A series on leadership — insight one

Recently I thought I had reached a level of wisdom that I could offer thoughts on a number of things in a blog; one of which was Leadership. In my brief overview on the topic, I said this:

Leadership is defined when times are difficult: with vision, decision making, and ownership. This applies to character for that matter.

It struck me that maybe it was impossible to define leadership in a single sentence, and even if I did accurately hit on the three key elements, it’s obviously a very deep subject which warrants more than a sentence. With this in mind, and the need to explore a very important topic further, I thought I’d share some insights from those leaders I have known over the years. I suspect most will fall into what I’ve pointed out as decision making, with vision and ownership being figurative bookends. As I make my way, hopefully I will find something I didn’t pay enough attention to — a reminder that reflection is a powerful tool.

insight one

One leader I know has a simple hiring criteria — hire smart people. The thinking is simple; if you surround yourself with smart people, you will build smart teams, and the result is smart things being done. It should be pointed out that “smart people” doesn’t necessarily mean overly educated but rather curious, critical thinkers with the desire to make things happen. He also takes on the responsibility to ensure that the development of people is either up or out of the organization — the growth of an employee is imperative and sometimes means self-selecting out of the organization.

Another leader (and he was old school), once took exception to how another leader was treating some of his people. When the opportunity to catch ride together presented itself he, in no uncertain terms, made it clear that his employees needed to be respected and any issues were to be brought to him. I was not there but I knew the leader personally and can just imagine the choice words that found their way into the conversation.

Hiring good people definitely falls under decision making and is crucial to successfully executing on any vision. Although an employee owns his or her destiny, the leader owns ensuring the employee develops up in the organization or is respectfully exited. Ownership of an employee’s success lies at the very top of the leadership structure and cascades down for continuity; it can take time to build out a team of great employees so when you have it, protect it with everything you have.

The decision to hire and retain good people may be the only real measure of good leadership.

iamgpe

Moments — You are not your Mistakes...

I have no context to this — it may be the work of a local urban artist, possibly some sort of clever marketing or even the name of a new business. What I do know for certain is it was spray painted on a boarded-up window of what I assume is a local shop under renovations. With a registered trademark and a date, it simply said, “You are not your Mistakes”. I have assumed it wasn’t “You are not your Mislakes” and the author simply forgot to cross the “t” which is a little ironic.

“Yes you are”. I actually said it out loud.

I was reminded of other trite phases such as “This is not who I am” or “I’m bigger than this” which often find their way into a conversation when self-reflection is forced. These words could actually infer lessons learned and that you hold no burden for your mistake but I have to take this at face value so it comes across lacking ownership or responsibility.

There is no ethical consideration for the need to correct your mistakes but it’s in the lessons and skills learned though correction that makes it important for you to do. And even this reason is more of a technical issue, so you don’t repeat the mistake, waste time and energy, and it allows you to move onto your next mistake — the real consideration is one of character and the ultimate reason I said, “Yes you are”. It is a universal truism that those who own their mistakes and work to correct them are of strong character (full stop). And why should you care? Because strong character will help you get through those really big mistakes successfully, particularly when you need someone’s help and you are depending on them.

I think it is more appropriately said,“You are your uncorrected mistakes” because it focusses on what’s really important.

iamgpe

PS — If by chance the name of the business is actually “You are not your Mislakes®” I don’t think anything I have said is off the mark but I will have to apologize to the author. I will let you know.