DADS ARE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES!

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Lesson one…” Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off”.

Good leadership involves responsibility for the welfare of the group, which means some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It’s inevitable, if you’re honorable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity; you’ll avoid the tough decisions.

Lesson two…” The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”

Many leaders build up so many barriers to appropriate communication that the very idea of someone lower in the hierarchy looking up to the leader for help is ludicrous. The culture they foster often defines asking for help as weakness or failure…. so people cover-up and the organization suffers.

Lesson three…” Don’t be fooled by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment.”

Real leaders are vigilant and involved in day-to-day activities and resist going to their ivory towers.

Lesson four…” Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own back yard.”

Learn from, observe, and seek out mentors and partners, but remember that even the pros may have leveled out in terms of their learning and skills. Sometimes even the pros become lazy and complacent.

Lesson five…” Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled their distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant”.

Strategy equals execution. All the great ideas and visions of the world are worthless if they can’t be implemented rapidly and effectively and efficiently. Good leaders delegate and empower others liberally, but they pay attention to the details.

Lesson six…” You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.”

Good leaders don’t wait for the official blessing to try things out. They are prudent, but not reckless. You you know the expression” it’s easier to get forgiveness than permission”? Well, it’s true.

Lesson seven…” Keep looking below the surface appearances. Don’t shrink from doing so just because you might not like what you find”.

This is an excuse for inaction, a call to non-arms. It’s a mindset that assumes or hopes that today’s realities will continue tomorrow in a tidy, linear and predictable fashion. Pure fantasy. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, is the slogan of the complacent, the arrogant, or the scared.

Lesson eight…”Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people can you accomplish great deeds.”

In a brain-based economy, your best assets are people. How many leaders immerse themselves in the goal of creating an environment where the best, the brightest, and the most creative are attracted, retained and most importantly-unleashed?

Lesson nine…” Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing”.

If people really follow organization charts, companies would collapse. In well-run organizations, titles are also pretty meaningless. At best, they advertise some authority-an official status conferring ability to give orders and induced obedience. The titles mean little in terms of real power, which is the capacity to influence and inspire. Have you ever noticed how people will personally commit to certain individuals who possess little authority, but instead possess pizzazz, drive, expertise, and genuine caring for teammates and products?

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Posted on March 1st, 2008 by Scott Hammond
Filed under: Relationship Development