One thing I love about the work I do is that it gives me contact with a wide range of leaders. I especially enjoy the opportunity to learn from those whose commitment, drive, and intelligence result in the kind of great leadership we all want to emulate.
They’re a wide-ranging group, but there are a few traits that many of good leaders share. Here’s one near the top of the list: They are masters of delegation.
If you’ve spent much time around young children, you’ve probably seen some version of this interaction play out when you hand a snack to a toddler:
Parent: “What do you say?”
Child (mouth full, all attention on remaining food): “Mmankoo”
You may or may not find this charming behavior in a three-year-old, but for adults—and especially for adults in leadership—gratitude is something worth taking very seriously. Few things motivate people better than feeling appreciated, and few things are more demoralizing than feeling unappreciated.
In the workplace and elsewhere, those in leadership a position should be thinking about self-respect—both their own and that of others. When everyone maintains a healthy level of self-respect, people are confident in their work. They take risks and innovate. They admit their mistakes. Trust levels tend to be high, and communication and collaboration are smooth.
But self-respect has an evil twin: a sense of entitlement, which often looks like self-respect taken to its furthest extreme. As I speak to groups and travel between engagements, I hear a lot about these people and the harm they do in the workplace. They understand the rules but insist that they should be exempt. They push their way into every conversation, are slow to share credit, and make looking out for themselves—even at the expense of others—a top priority. They may consider themselves special because they’re older, or younger, or have a graduate degree, or came from a higher-status background. But for whatever reason, they’re focused entirely on their own success and have no desire to play by other people’s rules.
(spoiler-free)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues to blow up existing box-office records like they were Alderaan and it was the Death Star. Whether you’re a raving fan or barely paying attention, it was hard to miss the excitement, which briefly eclipsed both the holidays and the presidential race in the public’s imagination.
As the holidays approach, we’re always reminded of what may be the worst boss of all time: Ebenezer Scrooge of the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. So tightfisted that his name has come to be a synonym for a miser, Scrooge pays the lowest wages, provides the worst working conditions, requires the longest hours—even at Christmas!—refuses to give to charity, and is deeply unpleasant. Pre-redemption, Scrooge must have been a lot for even the saintly Bob Cratchit to bear.
It was one of those sporting events that seemed to captivate the world. Even people who didn’t have a clue what UFC stands for were watching and weighing in on Ronda Rousey’s fight with Holly Holm. Rousey entered the night 12-0, a heavy favorite whose last three fights had lasted only a combined 64 seconds!
But Holm, the humble “Preacher’s Daughter,” brought strength, power, stamina, and, most important, a masterfully executed strategy. Rousey came away with her first professional loss in the worst way imaginable, a “lights-out” knockout that left her with enough injuries to warrant a lengthy medical suspension.
If you pay attention to how often people talk about luck, you’ll quickly realize that it’s a concept we rely on quite a bit in leadership. Depending on the time and the culture, luck can mean a lot of different things, from a random event to the work of supernatural forces to a lucky object, number, or date.
In contemporary America, we think of luck most often as an event or occurrence that falls outside our control. We love to hear stories of chance and coincidence—the wilder and more improbable, the better.
Not long ago, I had the honor of speaking at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. After that experience, I can safely say that if you’re ever feeling cynical about today’s youth or our collective future, go visit one of our service academies. You’ll find some of the brightest young people in the country choosing to challenge themselves daily in their studies and lives—not just for their own wealth but for the good of our country.
Until fairly recently, leadership in this country was thought of as largely a military discipline. It makes sense, considering that even more than most pursuits the military requires order, teamwork, and common purpose. And unlike most other organizations, in a military unit, lives can literally depend on good leadership.
When I speak at conferences and meetings, every once and awhile I notice one or two people who aren’t participating in the sessions but set up in the hallway or lobby, balancing a phone and laptop and looking grim. If I have a chance to catch up with them later, most often I find it’s a deadline or crisis that’s cropped up unexpectedly.
High-pressure situations can happen anytime, anywhere. Maybe it’s a predictable crunch time that rolls around every quarter or year, maybe a request from an important client on a difficult timetable, maybe an error or an audit or an unexpected staff shortage—or more than one of these together.
We live in an age of nonstop distraction. Email pings, social media outlets beckon, news is reported on a 24/7 cycle, and there’s always a new cycle of blogs and websites to catch up on. It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole even after a legitimate work-related search and emerge at the end of the work day having spent much of the afternoon wandering around online. The recent rise of productivity systems isn’t a coincidence—unless you have an extraordinary level of discipline, it’s a real challenge to stay focused.
If you’re in charge of a team or an organization, the scope of the challenge is even greater—and the stakes even higher.