I’ve had the opportunity to spend several days recently with a person recently promoted to a leadership position. He was very good at what he did and earned his promotion. His promotion came with a new title and higher income, unfortunately what it didn’t come with was any hint of how to actually lead. So he doesn’t lead, he just tries to get by managing his new team.
I’ve seen the same scenario play out literally hundreds of times through the years. A person is good at what they do so they are promoted into a leadership role even though they have little, or more commonly, no leadership experience or skills at all.
I call them common leaders. I don’t mean to be disparaging here but it is what it is… common leadership really isn’t leadership at all. At its best it’s just managing and at its worst it’s something much worse. That something involves fear, coercion and sometimes even outright abuse.
Absent any real leadership skills people in leadership positions too often tend to use intimidation, coercion, threats and punishment to force the compliance of their people. 99.9% of the people in leadership positions who use those tactics are not bad people, it’s just that in many cases that’s how they were taught to “lead”. Sadly, they were likely taught to lead by people who themselves had few if any leadership skills. So the cycle of common leadership simply repeats itself.
Individuals who do manage to break the cycle of common leadership and become uncommon leaders don’t do so on their own. They most often have a mentor or are led by someone who has broken through the common cycle themselves.
Here’s one of the most interesting aspects of leadership: it can’t actually be taught but it can be learned. It is learned, in the main, not so much by listening to a true leader but by watching them.
Authentic leaders lead by example. They show the way to true uncommon leadership. I can tell people what to look for in a leader, I can share with them the characteristics that make a good leader, and I can even help them judge whether or not someone in a leadership position truly processes those characteristics but a person must teach themselves to lead.
Let me give you one example.
Caring for people, truly caring and investing yourself in another person’s success and well-being is an absolute characteristic of an uncommon, authentic leader. I can tell someone that, I can point out a person who has that characteristic but I know of no way to teach someone how to care. They must develop that caring nature on their own. The quickest way to do that is to see someone else display their own caring nature and decide if the results they see are something they want in their own life.
If you were taught to lead by someone who did not develop those uncommon leadership skills then my very best advice to you would be to find a mentor who has. Find a coach or hire a coach who will help you break that cycle of common leadership and become a leader who can actually make a positive difference in the lives of those they would lead.
Never assume that a leadership position makes you a leader. A leadership position doesn’t come with the right to lead, that must be earned by demonstrating consistent leadership skills.
Develop those skills and people will naturally follow you.
Original concept and article (modified) with many thanks to Steve Keating CME CSE: Lead Today https://stevekeating.me/
Normal Distribution curve reproduced with the kind permission of Team Effort Training
Calling yourself a leader does not make you a leader. Holding a position of leadership in your organization does not make you a leader. Having an important sounding title does not make you a leader. Having someone else describe you as a leader does not make you a leader.
Your promotion to a leadership position does not make you a leader, in fact the managerial skills that likely earned you the promotion are very likely holding you back as a leader.
If you’re trying to manage your people, then you will always have people problems. Human beings do not respond to being managed. Actually leading your people will permanently eliminate most of the “people problems” managers face every day.
So, here are a handful of traits that contribute to being a leader:
Risking your success being hidden inside the success of someone else, makes you a leader.
Caring as much about the advancement of those around you as you care about your own advancement, makes you a leader.
Tackling the assignments no one else will tackle, makes you a leader.
Investing your time where it’s needed rather than where you want to, makes you a leader.
Making right decisions that most people simply won’t, makes you a leader.
Finding common ground where only mud previously existed, makes you a leader.
Seeing the potential within every person you meet, makes you a leader.
Doing what’s right when everyone around you believes it’s wrong, makes you a leader.
Working to build more leaders rather than more followers, makes you a leader.
Understanding that your own success is dependent upon the success of your people, makes you a leader.
Having the courage to let the best idea win, whether it’s yours or someone else’s, makes you a leader.
Understanding that constant collaborative communication with your people will help them succeed, makes you a leader.
A willingness to be held accountable, by anyone and everyone, makes you a leader.
Being completely honest with yourself, makes you a leader.
If you want to be a great leader, check in on this list regularly. Score yourself. How many of these 14 are actively you? & how many do you need to work on?
True authentic leadership is a heart issue.
It cannot really be put any better than Chris Falson has already done so, in his song: Good People:
Good people stay through the stormy weather That beats the house built on rock lasts forever.
Good people love through adversity; though they are hurt, they forgive their enemy.
For they have learned the secret, hidden from the wise, they have learned the secret, of love.
Good people give to the needy and the poor; no matter the cost, someone gave them much more.
Good people fight for the souls of men. Not flesh and blood; only some will understand.
For they have learned the secret, hidden from the wise. Yeah, they have learned the secret, of love…
~ ~ ~
For they have learned the secret, hidden from the wise. Yeah, they have learned the secret, of love…
Love is patient
Love is kind
It’s never selfish
& it’s never rude, never rude.
Oh, that’s Love… Love…
Give me love… give me love… Oh Love… All I want is love…
https://chrisfalson.bandcamp.com/track/good-people
True Authentic Leadership then, is heart-centred Leadership. Dealing with that awkward student, colleague or staff member is made quantumly easier when you lead with love. For some, this quite literally will require a change of heart. If we are to achieve true greatness a change of heart is definitely required. As a manager, if you know that your heart does not work as it should; you quite possibly are in need of a new one.
But how can one get a new heart, if the one you have is found wanting, or broken, or rotten? …if it is not capable of loving the unlovable..? Do we not all need a new heart, in that case?
There is a way. There is a mystery to it! …but there are clues in the Chris Falson song…
It could be worth another listen:
https://chrisfalson.bandcamp.com/track/good-people
Here’s what the great Billy Graham said about receiving a new heart: https://youtu.be/iCkjSzP5PG8
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