How do I perceive leadership? What are attributes I feel a good leader must possess? I remember at the beginning of my career how I thought about leadership. I was disgusted with it. I thought it was a mindset and an attitude of arrogance. In my mind leaders were cocky. It was more a feeling versus actions. But I was dead wrong. It wasn’t until I became a leader that I really dug deep into the characteristics of a leader. I know I have failed miserably at times in trying to be a leader. I also remember one instance early in my leadership career. I arrived to work and there sitting on my desk was a CD. The CD was from the band The Fray. The song on the CD was “Over My Head”. If you don’t recall that song, the lyrics to the chorus go like this, “Everyone knows I’m in over my head, I’m in over my head…” Ha. I was really struggling learning the process and the culture of the new business I was working in. Obviously others saw it. But I was determined to learn as much as I could and apply those learnings to making improvements and building a good team. Nothing ever comes easy and that includes becoming a leader. You aren’t born a leader. It’s characteristics which are learned and honed over time. So here are 3 things I’ve learned about leadership.
- You won’t always be right.
You can’t know everything. You will make mistakes. And that’s a good thing because you will learn from them. It’s better to try and fail, then to try nothing at all. - You can’t do it all yourself.
To be a good leader you must lead others. Which means you can’t do it alone. You need a good team. But you need to set the vision, the expectations, the culture, and the environment for excellence. You need to select the people you feel have the qualities which match your standards and then get out of the way and let them do their best. If it’s your family you’re leading then you need to be a good coach, a good mentor, a good example and lead with love. - You have to set the example.
If you have expectations of how you want things to work, yet you don’t do what you say, then why would anyone follow you? So it takes self discipline to be the type of person to be a leader.
Being a leader is an awesome responsibility. It is a gift we get to develop in ourselves to be the best version of ourselves. But it takes work. It takes work on yourself. But give yourself some grace – because you won’t be perfect, you will make mistakes. And if you feel you are “In over my head” well just remember others have been there. You can do it. I know you can!!