It seems that a lot of people have some ideas about what makes a leader.
For some it is having all the money in the world.
For others, it is being the biggest bully/psycho on the block.
For some, it is having the loudest mouth.
For others, it is being the smartest or the best.
For some, it is being granted divine authority, a badge or an office.
For others it is because ME!ME!ME!ME!ME!!!!
For me, it’s none of these… shocking I know.
To me:
Empathy/Compassion (WHUH?): It means being able to understand your team and knowing that sometimes it is best to look after your team. It means sacrificing your goals to help people who need help. Or not always chewing people out when they make mistakes.
Courage: like many things it is a multifaceted thing. Physical courage is what most folks define courage but isn’t always a component because of how often do we face life and death situations, but it helps. Moral courage (aka no good deed goes unpunished): to stand by your convictions doing the right thing when it might cost you your job or career is more important.
Vision: Knowing what your team’s goals are and what it takes to get there is important. We all need goals to strive for. A nebulous idea of “we’re number one” isn’t enough.
Selflessness: You can’t stop people from going where they want to go, but it is best to help and not get in the way. There is no “I” in “team”, but there are three in “Selfish Idiot”.
Competence: sometimes meaning doing what your people can do, but more so being able to understand what your people do and getting out of their way to let them do what they have to do.
Setting the example: When laying down the rules, best to set the example. It means walking a fine line as respect can be lost in an instant if you’re not holding to the values you espouse.
Grace Under Pressure: Nothing irritates me more than watching the boss completely lose their shit over minor things or bad news. Not only does hysterics not help, but it prevents one from trying to work their way around the usual potholes and setbacks. Emotional outbursts and tantrums are amplified to your underlings. I had to learn this the hard way.
Active Listening: muttering “uh huh”, “mmmokay” and “sure” isn’t even close enough. Keep the brain on, take notes, etc.
Finally, getting the fuck out of your own way. I’ve learned painfully that the worst enemy you can have is you. Not all the characteristics you have are “good” or “beneficial” (it was pretty shocking for a dipshit like myself to find out) AND they can impede you from actually doing a good job. It is a pretty painful lesson (that still shows up from time to time.) All I can say is that I’m still learning.
Anyway, there are others I’ve missed.
Inspired in part by the pocket article that showed up in my feed and by the inept insecure jackass who chewed my ass off two weeks ago for something he didn’t understand.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/7-brutal-truths-about-leadership-not-too-many-people-want-to-hear
I’m always interested to hear what everyone has to say as I don’t claim to have the definitive word on leadership and willing to learn.
Having followers does not make or define a leader. The type of followers very much does.
IMO the best way to judge (for lack of a better word) one’s leadership is to base it on the type of people who follow them.
The place I work is collaborative; it is a buzzword but true in this case. The whole is greater than the parts.
I love my boss, even have sex with my boss, she is a great leader but has terrible choice in men so I don’t really trust her judgement.
I agree with your whole spiel. You covered this partly with empathy and competence, but I’d add that it’s also a critical skill to understand the abilities/strengths/weaknesses of others. Then you can accordingly give your team members an environment where they can thrive. And when you’re leading a project, one of the most important skills is making sure the right people are involved.
So I guess I am going to the theatre to see Top Gun at 10:30 (even though I already downloaded it). Yay!
Impartiality is pretty key. Not much is more corrosive to a leader than playing favorites. As soon as people think there is an advantage to joining factions and coloring their opinions to curry favor, the info pipeline gets corrupted, bad news stops flowing, and sooner or later the wheels fall off.
In addition to all the points above, knowing also, how/when to put effort into developing your people, investing in the future, and–in particularly short supply nowadays–looking at the LONG-term outcomes, and not the short-term bumps on your dividend payments.
This is from a couple weeks ago, but a great example (the poverty study Rolnik mentions in the article!)…
https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2022/05/education-and-health-begin-at-birth-our-children-cannot-wait-nor-can-we/#mnleg
And the R.O.I. that he mentions?
It’s apparently larger *now,* at $16.00 per dollar spent, than it was when he & Rob Grunwald did the Minneapolis Fed study i cite *all* over the interwebs (and that i know I’ve thrown at y’all a time or eight, too!😉😁💖)
imo…a great leader is anyone who can block the bullshit from the office and just let me get on with my job
dear leader… please take all the bullshit
so i may do my job
in peace
for ever and ever
amen
Leadership is very subjective and that’s part of what makes it so hard to go “is that person a good leader?”
Case in point – early on in the covid pandemic, my friends and I thought Gov Cuomo was amazing. We’re sitting in Misssouri with Gov HeeHaw who won’t do a fucking thing, not a fucking thing, to try to manage a pandemic on the state level. He won’t hold press conferences, he won’t release numbers, our state tracking was a fucking joke, the Ozarks were open and even more a cesspit than usual, etc etc. And the federal response, well we all remember that.
We’d fucking turn on Cuomo’s daily press conferences because it was honestly comforting to go okay this guy is operating with a plan and working with a competent staff, etc etc. Coworkers and I would joke things like “goddamn if he were in the Oval Office, this shit wouldn’t be nearly so bad nationally” and so forth.
Having read Cousin Matthew’s comments and getting a better understanding of dealing with “Emperor Cuomo” as I believe he called him, entirely different perspective. Then more info came to light about him and gross.