I will leave it to you all to google "qualities of a Leader," or "leadership traits." There a thousands of very good articles on the Internet that present lists of the traits of a leader. There are very few that talk about the actual functional abilities of a leader that one needs to know in order to become effective in being, or hiring, one.
First and foremost the rule of thumb is that the leader comes with absolutely no idea how to handle a situation. This is important. This is where understanding how useless hindsight is in shaping opinions and decisions as well. Excellent leaders do not arrive with pre-conceived notions about what is needed. They arrive with curiosity.
Here is where things get tricky. An excellent leader (EL) arrives with no pre-conceived notions but does arrive with curiosity. Curiosity demands that the EL then listen and learn from the situation and population involved in its process and outcome. They come prepared to learn. That is not so tricky. What is tricky beyond belief is that the EL arrives with the skill to assess and analyze at high speed. You just don't have time to spend several months gathering data and processing it. In most of the situations I have been in the pressure is on to come up with a plan of remediation in less than 8 hours. The longest I have ever been given was 3 months to achieve a very specific outcome. That is not 3 months to learn and listen, but 3 months to deliver.
It is this pressure to deliver results at a high speed that can transform an EL into a leader that sucks (LTS). LTSs may arrive with no pre-conceived notion, they retain that - but they have developed a preferred set of tools that they then apply to every situation. I will give you an example from real life. A LTS was given the task of resolving a quality issue with resident experience in a very short time. They recognized that a survey needed to be conducted, but they needed that survey to return a specific result in order to then roll out the tool they preferred using and had already decided to use. The survey was then put together using linear scale answer (1 to 5 ratings). The LTS then changed the linear scale so that it was reversed: 1 was not longer the worst rating, but the best. Given that the public in the US is accustomed to reading from left to right with 1 being the worst on a rating scale this unduly influenced the resulting score by "tricking" the answers. The LTS rolled out their tool, citing its need based on the surveys, and the whole approach failed within 6 months.
Part of the reason that process like Lean and Six Sigma fail so often is because of the LTSs that try to use them. In the rush and push for results found in almost all of our industries, there is pressure to perform, to preselect tools and preferences evolve. It can then be said that an EL is one with a broad toolbox, no preferences, and the ability to make speed assessments.
So how does one get speedy? Part of it lies in the act of maintaining the state of "no preferences." This will allow you to recognize what is needed in the moment (is all of this starting to sound suspiciously familiar now?). Recognizing what is needed in the moment allows you to become efficient. Efficiency can occur at all speeds. When you need it to happen quickly you begin to learn what range of tools deliver that speed. Speed doesn't lie in the person, it lies in their ability to select the right tool for the right situation.
To develop the ability to maintain a state of no preference, and to do what is needed in the moment, is to develop yourself as a person capable of acting with compassion. Compassion both gives and takes; it blocks and opens; it is soft as cotton, yet as hard and unyielding as steel - but the right heat can transform it. Those are practices that are available to the individual that can transform them into an effective leader. Effective leaders become excellent leaders because they have developed the ability to practice compassion towards individuals, groups, cultures, and practices.
Leadership truly is an art. We do a disservice to it because our management schools and workshops don't emphasize the self-development that is required on an ongoing basis to achieve the state of leadership. We treat it as something that is accomplished and owned. We treat it as a level of development that needs no further attention, but it does. Look at the news and you will see examples of leaders who are imploding because they lost their ability to maintain a state of no-preference and curiosity. Instead, they became reliant on patterns of approach and sets of familiar tools. Ah! There it is. LTSs can be spotted by their habitual and patterned use of familiar tools. They have exited the state of no-preference and instead have adopted a search mode in which they look for what is familiar in pattern so they can apply familiar tools.
Develop yourself - always.
Question your choice of answer and action.
Develop a list of your familiar tools and learn to spot when you are reaching for a shortcut rather than reaching for an answer.
First and foremost the rule of thumb is that the leader comes with absolutely no idea how to handle a situation. This is important. This is where understanding how useless hindsight is in shaping opinions and decisions as well. Excellent leaders do not arrive with pre-conceived notions about what is needed. They arrive with curiosity.
Here is where things get tricky. An excellent leader (EL) arrives with no pre-conceived notions but does arrive with curiosity. Curiosity demands that the EL then listen and learn from the situation and population involved in its process and outcome. They come prepared to learn. That is not so tricky. What is tricky beyond belief is that the EL arrives with the skill to assess and analyze at high speed. You just don't have time to spend several months gathering data and processing it. In most of the situations I have been in the pressure is on to come up with a plan of remediation in less than 8 hours. The longest I have ever been given was 3 months to achieve a very specific outcome. That is not 3 months to learn and listen, but 3 months to deliver.
It is this pressure to deliver results at a high speed that can transform an EL into a leader that sucks (LTS). LTSs may arrive with no pre-conceived notion, they retain that - but they have developed a preferred set of tools that they then apply to every situation. I will give you an example from real life. A LTS was given the task of resolving a quality issue with resident experience in a very short time. They recognized that a survey needed to be conducted, but they needed that survey to return a specific result in order to then roll out the tool they preferred using and had already decided to use. The survey was then put together using linear scale answer (1 to 5 ratings). The LTS then changed the linear scale so that it was reversed: 1 was not longer the worst rating, but the best. Given that the public in the US is accustomed to reading from left to right with 1 being the worst on a rating scale this unduly influenced the resulting score by "tricking" the answers. The LTS rolled out their tool, citing its need based on the surveys, and the whole approach failed within 6 months.
Part of the reason that process like Lean and Six Sigma fail so often is because of the LTSs that try to use them. In the rush and push for results found in almost all of our industries, there is pressure to perform, to preselect tools and preferences evolve. It can then be said that an EL is one with a broad toolbox, no preferences, and the ability to make speed assessments.
So how does one get speedy? Part of it lies in the act of maintaining the state of "no preferences." This will allow you to recognize what is needed in the moment (is all of this starting to sound suspiciously familiar now?). Recognizing what is needed in the moment allows you to become efficient. Efficiency can occur at all speeds. When you need it to happen quickly you begin to learn what range of tools deliver that speed. Speed doesn't lie in the person, it lies in their ability to select the right tool for the right situation.
To develop the ability to maintain a state of no preference, and to do what is needed in the moment, is to develop yourself as a person capable of acting with compassion. Compassion both gives and takes; it blocks and opens; it is soft as cotton, yet as hard and unyielding as steel - but the right heat can transform it. Those are practices that are available to the individual that can transform them into an effective leader. Effective leaders become excellent leaders because they have developed the ability to practice compassion towards individuals, groups, cultures, and practices.
Leadership truly is an art. We do a disservice to it because our management schools and workshops don't emphasize the self-development that is required on an ongoing basis to achieve the state of leadership. We treat it as something that is accomplished and owned. We treat it as a level of development that needs no further attention, but it does. Look at the news and you will see examples of leaders who are imploding because they lost their ability to maintain a state of no-preference and curiosity. Instead, they became reliant on patterns of approach and sets of familiar tools. Ah! There it is. LTSs can be spotted by their habitual and patterned use of familiar tools. They have exited the state of no-preference and instead have adopted a search mode in which they look for what is familiar in pattern so they can apply familiar tools.
Develop yourself - always.
Question your choice of answer and action.
Develop a list of your familiar tools and learn to spot when you are reaching for a shortcut rather than reaching for an answer.
This post first appeared on 10 Worlds - Creating 100 Years Of Change In Self And Society, please read the originial post: here
