With the addition of The Leadership Institute of Indianapolis
(www.leadershipinstituteofindianapolis.com) to our company offerings, I have been drawn lately to blogs (www.punkrockhr.com) and articles (www.mindtools.com) regarding leaders. It’s no accident that many catch phrases have been created about management and leadership.
* Top down leadership
* It starts at the top
* “With great power comes great responsibility” – Spiderman
* Sh** rolls downhill
They are all true. What is amazing to me is that the “leaders” are usually oblivious to how what they say and do affects their teams (and, ultimately, their business).
We work with a lot of CEO’s, presidents and vice presidents, all successful in their own right. However, there are definitely some that stand out among my favorites. Oh yeah, my favorites happen to be running highly successful, growing companies with happy employees. Go figure.
The top 3 things that I think make great leaders
Great leaders celebrate and dissect wins. They don’t beat the losses (or their employees) like a dead horse.
The really great leaders that I know realize that the learning is in the
good stuff. Why spend so much time beating a dead horse? Don’t we want to
duplicate wins? Smart leaders take time to dig into things that go right.
Duplicate it. Celebrate it.
Great leaders value their people—and they aren’t afraid to tell them.
Leaders that I admire really value their people. They would tell you they
have the cream of the crop. They hire people smarter than themselves to
keep them at the top of their game. Here’s the trick: they actually SAY
these things to their employees. That’s crazy isn’t it?!
Great leaders have a plan—they share the vision.
Remarkable leaders have big thoughts. Big plans. Most importantly, they
share their thoughts and plans with their teams. The team understands how
they fit into the puzzle. Great leaders don’t need to figure out how to
motivate their team to accomplish the vision. Great leaders have teams that strive for the vision as much as they do.
Great leadership in a word: transparency—transparency to your thoughts,
feelings, dreams. Transparency is powerful.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Brooke:
I enjoyed your post. However along with dissecting wins, and perhaps even more important, is learning from your losses. Fault analysis or conducting a post-mortem is a key to not repeating costly mistakes. Wins won’t put you out of business, but a losses will.
Excellent post! Short, sweet, and VERY applicable. All three of the tips are great, but my favorite is the first one. I truly believe that attitude and reactions to situations are very contageous. Especially those coming from leaders. A leader being positive, focusing on the positive and learning from the negative can have such an amazing impact on those who are being lead. I also love to win, so celebrating it makes me want more victories, which actually lead to victories. Thanks for your thoughts! It was a wonderful read.
@LeadLikeChrist Thank you! I see the opposite everyday and see the erosion of enthusiasm around business. I wish more leaders realized the $$ it is costing them. Here’s to winning & celebrating! Brooke
@MikeMyatt I would agree. I certainly do think that losses are also a great tool for learning. However, I think the wins are just as educational and sometimes they are overlooked or taken for granted. Balance is the key!
Brooke,
Good stuff. I read an article recently that said powerful leaders “influence intentionally.” It’s a simple idea that made a big impression on me.