What Makes A Leader and What is Leadership

• John Maxwell frequently references this wisdom: “If you think you're leading and no one is following you, then you're only taking a walk.”

• Michael Maccoby’s three word definition of a leader is “someone people follow”. i

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• Obviously, more is entailedii than Maccoby’s short definition. That “more” ranges from the six personal qualitiesiii identified by Warren Bennis, the six leadership passages identified by Ram Charaniv, the six extras that build power and organizational leadership identified by Rosabeth Moss Kanterv, to concerns about charactervi. Though answers abound, here are two of my most recent favorite definitions: “Leadership [is] creating the conditions in organizational systems so that people can do their best workvii” and ”Leaders define or clarify goals for a group, which can be as small as a seminar or as large as a nation-state and mobilize the energies of members of the group to pursue those goalsviii.” In addition, there are at least three imperatives for becoming a great leader: “managing yourself, managing your network, and managing your team ix.”

What Makes A Leader and What is Leadership Continued

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• Short definitions of leadership include “problem solving is the core of leadership” and “the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possiblex.” Obviously, more is also entailed. For example John Kotter reminds us that leadership “is about coping with changexi”, about “motivating and inspiring---keeping people moving in the right direction, despite major obstacles to change…xii”; a leader must have vision (the ability to see ahead and what is coming), a sense of direction (including where you are and how much farther you need to go to successfully arrive at a specific end destination or goal) and change management skills.

What Makes A Leader and What is Leadership Continued

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What Is Leadership?

Leadership• “Leadership [is] creating the conditions in organizational systems so that people

can do their best work.”• ”Leaders define or clarify goals for a group, which can be as small as a seminar or

as large as a nation-state and mobilize the energies of members of the group to pursue those goals.”

• “Problem solving is the core of leadership.”• “The art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.”• “Is about coping with change”, about “motivating and inspiring---keeping people

moving in the right direction, despite major obstacles to change.”• “Is…a matter not of ‘doing’ excellence but of ‘inspiring’ excellence in others. ”To

lead is to Measurably Help Others Succeed”---Tom Peters, The Little Big Things, 201.

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Leadership Lesson #1: Don’t try to solve everything by yourself; even superheroes have sidekicks.

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Leadership Lesson #2: The Fundamental Things Do Apply, As Time Goes By

• Learn everything you can, from every source you can, at the lowest cost you can.

• Learn from anywhere and anyone you can in order to produce the required performance.

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Leadership Lesson #3: Know Where You Are and What’s Really Going On

“You are not in Kansas anymore.” “You are on Pandora.” In the words of Yogi Berra: “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

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Leadership Lesson # 4: There Is Never Enough Time To Do Everything, So Prioritize Execution of What is Most

Important

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Leadership Lesson # 5: Deliver What You Promise, When You Promised

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Leadership Lesson # 6: Einstein Was Right. AD2 = AG2

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Leadership Lesson #7: Stay Accountable

• “Accountable individuals… make solid agreements and take 100% responsibility for their experiences and commitments. They look inside themselves, wondering about their contribution to problems, rather than making them somebody else’s fault. “

• “Accountable individuals communicate frequently with updates, they’re reliable on tight deadlines, and they rarely drop the ball. If they must change an agreement, they let those who will be affected know and renegotiate that agreement.”

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Leadership Lesson # 8: Take advantage of change

• “Change can be a disguised opportunity, but you may need the perspective of someone else to see it, and you may need more than one perspective to go from seeing to visioning. Visioning is expressed and ends in one thing: performance.”

• A powerful image has the ability to capture our imaginations, inspire our spirits, and energize us to go beyond normal limitations. Simply put, such an image can be transformative. An example is Chief Petty Officer Brasher (Men of Honor).

• “While there is nothing that builds confidence more than winning against the odds, believe it or not, losing against great odds builds it as well.”

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Leadership Lesson #9: To Everything There Is A Season. A Time to Reap. A Time to Sow. A Time to Come. A Time to

Go.

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, whether in Africa, or in public sector leadership, you better be running.

“To everything there is a time. To everything there is a season. There is a time to start, and a time to stop. But in between those times, keep moving.

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Leadership Lesson #10: If You Are In Charge, Follow Jeffrey Fox’s Great Boss Simple Success Formula

“1. Only hire top-notch, excellent people.”“2. Put the right people in the right job. Weed out the wrong people.”“3. Tell the people what needs to be done.”“4. Tell the people why it is needed.“5. Leave the job up to the people you’ve chosen to do it.”“6. Train the people.”“7. Listen to the people.”“8. Remove frustration and barriers that fetter the people.”“9. Inspect progress.”“10. Say “Thank you” publicly and privately.”

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Leadership Lesson #11: Jeffrey Fox Says, And I Believe, That Companies (Agencies and Departments) Do What The

Boss Does• “People take their cues from the boss. The boss sets the tone and the standards. The boss sets the

example. Over time, the department, the office, the store, the workshop, the factory, the company begin to do what the boss does.”

• “If the boss is always late, punctuality becomes a minor obligation. If the boss is always in meetings, everybody is always in meetings. If the boss calls on customers, customers become important. If the boss blows off customer appointments, the sales force makes fewer sales calls. If the boss is polite, rude people don’t last. If the boss accepts mediocrity, mediocrity is what she gets. If the boss in innovative and inventive, the company looks for opportunities. If the boss does everyone’s job, the employees will let him. If the boss gives everyone in the organization a World Series ring, then everyone wants to win the World Series. If the boss leads a charge, the good and able employees will be a step behind.”

• “Great bosses understand this phenomenon. Great bosses position the organization to succeed, not with policies, but with posture and presence. If the great boss wants a policy of traveling on Sunday or practice before presentations, he or she travels on Sunday and practices presentations. If the boss doesn’t want little snowstorms to make people late to the office, he gets in early the day of the storm and makes the coffee . . . and serves coffee to the stragglers as they arrive.”

• “Some bosses lead purposefully, others innately. Whether intentional or not, the great boss shapes the organization. Because the company does what the boss does, the boss better perform, or the company [agency or department] won’t.”

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Leadership Lesson #12: Follow Rumsfeld’s Rules

• Don’t let the urgent crowd out the important.

• First law of holes: If you get in one, stop digging. (Denis Healey)

• If in doubt, don’t. If still in doubt, do what’s right.

• If you are working from you inbox, you are working on other people’s priorities.

• If you expect people to be in on the landing, included them on the takeoff.

• If you foul up, tell the boss and correct it fast.

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Leadership Lesson #12: Follow Rumsfeld’s Rules Continued

• If you’re coasting, you’re going downhill.

• Learn from those who have been there.

• Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.

• The first consideration for a meeting is whether to call one at all.

• The last consideration for a meeting is “What have we missed?”

• What you see is what you get. What you don’t see gets you.

• When starting at the bottom, be willing to learn from those at the top.

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Leadership Lesson #13: Three Things A Leader Must Have

• Vision (the ability to see ahead and what is coming).

• A sense of direction (including where you are and how much farther you need to go to successfully arrive at a specific end destination or goal)

• Change management skills

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Leadership Lesson # 14: Have Conversations With Your Internal and External Customers in a Focused Context

• Having a customer conversation in a focused context is not always easy. “In the proverbial 10 words or less, here is the key to customer service: Ask customers what they want, and give it to them.” However, “If Henry Ford had asked his customers what they wanted, it would have been a faster horse.” You have to ask the right questions in order to get something productive out of the conversation.

• But see also Luke Hohmann’s blog on Innovation, Software, and Customer Understanding for some further insights. (“Innovation occurs from a deep understanding of your customers — their problems, their needs, expressed or unexpressed. Suppose that Henry had asked a customer “What do you want” and the customer has answered “I want a faster horse”. I’m willing to bet that Henry, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, would have explored this a bit further, perhaps using the 5-Why’s approach to root cause analysis. Henry: “Why do you want a faster horse?” Customer: “So I can get to the store in less time.” Henry: “Why do you want to get to the store faster?” Customer: “So I can get more work done at the farm.”)

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Leadership Lesson #15: You cannot lead anyone further than you have been yourself or further than you are willing to go yourself.

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Leadership Lesson #16 Before you can stand up or sit down with a purpose, you have to have the courage of conviction to stay standing or stay seated when someone tells you to stop or get up, if someone asks you what do you think you are doing or why are you doing that.

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Leadership lesson #17 You must have self-confidence, unshakeable faith, and sometimes self-sacrifice is required to be a leader.

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Leadership lesson #18: Keep a sense of humor because some things in life are a laughing matter.

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Leadership lesson #19: Don’t ever forget who you are, where you come from, where you are going, and who is leading you to fulfill the purpose and plan for which you were created and for which on one day you will be called.

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Leadership Lesson #20: You are responsible for who you are and for what you do.

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