Leadership is the ability to get people to willingly do what they would otherwise not do. Leaders help people arrive at destinations they would not have gone alone. A leader is not always the “boss” or person in charge. A leader is someone that people “follow” because of who they are - their character, and what they can do - their competencies. What specific character traits and competencies? What follows is what I like to call “ Vision and the 7 Cs.”
Vision
More than anything else, people want their lives to mean something. Their lives must have purpose. An effective leader helps people see a possibility - a future - that they would not have seen otherwise. This vision of “what success looks like” provides meaning and direction. The vision does not always come directly from the leader. The leader issee? instrumental in formulating the vision even if it comes from within the individual or from the work group. What vision have you helped your team to
Character
The foundation of all relationships is trust. Leadership is primarily influence. When we get to know and like someone, and they eventually earn our trust, their ability to influence us increases dramatically. Trust is earned when we do several things:
- When our actions mirror what we say we believe - we “walk the talk”
- When we keep our word and do what we say we are going to do
- When we demonstrate that we are putting the needs of the team before our own self-interest
People will not follow someone for long if they can't trust them. Not long ago a well known CEO was “ousted” after a probe into a personal relationship with a female executive at the same firm. “The board concluded that the facts reflected poorly on his judgment and would impair his ability to lead the company … his actions were inconsistent with our code of conduct.” Dr. Bruce Avolio, director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Gallup Leadership Institute states “Leaders have to be trustworthy to produce sustainable results.”
Without trust, it is impossible to lead.
Confidence
A leader must show by word and action confidence in all areas: confidence in the vision, confidence in the plan, confidence in the people, and above all, an unshakable self-confidence. People can not accomplish more than they believe they can. A leader helps their organizations to “see” a grander future than before and instills a belief that by working together they can and will arrive at success.
Leaders know where they are going and demonstrate by their words and actions that there is no doubt that they will arrive. Furthermore, they make you want to go with them. They instill confidence in you as well. They get you to believe in yourself and your team and to see yourself as winners before it actually occurs. In his book Reagan on Leadership, James Strock lists Ronald Reagan's accomplishments while in office and concludes “Above all, Reagan restored America's belief in itself.”
Commitment
A leader must “lead from the front” and show a willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed, working side-by-side when needed, to get the job done. Leaders need to demonstrate a fierce determination and “will” to succeed. Their followers must be confident that their leaders will never quit or retreat.
There's a poster on the gym wall in Clint Eastwood's movie Million Dollar Baby that says “Winners do what losers won't do.” Leaders are like that also. They do things the non-leader won't do.
Competence
A leader must be highly skilled. It would make no difference how trustworthy an individual was if he simply lacked the knowledge, experience, judgment, and ability to get the job done. The only thing worse than a leader that doesn't know what he is doing is a leader that doesn't know he doesn't know what he is doing. In Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior, author Richard Marcinko said this about his expectations of anyone under his command: “My missions were deadly and difficult - they were, in fact, some of the most difficult missions that faced the United States armed services. Therefore, I could expect nothing less from my men than total dedication and absolute competence.”We must demonstrate competence if we expect people to follow us.
Caring
The cliché is true -“People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Leaders must show they care personally and professionally. From George Washington to Mahatma Gandhi, great leaders have demonstrated a sincere interest in their followers' personal and private lives. When Lou Holtz was coach at Notre Dame, he used to ask every player “Do you care about me, your teammates, and Notre Dame?” If a player had a selfish motive for being on the team and didn't care enough to put the team interests first, Coach Holtz didn't want that young man on the team. He also said if the young man didn't believe that he could trust the coach and feel cared about in return, he shouldn't want to be on the team. Leaders show they care about their team personally and professionally.
Communication
Leaders have crystal clear compelling visions and communicate those visions repeatedly.
In his book Leadership, the first principle Rudolph Giuliani shares is his insistence on his routine morning meeting. “I consider it the cornerstone to efficient functioning within any system…We accomplish a great deal during that first hour, in large part because the lines of communication were so clear.” In addition to letting people also know clearly where they stand, leaders are also exceptional listeners. In his book Team Bush - Leadership Lessons from the Bush White House, author Donald Kettl discusses how President Bush “makes sure he listens” to his top advisors. The lesson?
“Make sure you get unfiltered information. Top managers need all sorts of information, good and bad…especially bad. This is why it is crucial to have a mechanism in place that insures a steady stream of information from all quarters.”
Managers that develop these qualities will create an environment where their team will “willingly do what they would not otherwise do.” They will be more than managers. They will be leaders.
