Who & What is Leadership?
Leadership is one of the most nuanced concepts in existence. Everyone has an opinion on it, some people enjoy it and others dread it. Leadership is also one thing that all of us have in common in one-way shape or form. Everyone knows what it’s like to have a bad manager/coach/boss/etc. Then on the flip side, most of us have had the wonderful experience to be a part of a team whose leader just had the stuff. Most all of us equates the word “manager” with the word “leader” in a loose way. The two are closely connected sure but everyone can be a manager, not everyone can be a leader. There is a particular type of person who can truly be a leader.
“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.” — General Douglas MacArthur
Who can be a leader? Well as the quote above illustrates a true leader doesn’t set out to be the leader, they become one via their actions. That’s one way of thinking about it… but then how would General MacArthur explain the United States Military Academy at West Point? Surely that school is designed to forge leaders and input them into the U.S. Army and a person can only go there by seeking out an appointment. Thus a person goes to Westpoint with the intention of becoming a leader in the military.
But as the General stated, “A true leader…”. So there are varying levels of leadership. Well, that makes sense, and like the rest of the quote explains there are methods to become this “true” leader.
Confidence… Courage… Compassion… Equality… Integrity…
All of these words mean something to each of us. What confidence looks like to one person appears to be arrogance to another. What courage is to some could be the norm for another. Compassion to me maybe a display weakness to you.
All of these words fall into the category of soft skills. You know soft skills right? Those things that you put on your resume to fill up space? Well… it turns out…
SOFT SKILLS MATTER → They are the “what” of Leadership.
A leader is a person whose softer skills shine just as bright, if not brighter than their hard skills. Now don’t get it twisted, you need the hard skillset just as much as the soft skillset. They go hand-in-hand and just like so much else in life, are a balancing act.
Leadership is a combination of a strong soft-skillset and a confident proficiency in whichever hard-skillset you operate within.
The hard-skillset is typically the easiest skillset to work on. It’s quite easy to identify your math skills are not up to snuff for your job so you work on it. Or that you’re not physically strong enough to perform whichever task on the job so you hit the gym. So how do you know if your soft-skills are on point?
Simple, look at how the people around you react to you. If you’re already in a leadership position at work do people give you the time of day? Or do you find yourself constantly reminding everyone “who's in charge”? Pay attention to
Do a quick search of top leadership skills. You’ll find a laundry list of items but here are my favorites;
Empathy — Flexibility — Reliability — Integrity — Trustworthy — Fairness
There are dozens upon dozens of leadership “skills” that people identify. Everyone is a different person and we are all naturally better at one thing or another. Identify the skills that come naturally to you and master them. Then identify the skills you struggle with and work to become proficient in them. You will never be a master of everything, but you can be damn good at a couple of things while being pretty darn good in the rest.
“The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.” — Seneca
I found that the best way to explain the “what” of leadership and how to get better at it is through maxims, short statements that are right to the point. Here are some of the best ones I’ve always held close.
- Build a team of people different than you.
- Treat everyone on your team exactly how you want them to treat you.
- Put the wellbeing of your team first in public and private.
- Tell your team the hard truths rather than the easy lies.
- Cater your communication style to the person you’re talking with as no two people are the same.
- Be honest with your team on your strengths and weaknesses, they will find out soon enough.
- Never be afraid to ask for help from someone “below” you on the ladder.
- Work to master your hard-skillset, you don’t have to be the best but you cannot be the worst.
- Build a shared understanding among your team of your goal/objective/mission and build it with your team, not for them.
- A leader worries about making the individuals in their team the best they can be both by themselves and when joined together.
- A team is utilized to perform a set mission from the organization. A team is not a tool to be utilized to enhance your career.
- Seek to understand your team before being understood by them.
- Listen first, ask questions second.
Those were some of my favorite maxims… each one holds a different lesson to be learned. That is one of the many keys that go into leadership, a leader is a learner. There are so many more keys to leadership that can be gained via learning, learning through study, learning through observation, and the end-all-be-all; learning through experience.
Leadership is just as much about accepting the blame for failure as it is about accepting the accolades and attention of success. You will fail more than you succeed more often than not. You cannot be a leader if you are more worried about your “looking good” than you are about your teams success. A leader is responsible for everything their team does and fails to do. If the first words out of your mouth when confronted by something your team failed to do are “well so and so…” you are not a leader. A leader is a map illustrating the path, the compass that navigates them through the woods, and the bottle of water that keeps you going on the hike.
Leadership means something to all of us. More often than not people are more concerned with the appearance of being a good leader rather than the actual quality that goes into it. Leadership isn’t about receiving the biggest trophy or all the praise from the manager. For me, in one sentence, leadership at its’ very core is about taking care of your team to accomplish your mission as best you can. But that’s me, what does leadership mean to you in one sentence?
— Nathan Stafford
