How to Be an Effective Leader
Scenario: "Dude, we can learn leadership skills at business schools!"
- You want to be a superstar leader.
- You throw out buckets of cash on leadership books.
- Your think you're a king leader, so you hire a team.
- You suck. No one thrives with you.
- You fire them. You restart the cycle.
What would be the smarter approach? Drum-frickin-roll... Practice those leadership skills.
Why Practice Leadership Skills
Tiger Woods didn't become Tiger Woods without decades of practice. Likewise, Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Jordan, Katherine Hepburn, and Salvador Dali didn't rock their crafts without years of intense practice. If you want to be great at X, practice X as much as humanly possible. Similarly, if you want to be a great leader, practice being a great leader as much as freakishly possible.
Where to Practice Leadership Skills
Granted, most of you probably don't lead a work team (yet!). So, how would you practice leadership skills if you don't have the opportunities to do so?
Simple
Exploit any opportunity where you can train your leadership expertise. Some examples include:
- Coaching youth basketball.
- Leading an online multiplayer team (e.g. Warcraft!).
- Leading a ________ club.
- Setting up some event.
According to a study by IBM, multi-player games such as Warcraft rock leadership skills:
Gamers learn collaboration, self-organization, risk-taking, openness, influence and how to earn incentives when involved in a [multiplayer online role-playing game].
How to Measure Your Effectiveness
You could lead a Warcraft team, and lose every frickin game; that certainly doesn't make you a kick-ass leader. Carly Fiorina led a multi-billion dollar merger managing some of the best players in the industry; but her bottom-line results proved otherwise, and the HP board acted accordingly. So, how do you measure your effectiveness as a leader? Focus on your team's performance.
- What results did your team achieve?
- How did your team improve?
- How was team morale before/after your leadership?
If performance improved: Yay. If performance rocked: High-five. If performance rocked consistently every day/week/month/quarter/year: Youz-a-badass.
Practice.
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5 Comments
on How to Be an Effective Leader
BetterFasterNow!
2007-07-23 07:15:24 UTC
This is why there's the old saying "It takes 20 years of work to become an 'overnight success'."
When performance is measured, performance improves.
You could add one more bullet point:
* Ask your team for one thing you could do differently to improve their performance.
- Dave
Charlie
2007-07-26 01:25:17 UTC
Great post. It may be a common lesson for leaders, but most of them forget about it, especially when they are attracted to fame and glory. People who thirst for fame and glory often set aside a lot of things for their own good.
Howie
2007-07-26 17:45:48 UTC
I agree with Charlie. Success can sometimes make things worse, like those people who forgot about their responsibilities because they are more concerned with their status. It's always important that everything should be done the right time and amount.
Employee Evolution - What it means to be a Gen-Y leader
2007-07-29 19:33:46 UTC
[...] Gen Y leaders then must know themselves first, and project their authenticity. They must also be constantly learning, experiencing, doing, networking, creating, giving. It won’t stop. Our generation won’t put up with selfish thoughts, unethical behavior, or tired ideas. The Gen Y leader must be constantly on. [...]
Modite - Engagement for the next generation
2007-07-29 20:08:34 UTC
[...] Gen Y leaders then must know themselves first, and project their authenticity. They must also be constantly learning, experiencing, doing, networking, creating, giving. It won’t stop. Our generation won’t put up with selfish thoughts, unethical behavior, or tired ideas. The Gen Y leader must be constantly on. [...]
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