What Is Leadership? (Its Not All About You!)
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This style of leadership results in the following negative outcomes: Only leadership can do that. When we see position as leadership, we falsely assume that leadership responsibility resides with the few people at the top of the organisation. When this happens leadership potential residing in others is not nurtured. Instead, what we need in the fast-changing world of today is leaders at all levels of the organisation.
Effective Leadership: It’s Not About You
When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. Leadership is not the exercise of control over others. Leadership is the empowerment of oneself and others towards a shared vision. I often hear senior executives complaining about their lack of control. These leaders believe that if they could control people, they would get the results they wanted. The reality is that you cannot control anyone — except yourself. Leading by command and control is the lowest form of leadership.
Control is an illusion. When you think of a leader , who comes to mind? The lives of these leaders were not defined by their position.
Yet, these leaders changed the course of history. Leadership is about influence, not control.
Perhaps even more important, how would you be most effective as a leader? Yet, these leaders changed the course of history. If you feel yourself in danger of losing your cool, try one of the following techniques to help yourself calm down: However, it is important to note that leadership is not the same as management. But in situations where you want people to do something, and not just believe something, the art of compromise can be very important.
The greater your influence, the greater your leadership. Thus if you want to improve your leadership, you need to improve your influence. So how do you improve your leadership?
Leadership is Not Title or Position
Influence comes from caring for others. If you cannot influence others, you cannot lead. Developing influence means making the decision to care for others. Leaders care about the impact their actions have on others. Too often, leaders implicitly understand why the work is important, but fail to communicate that to the team.
One of the greatest things about leadership is that we all bring something different to the table. If you were to read articles on good leadership. But there is one primary axiom of leadership that trumps all others: Leadership Rule #1 - “It's not about you.” While learning and preparing for.
Without a shared sense of purpose, your team is left wallowing in an existential crisis. First, low morale will quietly rot your team from the inside out. You bury your head in the sand like an ostrich, and get ready to be whacked.
Bad boss, or a case of Leadership Deficit Disorder?
Leadership is personal, not positional. Leadership Deficit Disorder is just as toxic as a bad boss. The good news is that LDD is easier to remedy and nobody has to leave the team!
For project-based teams, especially where team members report to different managers, a proper project kick-off goes a long way. Put whatever information you need to share in writing and have your teammates read it before the kick-off.
These are just four ideas for your project kick-off agenda. Get nine more, and detailed instructions for all 13, from the Atlassian Team Playbook — a totally free resource, no strings attached. Somewhere along the line, the concept of teamwork got confused with everybody reaching consensus on every decision. Instead of being slaves to consensus, give each member of the team an appropriate role to play in decision-making.
You have a driver D who is responsible for making sure the decision gets made in a timely manner. There is one — yes, one!
One or more contributors C weigh in with subject-matter expertise and recommendations. And people whose work will be affected by the outcome are informed I once the decision is reached. Same goes for people you interact with on other teams.
2. Own Your Failures, Not Your Successes
Where are the dependencies? Are there holes in coverage? Your team probably feels pretty un-healthy right now. And you probably remember or can imagine what it feels like to be on a healthy team. You treat your team like the living, breathing organism it is: