Lonely At The Top

I have been reading a devotional and there is a series I just finished that was titled “growing into leadership”. One of the days it referenced verse 1 Corinthians 3:9 it addressed the issue of us all being laborers together. Have you ever heard the phrase “it is lonely at the top”, which is what the devotion portion addressed.

Being a leader doesn’t have to be lonely and the bible verse is correct in that we are all in this together. Each person has a role to play whether you are a leader or a follower you have a role that is just as important as the next person.

It doesn’t have to be lonely at the top. Some leaders make it that way by ignoring those around them and by alienating others by not including them or asking for their help or expertise.

I believe that each one of us have been given gifts. Those gifts work in unison with each other to make a successful project, business or event. It gets lonely when the leader doesn’t realize that they have helpers, people who are experts in certain areas and they can help make it successful. When a leader tries to do it themselves they fail to recognize the gifts that surround them they won’t find success and it will be lonely.

Next time you hear a leader say it is lonely at the top tell them it doesn’t have to be. Ask them if they have tapped into the gifts of those around them. Ask them if they interact with their followers.

Are you a leader and are you lonely. If so start relating to those around you and tap into the gifts that they have.

Pumpkin Pictures

I have been away from doing my weekend leisureship writing. I hope to get back on track with that feature on my blog.

October is a great time for football, raking leaves and going to pumpkin patches and apple orchards. With Halloween right around the corner and crisp temperatures in the air it is a great time to spend your day picking out just the right pumpkin and then spending time as a family carving that pumpkin.

My son's pumpkin, hope you can make
out the dinosaur.

We did that this evening. First, one of my daughters came home from a friend’s house with her carved pumpkin. She used a stencil to carve a cat on the front of her pumpkin. My son had a pumpkin from a couple of weeks ago and we have had it outside. We brought it in tonight and carved it. He wanted a dinosaur on his pumpkin. So my other daughter drew the dinosaur on the front, she is the artist, and then we carved out the dinosaur. Whatever happened to old school designs on the pumpkin? Today people want pictures or sayings and they use stencils instead of free hand.

Whatever is your preference it is fun to carve the pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. We also cleaned the seeds and will bake the pumpkin seeds and enjoy eating them. This is always a fun way to relax as a leader. Spend some quality time with the family creating memories that they will remember forever.

What favorite fall event do you do that bonds your family and creates lasting memories? Apple orchards, hayrides, pumpkin picking and carving or attending a highschool football game are a number of fall time events. Whatever is your pleasure go out, relax and enjoy the fall.

Making Opportunity Count

This is the final installment of my analysis of looking at creating your own leadership style. Today I will look at the final positive and negative impacts for creating your own style. There are many styles of leadership but designing and creating your own has some benefits it also will have some drawbacks.

Here is a positive impact.

·         You can pick and choose which parts of other leadership styles you want to use.

Anytime you can pick and choose the best parts of different leadership styles and make them your own will make for a fun and unique style. It isn’t too difficult to spot parts of styles that you determine fit your skills and interests. In fact that is what makes creating your own style fun.

Here is a negative impact.

·         You might miss an opportunity – because you are limiting yourself you may miss a greater leadership opportunity.

By picking and choosing bits and pieces of your style you might overlook a very important aspect of a particular style. If this happens you might find yourself missing golden opportunities to grow as a leader. You want to make sure you are looking at everything even if it doesn’t seem like it fits it might be a good match or compliment one of your strengths then you will become a stronger leader.

Opportunity knocks so don’t narrow your focus to your skills but look for ways to grow as a leader and challenge yourself with other parts of the leadership styles. Lead on!

The Waiting Game

I am deviating from my series to discuss something I like to call “The Waiting Game”. Today I had a doctor appointment at 9:30 I didn’t get out of there until 11 and it was just for a simple follow-up appointment. I didn’t get called back until about 9:45 then after an initial visit I sat again waiting for a room for about a half hour.

Why is it that when you go to the doctor’s office their time becomes more important than your time. They act as if you have nothing else to do that day than to sit in their office. Real leaders manage their time and delegate duties to others so they can manage their time.

I do believe doctors are leaders but they it seems that they do not have a gift of time management. Time management is an important aspect of being a leader without it leaders will find themselves struggling to lead because they won’t be able to manage their time correctly.

Time is valuable and I found myself wondering today why at a doctor’s office their time becomes more valuable. If they came into my business and I made them wait for a half hour to forty-five minutes they probably wouldn’t do business with me anymore. I could change doctors but sometimes that is not an option.

If you are a leader and running a business or department don’t play “The Waiting Game” it will only hurt your business or your reputation. Be a leader and manage your time and value the time others are giving you.

Make Your Weakness Strong

Today I am going to look at one more positive and one more negative about creating your own leadership style. It is important to note that all leaders don’t stick to one style and no leader is constricted to just one type of style. What I am looking at are those leaders who try to define and create their own leadership style. I identified three positives and three negatives to creating your own style. Yesterday I looked at one of each, today two more.

Here is a positive impact.

·         You can let your skill set and your leadership shine – Since you are defining your own leadership style you can focus on matching it to your skills.

Creating your own leadership style can help you to match your skill set with different aspects of leadership styles to help you become more impactful as a leader. It allows you to delegate tasks that you might not be good at thus allowing you to build the skills of those around you. It also can help you build up future leaders.

Here is a negative impact.

·         You can become too constricted – If you are only focusing on your skills and strengths you don’t have an opportunity to improve your weak areas and become a well rounded leader.

You can become too limited by only focusing on your strengths. It won’t give you an opportunity to grow as a leader. You will become stagnant in your leadership. Finding those weak areas and working on improving them will help you become a better leader. One of my daughters does competitive swimming. They have them work on all the strokes even though the butterfly is her weakness eventually working at it will help her improve it. That is what leaders need to do.

Focus on your strengths but improve your weaknesses and you will become a much better leader.

Make Your Own Habits

A few days ago I started a series that looked at leadership styles that were made by each individual. It isn’t one type of style but a hybrid of a number of styles that each leader makes the style their own. I listed three positive impacts and three negative impacts of creating your own style. Today I am going to look at one positive and one negative and compare them and contrast them.

Here is a positive impact:

·         Your leadership style is your own – You don’t have to fit a mold but be yourself.

Making it your own can be very beneficial because you can pick all the pieces of the styles that best fit your personality. You also don’t have to be someone you’re not. Creating your own style can really help you be a better leader because you will find success quicker because you are leading in your comfort zones.

Here is a negative impact:

·         You can create bad habits – something you think is a good leadership characteristic may actually be a bad habit and will make you a poor leader.

If you create your own style you can find yourself falling into bad habits. Since you are leaning on your own knowledge of leadership you could find yourself doing things that you think are good leadership methods but they really aren’t. You may find yourself slipping into those old habits thus creating negative leadership.

To counter the negative continue to educate yourself on your personal style. Make sure the practices you use are industry best practices so you don’t find yourself falling into bad habits. Lean on those positives and also get a mentor who you can discuss matters with.

Tomorrow we will look at two more.

Hospital Leadership

I am deviating briefly from my series I started to write about something that has been going on over the last several days. On Friday my wife went in for surgery on her spine. She is doing well now and the surgery was a success.

While spending time at the hospital I noticed how many different levels of leadership there are at the hospital. As a patient or a family member of a patient we don’t get to see the hospital administrator. However we see levels of leadership across all areas within the hospital.

It is a great example of how many ways people can lead. The nurses lead by directing what needs to be done in taking care of the patient. The doctor leads by explaining the diagnoses and making sure everything is done correctly in the surgery or the care of the patient. Nurses assistants lead by following the orders to get the vital signs and helping to make sure the patient is taken care of properly.

A hospital is a massive place that requires everyone to do their job and lead at every level in order to make sure the patients’ needs are met. This is a place where leadership is crucial because lives depend upon it.

Leadership is important in any walk of life but if you are a leader and others depend upon you to be that leader you need to always be on top of your game. If you are a leader always be on top of your leadership game because you never know when someone’s life depends upon it.

Making it Your Own

The more I am out there viewing and working with leaders the more I realize that for each person there is a different style of leadership. Each person seems to find their own style and tweak it. Sure each one is a modification of a general style of leadership but they like to make it their own. This can have a positive impact or a negative impact depending on how you look at it.

I will list three positive impacts and three negative impacts and then over the next several days I will discuss one of each.

Here are the three positive impacts.

·         Your leadership style is your own – You don’t have to fit a mold but be yourself.

·         You can let your skill set and your leadership shine – Since you are defining your own leadership style you can focus on matching it to your skills.

·         You can pick and choose which parts of other leadership styles you want to use.

Here are the three negative impacts.

·         You can create bad habits – something you think is a good leadership characteristic may actually be a bad habit and will make you a poor leader.

·         You can become too constricted – If you are only focusing on your skills and strengths you don’t have an opportunity to improve your weak areas and become a well rounded leader.

·         You might miss an opportunity – because you are limiting yourself you may miss a greater leadership opportunity.

There you have the three positives and three negatives of creating your own leadership style. For the next several days I will pick one of each and explain in further detail.

Rigid Requirements

Have you ever closely read job descriptions? They are always full of what they want you to do and what they expect you to have to be able to be competent in the job. As I thought about these more I got thinking about whether they are precise requirements or just suggestions.

Here is why I think they should be requirements. Most companies or positions are always looking for an “outside the box” thinker. Someone who will push the envelope and make things happen. Yet in their job description they are steadfast in their requirements. Instead of practicing what they preach they keep their rigid ideals for their perfect candidate and then try to make that candidate into something they are not when they get hired.

What I would like to see is more and more companies looking beyond their rigid requirements and really finding a person who best fits the job description. I once worked as the director of a learning center and I hired staff. You might think the best candidates would be licensed teachers. All of the elementary teachers I interviewed couldn’t pass my tests so they didn’t know the math. However, on a trip to California I met on the plane a senior in high school in the district my learning center was located. I told her when she got back to give me a call and I would have a job for her. She blew the math tests away and worked very well with all the kids. I didn’t stick to the thought of having a licensed teacher and I found a great employee.

I hope companies can start to think outside their own box and avoid the rigid restrictions they put on their job descriptions. If they do I think they will be hiring competent engaged employees who can do jobs the company may not have thought they could do.

Opportunity Knocks

Giving your followers or those who report to you small opportunities to lead will help build their confidence and help to build their leadership skills. If you have aspirations to become a leader and are not in that type of position you need to look for opportunities in which you can lead.

Here are some opportunities you might consider that will help you with your leadership skills.

• Serve on a committee and volunteer to lead one of the projects. Ask to be the chair of a committee and start letting those leadership skills shine.
• Look for ways in your job to be a leader. Maybe there is a project or something you are working on where you can hone those leadership skills.
• Find a leadership class, seminar or a training session that your company will pay for and take it. Take it all in and learn what you can.
• Find a mentor who can help evaluate your leadership skills and help you find other opportunities within the company.

Follow this things and you will start to form into the leader that you want to be. Remember opportunity knocks so open the door when you hear the knock.

All Kinds of People

Having good people skills is also essential to being a good leader. If you have aspirations to become a leader you will need to work on honing your people skills. That doesn’t mean schmoozing and talking about yourself to others. People skills really means interacting with people and making sure you can meet their needs.

Here are three things you can do to improve your people skills.

• Talk to people – Don’t tell them about yourself, instead ask them about what they like to do and what they enjoy. The most important part of people skills is getting to know the person not letting them hear you ramble on and on.
• Network – Find groups to join and network. Work on introducing yourself and finding out about those in the group. When networking ask how you can help them to be successful. Getting to know them will help you potentially meet their needs.
• Be yourself – Never try to be someone you aren’t people will see right through you if you try to feign sincerity. Be sincere in your presentation and interaction with others. Ultimately be yourself, use humor when necessary and appropriate and be serious if it calls for it.

Follow these three things when interacting with others and your people skills will improve. Also improving will be your people base. You will find yourself with many more connections and positive connections at that. Go out and improve those people skills.

Failure to Communicate

Communication is essential to good leadership. It is imperative that if you plan to be a leader that you learn to communicate. However communication comes in many forms and it isn’t just about being able to talk. Part of communication is being able to listen and also to be able to evaluate what you hear. When speaking as a communication tool you must be able to be articulate.

Here are some things you need for solid communication skills.

Public Speaking ability – You don’t have to be a public speaker you just have to be able to communicate your ideas clearly and articulately. If you can do this people will listen.

Be an active listener – This means to listen to those who are speaking with empathy and attentiveness. Be sure to acknowledge and repeat what was said so it affirms that you listened.

Evaluate and act upon what you say and hear – After you have spoken articulately and gained the respect of those around you act upon what you say. Don’t sit back and expect someone else to do what you have vision for. After you hear ideas of others ask how you can act and participate in their vision.

If you have trouble with any of these things I might suggest you find an organization or a club that will help you get better at all of these things. One organization that can help you with all of these things is Toastmasters. Get involved and you will see great improvement.