Ever since I was a little girl, I have been fascinated by what it takes to be a successful leader. Both my parents were entrepreneurs owning and running their separate businesses; my dad running a leather tannery with my grandfather, and my mom her own women's clothing boutique. Conversations about work were constant threads throughout our household and I became fascinated at a very early age.
Your leadership brand.
- What does it take to be a successful leader?
- What does successful mean to you?
- What do you need to do to become successful?
- What's your measuring stick that if you were able to reach a certain level, you would be satisfied with yourself?
- What's the impact you want to have and why?
These questions are the key to our success as leaders and our answers will help define and shape our future. Take a few minutes to answer them; you'll be glad you did.
I read a great quote the other day from Steve Jobs.
" Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about the money. It's about the people you have and how you lead."
How you lead.
Leadership is simple, really. Not easy to always do well, but simple. Leadership is comprised of what you do and how you do it. The "what you do" part is about the skills and competencies you need to understand and implement daily. I'm referring to skills like delegation, execution, strategy, conducting high stakes conversations, influencing others, managing talent and performance, leading teams, succession planning, and managing and leading change. You have to be masterful at these tangible skills to lead well and create extraordinary results.
But developing your leadership skills is not enough and is only one part of the equation, "how you lead" is the other. How you lead refers to the kind of person you are as you do what needs to be done. Things like the way in which you treat others, do your work, communicate. How you lead is less tangible than "what you do" as it includes your behavior, style and sometimes even your personality. It's just as critical to master these "being behaviors" as the tangible leadership skills and competencies.
Self reflection.
How do you develop yourself in both these areas? It takes rigor, practice, and a willingness to be curious enough to step back and assess what you did and how you did it; consistently. Self-assessment is a powerful tool. The benefits and reasons you might want to do this might include the following:
- "I'd like to be happier and more satisfied at work."
- "I like to explore in what other ways I might make a bigger or deeper contribution."
- "I'd like to get better at handling the politics."
- "I want to increase my impact and results."
- "I'd like to see what I'm capable of and see just how far I can stretch myself."
- "I'd like to get promoted, take on more responsibility, and play a bigger game."
The challenge.
To challenge yourself and increase your abilities, take classes or workshops, get a mentor, hire yourself a leadership coach, and practice (with feedback!). Of course, Vision Quest Consulting has courses to help you develop your leadership skills that we can bring into your organization as well as leadership coaching to increase your ability to self assess more completely and faster than you can do by yourself. Whatever you decide to do to expand yourself as a leader, always have at least one thing you are focused on working on so you can develop yourself into a master.
Here is one of my favorite videos to get you started on exploring the "Who am I as a leader?" question.
Is there something more you'd like to explore for yourself or your organization on this topic, email us at info@visionquestconsulting.com
Here's to your next bold move!
