Leadership Blog

Jan

2017

Signs You Are a Leader

For much of my working life I have filled the role of a coach, but not a sport coach. My role has been to get athletes to do what they do not necessarily intrinsically want to do: strength train and condition in the off-season. This requires certain coaching skills to help the individual find their personal purpose.

In that position you have only as much “power” as the sport coach passes along to you. For example, if a player does not work hard but still gets to play this could present a greater motivational challenge. On the other hand, if I knew the coach would not play an athlete for poor performance in the weight room then I had more “tools” to use with the athlete.

Maybe you are in a position where you have little power. Does that mean you are not a leader? On the other hand, maybe you run the company, department, team, etc. Does that mean you are a leader? When I googled the definition of leadership it said 1. the action of leading a group of people or an organization or 2. the state or position of being a leader.¹ These are not very helpful definitions to know if you are a leader. At the end of the synonym list was one word which didn’t relate to power, supremacy, control, etc. . . . INFLUENCE.

Leadership expert John Maxwell regularly states “leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.”² Look at the following list and decide if you are a leader:

You negotiate with people to help them reach a desired goal. (Hmmm, my wife does this constantly at meal time with our children.)
You try and persuade people to go somewhere you want to go. (That sounds like what I do when I want to eat at a specific restaurant.)
You can perform certain skills in a manner that others seek out your help. Maybe you can build with wood and your friends seek you out for help or you are a good cook or have a knack for certain business skills such as marketing.
When you are in a group and share your thoughts, people quiet down and listen.
People seek out your advice when they have important decisions to make.
People are drawn to you because you make good choices and have great character.

Maybe you look at that list, which is not exhaustive, and think “I don’t meet all those criteria so I am not a leader.” That is simply not true. A leader is a person who influences another in some manner. If you are a parent of one child, have one client, are in a relationship with any person you have the ability to influence and therefore the opportunity to lead.

What will you do with this opportunity? Do you need to grow as a leader? Pick one of the above areas and ask how can I grow in this area and add value to those around me? Start there and you are on the way to becoming a better leader. Leaders are learners. Keep learning, keep growing and see what great dreams you can fulfill.

https://www.google.com/#q=leadership+definition
Maxwell, John C. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

Jan

2017

Leading Everywhere

Leadership is influence . . . .

Do you believe you are a leader? As long as you are not trapped in solitary confinement you lead someone. Leadership is simply influence. Maybe you are a parent . . . you lead your children. You probably have a job of some sort, even if that is a full-time student . . . you are around people and therefore you influence them.

Did you get out of bed this morning? Well, you had to influence or lead yourself to get out of bed and begin working on your priorities for the day. Do you interact with people out in public? Most likely the answer is yes so you influence them with your attitude and what you say so you are leading them either in a positive or negative direction.

Hopefully you see that no matter what stage of life you are in, you are a leader. My hope is that anytime you connect with me on this blog you can grow a little as a leader in one of four areas:

Leading at Work – Many stresses come our way at work and multiple demands are placed on us. Sometimes we need encouragement to press on and at times we may need to learn from others. Hopefully I can help us in this part of the leadership journey.
Leading at Home – As a parent and father of three boys I realize being a parent and spouse are not easy roles to fulfill. At times it feels like you are speaking a different language than your spouse. Maybe you want to connect better with your children. Hopefully I can help encourage you in this area of your leadership development.
Leading Self – The most difficult person to lead at times can be the person looking back at us in the mirror. Leading ourselves requires certain habits and disciplines. Hopefully through learning from the wisdom of others we can get out of our own way when it comes to leading.
Leading others – We are constantly interacting with people and either leading them down a positive or negative path. Often that leading can be as simple as a smile at the grocery store or an encouraging word.

Leadership skills can be developed and many people have written how they have learned to lead others. Coaches, historians, educators, and more have shared their wisdom and hopefully we can learn from their experience to help us become better leaders.

As we interact through this blog I hope to provide valuable principles that will help you as you lead in multiple areas of your life. We all lead busy lives so I will introduce you to some thoughts from those who have written on leadership and shared valuable principles as well as principles I have drawn from personal experience. My hope is each post and any other program you engage in will help increase your awareness so you can grow as a leader.

So are you a leader?

Let’s grow together in this journey.

Lead well at work and home.