Right Fit Leading: Leadership Ingredients Defined

Leadership is analysis without bias, momentum without fatigue, and action without discouragement.

Analysis without Bias: Skill is important because leaders have to know what they are doing.  They analyze the way ahead and determine what is necessary.  You can determine what is necessary by yourself or with the team, but you have to make the determination.  When you analyze the situation or the task at hand, you have to begin without caring what the final answer will be, and you have to keep an open mind throughout the analysis.  If you do this without preconceived notions, especially with a group, you can find new ideas and different viewpoints that will be beneficial.

Momentum without Fatigue: Once you decide which way to go, get going.  Attack the solution with conviction and create that momentum that will propel you and the team to the project’s successful conclusion.  There will be challenges and disappointments along the way, but great leaders don’t get tired.  They keep pushing toward the decided course of action.  This is important to the relationship with the team.  Members of the team may tire, but they can feed off the leader’s energy.  If the leader truly becomes tired, it is time for a team champion to take the lead temporarily.  This will signal that the leader’s trust in the team that has been assembled.  But the leader can’t stay disconnected for long, because there is still much to do.

Action without Discouragement: Once the leader has a decision on a course of action, it’s time to move out.  Always take action to implement the decisions that have been made based on the analysis of the goal and its needs.  There will be bumps in the road, but effective leaders don’t get discouraged.  They commit to the decided course of action and move in that direction.  They show the team that all of the prior work was necessary and that the results are accurate.  If there is a problem, a course correction is always the preferred way to proceed instead of starting from scratch.  If the leader finds it necessary to start from scratch, it is important to not only explain it to the team, but to fully go back and find out where the analysis may have gone wrong.

Get Published: By the way, communication is essential for leaders.  If you have some great ideas, check out the call for chapters for a new book, Returning to Interpersonal Dialogue and Understanding Human Communication in the Digital Age.  Submit a chapter, or get more information, here: Returning to Interpersonal Dialogue.