Being a Good Leader

If you could give yourself a grade as a leader, what would it be?

Consider three categories. First, grade yourself on how effective you think you are in leading your employees. Second, grade yourself on how effective you think you are compared to your colleagues. Third, grade yourself on your leadership effectiveness from the perspective of your employees. In other words, if they had to grade you, what grade would they give?

The first two grades you gave yourself are worthless and mean nothing. The only thing that counts is the grade that your staff would give you. It does not matter how good you think you are or how good you are compared to the other managers in your company. The only thing that counts in leadership is the ability to incite others to self-motivated actions which accomplish the mission of the team and elicit a response from them that is authentic, focused, and intentional.

To lead your staff, you must earn the right to lead them. Leadership is first taken, and then it’s earned. Leadership is never given to you. Instead, you take it. You take it by adopting an attitude of leadership. You take it by living your life in a way that attracts both followers and greater levels of responsibility to you because of the type of person that you have become. Don't wait for someone to confer greater levels of leadership on you. By taking leadership you will eventually earn it. Even if you are currently absent of followers but want to grow in your career to greater levels of responsibility, you can start by leading yourself. Take ownership and total responsibility of your own personal outcomes. When you take full responsibility and actively seek out other areas to make the team better, to make yourself better, to make others better, then those who are looking to promote leadership talent will notice you. It is in your nature as a leader to want to raise the bar. You are taking leadership when you take responsibility.

Consider these three steps to adopting a leadership attitude:

1) Start with an attitude of self-acceptance, self-discovery, and self-improvement. The relationships that you have at work are not really that different than the relationships that you have with others in your life, such as your loved ones and your family. And to grow in those relationships you first start with the relationship that you have with yourself. Leadership is a relationship, and the first relationship is self-directed. By accepting full responsibility of how you live your life, you begin your path down the road of leadership authenticity. To change the direction of your life, your leadership effectiveness, you change your attitude.

2) Sharpen your focus on the outcomes of the team. What is it that we are trying to accomplish at work this month? That’s the question you need to ask yourself and once you find the answer, share that with your employees. People need direction, and it’s up to you to find that direction and communicate it to your teammates.

3) You give up part of your control. You cannot control the actions of your employees, so you might as well accept it. Instead, set up a direction of the team, clear expectations of what each of them needs to accomplish to reach their targets, and feedback systems that allow them to communicate concerns to you without fear and allow you to communicate guidance to them without guilt.

The title on your business card is a hollow shell if you can’t back it up with congruence and leadership authenticity. Forget about trying to influence others through your position of authority. Instead become the type of person that influences them with legitimacy and ignites their own self-motivated enthusiasm. And by following these steps, you will always earn high marks in the hearts of your employees.

Scott Love shows managers and sales people how to manage their risk and win the game of business. He is a professional speaker and can be reached at 828-225-7700 or on his website at www.nolimitachievement.com