lead Archives - John Knotts

Leaderment (SM)

Leadership is a dying art in the world today. The great leaders of the past, George Washington, Winston Churchill, Alexander the Great, Martin Luther King, even Adolph Hitler, are found few-and-far between these days. There are some that have been fairly successful, like Steve Jobs for instance, that have rose to an iconic status, but have they been truly great leaders or just really successful at running something?

Often there is contention between the skills that a leader needs and what a manager needs. I believe, if you’re not a good leader, you won’t be a good manager, and if you’re not a good manager, you won’t be a good leader. It is my contention that those who apply both of these talents expertly demonstrate what I call, “Leaderment^SM.” This is the expert combination of Leadership and Management together.

Two days ago, I posted a blog titled Skill Requirements for Today’s Workplace. In it, I highlighted two key personal skills of Analysis and Problem Solving. This was the primer for my new Sunday blog (Leaderment^SM) to compliment my Saturday blog (Think Big, Take Small Steps). I will continue to blog in my Meandering Genius section Monday through Friday.

In this blog I will pull from experience inside and outside consulting as well as experience as a repeated business owner and nonprofit leader. Additionally, I will pull from and incorporate information additional resources and experiences much like these:

Quality Engineer/Technician
Program Manager
Project Manager
Lean/Six Sigma
Professional in Human Resources
Human Performance Technology
Financial Management
Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Change Management
Facilitation

Every week I will cover a specific topic aligned to this outline listed below. I will probably jump around every week so that the blog provides value to every audience depending on where you are in this outline. See the outline below:

Leaderment^SM
Becoming a better leader and manager
Leaderment^SM — Yourself
Exploring the basic building blocks to develop the “Leader Within”
Leaderment^SM — Projects
Developing skills and abilities required to lead and manage projects and things
Leaderment^SM — People
Developing skills and abilities required to lead and manage individuals
Leaderment^SM — Capabilities
Developing skills and abilities required to lead and manage programs made up of things, projects, and people
Leaderment^SM — Organizations
Developing skills and abilities required to lead and manage organizations

I hope you are as excited to start this journey as I am and watch next week for my first installment that expands on Developing the Leader Within You.

Leaderment^SM is a service mark of Crosscutter Enterprises.

If Leadership is the art of influencing others…

Leader is a position–someone that leads others. Many people, who are placed in the position of a leader struggle with the challenge of the leading others part. They simply take charge and rally the troops to move in one direction.

Being a leader is not leadership, but do you have to be a leader to lead?

No, leadership is something earned by those you lead–those that choose to follow you. The best way to learn how to lead is to run something for a nonprofit–something where you have to get others to help you.

Some leaders think that influence means to coerce with incentives and punishments. Some think they have to constantly sell to others so they will buy in.

Leadership is neither of these: leadership, true leadership, is about four simple things.

1. Passion: you must be passionate about what you do. Passion is your sales technique–not selling. Being passionate about something is infectious. Having and displaying a deep passion for what you are doing will spread to those around you and others will want to feel that passion too.

2. Vision. Just doing what you’re doing today, is not going to cut it. Becoming something more than today–something much more is vision. People want someone who will inspire them to a future. They wan to believe in something bigger and be part of it. Leader must be passionate about what he is doing today, but have an inspiring vision of where things are going tomorrow.

3. Know your people. Simply that, get to know the people who have chosen to follow you. Understand them and make them part of your vision. See their dreams and believe in them like you want them to believe in yours. Know their families, know their hobbies, know their skills and background. Never put them in a box of how you see them, but see them as they see themselves. Knowing your people better than they know themselves is powerful leadership.

4. Communicate. This is where most fail. E able to express your passion and your vision through writing and speaking. The better you are at communicating, the more powerful your message will be. Also, be open and honest to those who follow you–be among them always, even when you are not. Make them feel like that can talk to you at any time. Leaders today, put barriers between themselves and their people to allow them to work, but removing all barriers and spending your time communicating your passion and vision will inspire those around you to do much more than you yourself is possible of.

Leadership is not a position–it is definitely an art. But like any art, it is really more simple than most realize. You don’t have to be wealthily or powerful to be a and effective leader because those things do not make you so.

Lead with passion and vision. Know your people better than they know themselves. And constantly communicate to your people your passion and vision.

This is leadership.