Saturday, September 23, 2006

Three Quick Ideas

I'm developing a one day leadership class. I thought I'd share some key thoughts from one of the earlier sections:

  • Leadership is granted by the team

    Management status is given by the organization, but a leader derives his or her power by the consent of the team. The team chooses to follow a leader toward the goal that the team wants to reach along the path that the team is willing to take. Force only works for a while. The leader has to earn the team's follower-ship.

  • Leadership is about team success

    Leadership is not about making the leader successful. Leaders need to get people to follow an idea: the idea of getting to a shared goal along a certain path. The leader's ego is not the driver. Leadership is not empire building. Leaders are measured by the success of the team, not by the number of followers they have.

  • Leadership continues beyond the current goal

    Teams don’t end after reaching one goal. Leaders will need to continue to lead future projects. If you burn out your team on the current project, they won't follow you on the next. Success and failure follow you. They are part of the currency that gets teams to grant you leadership.

  • 3 comments:

    Troy Worman said...

    Excellent post, Ken! I love the first point: leadership is granted by the team. Keep up the good work. ...Troy

    Ken Flowers said...

    Always glad to get positive feedback. Thank you. I'm amazed at how many managers behave as if they don't need the team's support.

    Unknown said...
    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.