Just as there are positive and negative aspects in every season of life, there are both positive and negative aspects to every level of leadership. If you are new to leadership and you receive a position, then there are things to celebrate. I’m going to tell you about four of them.
Most of the time when people enter a leadership position, they do so because it was granted or appointed by some other person in authority. That probably seems obvious. But think about the implications: it usually means that the person in authority believes the new leader has some degree of potential for leading. That’s good news. So if you’re new to leadership and you have been invited to lead something, then celebrate the fact that someone in authority believes in you.
I remember the first time I was given a leadership position. I was named by my high school basketball coach to be the captain of our team. What an exhilarating moment that was! When I close my eyes, I can still remember how it felt to know that Coach Neff had confidence in me.
After he made the announcement, he shared with the other players that I was an example of positive attitude and hard work. But later he took me aside and explained that the title of captain would merely give me a platform to display my leadership abilities. It did not guarantee that the players would follow me. He said earning that would be my responsibility.
The best leaders promote people into leadership based on leadership potential, not on politics, seniority, credentials, or convenience.
The best leaders promote people into leadership based on leadership potential, not on politics, seniority, credentials, or convenience. John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach who was a fantastic leader, once told me that he didn’t designate a captain for his team until after a few games into the season. He waited because he wanted to see which player would step up and deserve the honor. He has often been quoted as saying to his team, “Don’t tell me what you’re going to do, show me what you’re going to do!”
If you have a new leadership position, then let me say welcome to the first step in your leadership journey. You have a seat at the table and have been invited to be part of the “leadership game.” You will have opportunities to express your opinion and make decisions. Your initial goal should be to show your leader and your team that you deserve the position you have received.
When an individual receives a position and title, some level of authority or power usually comes with them. Often in the beginning that power is very limited, but that’s okay because most leaders need to prove themselves with little before being given much.
Going back to my first official leadership position—captain on the basketball team—I received certain new privileges. Before tip-off, I got to meet at center court with the referees and the other team’s captain to discuss the game to be played. I could call time-out during the game and was asked for input from the coach when we were in the huddle. I also spoke to the team in the locker room before and after each game. My title gave me recognition and authority. However, I also recognized the limitations of that recognition and authority. As the Infantryman’s Journal (1954) says, “No man is a leader until his appointment is ratified in the minds and the hearts of his men.”
As a new leader, you must use the authority you are given wisely, to advance the team and help the people you lead. Do that, and your people will begin to give you even greater authority. When that happens, you gain leadership, not just a position.
There should always be a relationship between receiving a leadership position and fulfilling the requirements demanded by it. One of the main requirements is personal growth. I learned this early in my life from my father, who loved to quote, “To whoever much is given, much shall be required.” He believed that each of us had received a lot in life, and we had a responsibility to learn and grow so that we could make the most of it.
The journey through the 5 Levels of Leadership will only be successful if you dedicate yourself to continual development. If you believe that the position makes the leader, you will have a hard time becoming a good leader. You will be tempted to stop and “graze,” meaning you’ll stay where you are and enjoy the position’s benefits, instead of striving to grow and become the best leader you can.
Frequently I’ll ask a group, “What’s the one thing you would change to improve the effectiveness of your organization?” Usually people name things that can be found on this list of Ps: products, promotions, policies, processes, procedures, pricing, and people. Seldom does anyone say the most important and impacting of all answers: “ME! I would change me to improve our organization.” Yet that seldom-heard response is the key to success. If you want to lead, you need to grow. The only way to improve an organization is to grow and improve the leaders. If you want to make an impact, start with yourself.
The leaders who do the greatest harm to an organization are the ones who think they have arrived. Once they receive the title or position they desire, they stop growing. They stop innovating. They stop improving. They rest on their entitlements and clog up everything. Make the most of this opportunity in leadership by making growth your goal. And strive to keep growing. Good leaders are always good learners. To be an effective leader, you must believe that the leadership position you receive is merely an invitation to grow. If you do that and become a lifetime learner, you will continually increase your influence over time. And you will make the most of your leadership potential, no matter how great or small it might be.
The greatest upside potential for people invited to take a leadership position is that it affords them the opportunity to decide what kind of leader they want to be. The position they receive may be defined, but they are not.
When you first become a leader, your leadership page is blank and you get to fill it in any way you want! What kind of leader do you want to be? Don’t just become reactive and develop a style by default. Really think about it. Do you want to be a tyrant or a team builder? Do you want to come down on people or lift them up? Do you want to give orders or ask questions? You can develop whatever style you want as long as it is consistent with who you are.
“Leadership is much less about what you do, and much more about who you are.”
—Frances Hesselbein
Frances Hesselbein, founding president and chairman of the board of governors of the Leader to Leader Institute, observed, “Leadership is much less about what you do, and much more about who you are. If you view leadership as a bag of manipulative tricks or charismatic behaviors to advance your own personal interest, then people have every right to be cynical. But if your leadership flows first and foremost from inner character and integrity of ambition, then you can justly ask people to lend themselves to your organization and its mission.”
If you are new to leadership—or new to a particular leadership position—it is the perfect time to think about the leadership style you desire to develop. (If you are an experienced leader, you can of course reevaluate the way you lead and make changes. However, you will be working against your people’s past experiences and have to overcome their expectations.) As you move forward, what should you consider? Three things:
Good leadership begins with leaders knowing who they are. In his book It’s Your Ship, Capt. Mike Abrashoff states,
In a nutshell, hard experience has taught me that real leadership is about understanding yourself first, then using that to create a superb organization. Leaders must free their subordinates to fulfill their talents to the utmost. However, most obstacles that limit people’s potential are set in motion by the leader and are rooted in his or her own fears, ego needs, and unproductive habits. When leaders explore deep within their thoughts and feelings in order to understand themselves, a transformation can take shape.1
Successful leaders work hard to know themselves. They know their own strengths and weaknesses. They understand their temperament. They know what personal experience serves them well. They know their work habits, their daily, monthly, and seasonal rhythms. They know which kinds of people they work well with and which kinds they have to try harder with to appreciate. They have a sense of where they are going and how they want to get there. As a result, they know what they’re capable of doing and their leadership is steady.
Knowing yourself on a pretty deep level isn’t quick or easy. It is a long and involved process. Some of it isn’t particularly fun. But it is necessary if you want to become a better leader. Self-knowledge is foundational to effective leading.
In a speech on the value of honesty, Mark Twain once told this story: “When I was a boy, I was walking along a street and happened to spy a cart full of watermelons. I was fond of watermelon, so I sneaked quietly on the cart and snitched one. Then I ran into a nearby alley and sank my teeth into the melon. No sooner had I done so, however, than a strange feeling came over me. Without a moment’s hesitation, I made my decision. I walked back to the cart, replaced the melon—and took a ripe one.”
Your values are the soul of your leadership, and they drive your behavior.
With all the problems we’ve witnessed in the banking industry, the implosion of Enron, and the failures of political leaders, I believe we understand what can happen when people treat their values like watermelons on the back of a cart, trading one for another. When leaders don’t have and maintain strong core values, their actions impact many more people than just themselves.
Your values are the soul of your leadership, and they drive your behavior. Before you can grow and mature as a leader, you must have a clear understanding of your values and commit to living consistently with them—since they will shape your behavior and influence the way you lead.
As you reflect on your values, I believe you should settle what you believe in three key areas:
If you answer these questions and commit yourself to living your values in these three areas, you’ll be well on your way to developing the integrity that makes you attractive to team members and makes them want to follow your leadership.
Not long ago I came across a survey by Opinion Research Corporation for Ajilon Finance that confirms this. American workers were asked to select the one trait that was most important to them in a leader. While important to some, the majority of responders didn’t identify expertise, competence, or even fairness as most important. Here are the results of the survey:
RANK |
CHARACTERISTIC |
PERCENTAGE |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leading by Example |
26% |
| 2 | Strong Ethics or Morals |
19% |
| 3 | Knowledge of the Business |
17% |
| 4 | Fairness |
14% |
| 5 | Overall Intelligence and Competence |
13% |
| 6 | Recognition of Employees |
10%2 |
Clearly, if leaders have a strong set of ethical values and live them out, then people will respect them, not just their position.
Immature leaders try to use their position to drive high performance. Mature leaders with self-knowledge realize that consistently high performance from their people isn’t prompted by position, power, or rules. It is encouraged by values that are real and genuine.
Herb Kelleher, the former chairman and CEO of Southwest Airlines, began his career as an attorney. In those early years, he learned some important lessons about leadership. He says:
My best lesson on leadership came during my early days as a trial lawyer. Wanting to learn from the best, I went to see two of the most renowned litigators in San Antonio try cases. One sat there and never objected to anything, but was very gentle with witnesses and established a rapport with the jury. The other was an aggressive, thundering hell-raiser. And both seemed to win every case. That’s when I realized there are many different paths, not one right path. That’s true of leadership as well. People with different personalities, different approaches, different values succeed not because one set of values or practices is superior, but because their values and practices are genuine.
If you want to become a better leader, you must not only know yourself and define your values. You must also live them out.
As you think about the way you will define your leadership, take into consideration what kinds of habits and systems you will consistently practice. What will you do to organize yourself? What will you do every day when you arrive at work? What spiritual practices will you maintain to keep yourself on track? How will you treat people? What will be your work ethic? What kind of example will you set? Everything is up for grabs. It’s up to you to define it. And the earlier you are on the leadership journey, the greater the potential for gain if you start developing good habits now.3
The bottom line is that an invitation to lead people is an invitation to make a difference. Good leadership changes individual lives. It forms teams. It builds organizations. It impacts communities. It has the potential to impact the world. But never forget that position is only the starting point.