In April's Fortune Magazine there's an interesting article about
The World's 50 Greatest Leaders...
I always gravitate towards such articles on Management and Leadership because I consider myself a 'work in progress' on the subject, and always try to figure out why two people, who have similar competency in the same company, seem to get different results as Leaders.
Sometimes Leaders think it's about them, and this can drive results in the short term I guess, but generally not a good long term strategy. Other Leaders think it's about the people they lead, and I have to agree with that one. Bill Clinton, regardless of your politics, can get people to pull together on things. He even takes a Cause and aligns a Republican with a Democrat to achieve a greater goal (Haiti Relief) well after the glow of political office and personal limelight has left.
As the article indicates, Jeff Bezos of Amazon feels it's a Vision people aspire to work for…to Howard Schultz of Starbucks it's creating an experience, not selling a product…and yet to Aung San Suu Kyi Chair of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar(Burma), it's about having such a strong passion for what is right and what is wrong that people follow you because of the strength of your beliefs – people want to be like you, so they follow.
I think it's easy to want to be these things when the pressure isn't on, but add a stress filled day, short time lines, and little patience, and you can understand why we might fall short of these lofty attributes from time to time as Leaders.
On my personal path to these heights though, I think I'm going to focus on these three things:
- Doing What I Say I'm going to Do
- Remember I don't have all the Answers…in fact, the people doing the actual job have (3) ways to improve the situation right now…I just have to get him/her to care enough to tell me what they are
- Care enough about those I lead so that they care enough about me, and it usually isn't words but actions people want and align towards – that generally leads to exceptional performance I have found
Oh…by the way…if I have a memory lapse on these three at one time or another, I plan to default to the first bullet – that should get me most of the way there in the meantime.
Who’s your leadership hero? Who do you aspire to be? What 3 things are you going to do TODAY to get to the heights of Jeff Bezos?
Have a great day!
Ed Schultek
Founder and Managing Partner
Sandler Training – PEAK Sales Performance
Learn more about Ed at http://www.linkedin.com/in/edschultek
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