Lessons of Leadership

Lesson/Goal/Outcome
1. Thoroughly Know Yourself
- Become keenly aware of your strengths and challenges as a leader
- Learn your “blind spots” and their impact
- Solicit and act on feedback
2. Build on Strengths, Fix Your Weaknesses
- Remove skill deficiencies
- Pro-actively overcome debilitating biases
- Develop and maintain your own personal development plan
- Actively seek out opportunities to challenge your weaknesses
3. Master Difficult Conversations
- Be able to handle difficult conversations
- Use conversations as a tool of leadership
- Learn to listen on multiple levels and with empathy
- Get more accomplished through people
- Get buy-in to critical initiatives
- Deal effectively with performance issues
4. Communicate Pro-Actively
- Get the organization focused on the customer
- Speak passionately about your strategy and direction
- Openly ask for commitment to goals
- Become a powerful public spokesperson for the organization
- Write clear, crisp documents that get intended results
- Take full responsibility for interpersonal communication
- Build communication strategy into all initiatives
- Maintain a “transparent” approach to managing
5. Adopt a Facilitative Style
- Become a catalyst for idea generation
- Ensure innovative ideas are heard without judgment
- Successfully exploit the value of competing viewpoints
- Use conflict as a creative force for change
- Insist on data-based conclusions
- Lead powerful, productive meetings
6. Focus on a Few Initiatives
- Select initiatives with high-impact potential
- Set appropriate priorities for the organization
- Accurately assess situations before taking action
- Accurately analyze unintended consequences of actions
- Concentrate on results that implement strategy and profits
- Challenge and remove “activities” that do not lead to results
7. Drive Change
- Acknowledge and communicate the urgency of change
- Set challenging goals for everyone
- Manage the impact of change on the organization
- Insist on learning and growth in the organization
- Properly assess the current environment and its implications
- Develop strategies to remain competitive, vibrant, relevant
- Set high standards and demand accountability
8. Model a Clear Way
- Lead by example
- Consistently demonstrate the connection of work to strategy
- Model and enforce corporate values and personal integrity
- Be transparent in executing strategy
- Share your learning with your people
- Transmit the culture to newcomers
9. Let Leaders Lead
- Choose a team with impeccable skills
- Provide broad guidance regarding strategy, direction
- Build in appropriate reporting and check-ins
- Ask openly how you can help
- Delegate generously and stay out of the way
- Find ways to develop every person
10. Become a Life-Long Learner
- Stay tuned in to the changing environment
- Study the lessons of history
- Make learning a requirement of managers
- Lead and participate in development
- Consistently reward learning in the organization
- Make every manager a coach/facilitator
- Make ROI-based training a consistent element of strategy
11. Focus on People
- Fine tune your own people skills
- Build an organization that treats everyone with respect
- Recruit leaders with a record of getting results through people
- Recognize excellent performance, new ideas