Lists, Make them and Abide by them.
By J. Woodring
After Collin Powell’s 13 Rules of Leadership, I have been thinking about lists, in general. What are my lists? How do they pertain to my leadership skills? How can I use them to be a better leader? Nonetheless, lists are important in life. They can come from church, proverbs we read in a magazine, self -help books, other people’s lists. No matter how they came to you, they are important in your growth as a human being and as a leader. They can help you persevere when you feel adversity. I thought I would share with you my ever-growing list and how I equate them to our leadership lessons.
First, let us look at my list for my work life. These are forever growing, but 10 should suffice for now.
- Balance work life and non-work life. Being a workaholic is good for the company you work for, not you. Are you hourly or salary? If you are salary, work you salary hours diligently. If you did not finish the job, it will be there for tomorrow. Of course, time sensitive tasks are different. Here in America, we tend to put work first and family second and everything else third. Other countries value work and family differently. I have seen the effects of putting your work first and neglecting the other two. I have seen that person come to the realization that family and everything else is just as important when they lost themselves and their family. Do not let it be too late. The kid’s soccer games are fun.
- Work smart and at the same time hard. Just going through the motions without a care does not get you anywhere. Working diligently to get the job done that day, if you honestly cannot finish, the job will be there tomorrow. This revolves around ethics, our Leadership ethics discusses ethics as conduct and character and this would fall under utilitarianism in my understanding Northouse, pg.425)
- Listen more and talk less. This will help you accomplish Rule # 2. This is a skill to have as both a leader and a follower; it goes to Problem-Solving skills in the Competencies of Components Skills Model of Leadership. It also will help learning the Technical skills needed to do the job (Northouse, pg. 48) Also in Servant Leadership; a leader communicates first by listening. Trough listening, a leader acknowledges the followers viewpoint and validates those perspectives
(Northouse, 2013, pg. 220) - Learn from other employees and be willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Usually, that open mindedness is what will assist you is climbing the ladder. I believe this relates to our Team Leadership chapter, which stated, “Teams that can manage conflict, collaborate well together, and build commitment will have good relationships. Teams that are well connected to and protected from their environment will also be more productive.” (Northouse, 2013, pg.296) in order to work well with your teammates, you need to learn from them and accept them so you can work together, put your ego away.
- Embrace the politics, but do not become engrossed in them. Leave the drama for television, but get to know what makes everyone in the company tick and use that to your benefit.
- Lead by example. This includes not griping to everyone about everything. Negativity breeds negativity. If you give a smile, you get one in return and the positive vibe you give will help to accomplish your goals or the company’s goals. People skills and sociability skills, both of Skills Approach and Phase 3 of LMX Theory; the partnership you have with your followers starts with leading by example. The workmanship is then reciprocal between leader and follower (Northouse, 2013, pg. 166). In addition, a positive work environment provides a good social work environment that is more relaxed, which helps put your followers on a path to accomplishing the tasks.
- Take care of yourself. This parallels Rule #1, if you are not balanced; you become unhealthy which leads to sickness and disease. Eat well, exercise, laugh, love, and finally live.
- Be visible, not invisible. It shows your boss’ and followers that you are not lazy, but committed, and focused, which refers back to Rule #6. How can you lead by example if you are not committed and focused? Team Leadership has the thought tat the team is strong enough in their abilities and skills to get the job done, but it does require some oversight from the leader. If the leader were not around at all, then it would be more of a Laissez-Fair type of leadership. Allowing your team to get the job done is important, but being visible, enough to show your support is also important. Be there for them when they need you, if you are not they will inevitably break down and lose that strength, you are the glue basically.
- Do not be afraid to admit when you are wrong or that you do not have all the answers. Being an honest person is what most of us want to be, so why not just be one. Authentic Leadership (Northouse, 2013, pg. 263) discusses self- awareness, internal moral perspective, balanced processing, and relational transparency; being honest about whether or not you are right or wrong has merits toward self-awareness and internal moral perspective. Being an honest person should assist in leading effectively in the end, it creates trust between you and your followers trust helps build self-confidence in your followers and that self-confidence goes toward a strong team.
- Get involved with local community, whether it is a church, high school sports team, and dog park, whatever. Making friends outside of the industry will be beneficial in so many ways, work wise, and life wise. Sociability is important not only for the company you work for, but for you as a person too. Showing your support of your local community helps to prove the company you work for is a good company, ethical, etc. With community service, you may find advocates when something goes wrong unintentionally. For example, my boss and I have dinner with the Fire Department, not because we might need them in the future, but because we want to show them our character as good, safe people who care and that we do not know everything. Getting their input on safety issues around our shop shows we are human and it might help us to be safer, prevent accidents that could hurt one of our team members.
Now, let us look at my Ten Rules for Non- Work Life.
- Put your whole self in. Do not hesitate, do not over analyze. People will see the fake if you are not committed. Returning to school to make you better, do it, put everything you have in that education, make it work and use it.
- Be the “change” that you want to see in the world today. Kind of parallels Rule #1, if you want to see more kindness, then be a kind person. If you want to see people opening doors for others, then open doors for others. You want to see more passion, and then be passionate.
- Be cautious, not afraid. Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane is not as bad as it seems.
- Be honest and have an upstanding character. This is very broad, but you know right from wrong, ethical from unethical, follow that instinct.
- Know when to hold them and when to fold them. Arguing is a waste of time, not to mention, a “Unit of Happiness” killer. It accomplishes nothing and actually slows progression. Find a solution that works for the both of you. Put your ego away.
- Surround yourself with good people and weed out the undesirables. Again, negativity breeds negativity and takes years off your life.
- Give praise when needed and be authentic about it. It does not matter to whom you give it to, it matters that you give it. Even strangers can benefit from your praise.
- Do not criticize, condemn, or complain. It only spirals further downhill from there. I once had a boss who always complained to me about this person in our crew or that person, as if that was why he hired me. I began looking for another job after two years because he seemed to never correct the why in that person he was complaining about. Magic is just that, magic.
- Remember a person’s name and use it when addressing them, do not to forget to smile either. I definitely have trouble with this because I am shy at first. It matters how you address a person.
- Do not be selfish, being genuinely interested in other people goes along way. This can also parallel Rule #3 in Work Life.
Since learning about leadership, I have purchased a few self-help books, namely “How To Win Friends and Influence Others,” by Dale Carnegie. It is not as rude as it sounds and I am sure you have heard of it. I am a quarter of the way through it and I was pleased to see that so far the rules I have read, a few of them I learned on my own and had put them in my own list. I recommend reading this book. As of right now, I believe this book equates to the leadership skills that we need to learn and those that were discussed in the Skills Chapter of our P.G. Norton book.
According to Dale Carnegie, some fundamental skills and techniques for winning friends and influencing others are don’t criticize, condemn or complain; give honest and sincere appreciation; smile often, and learn people’s names and use them (Carnegie, 1981). If the skills chapter says, “The skills approach suggests that knowledge and abilities are needed for effective leadership,” (Northouse, 2013) then these would be some good skills and knowledge to have as a leader.
Self-Awareness from our Authentic Leadership “refers to the personal insights of the leader. It is not an end in itself but a process, in which individuals understand themselves, including their strengths and weaknesses, and the impact they have on others (Northouse, 2013, pg. 263). These lists are a direct correlation to this idea. These lists show we have core values, an identity, that we have emotions, goals to achieve, motivations to be the best. Our followers will see this and want to be a member of your team because all people want to be a part of something, they want to do something good, and having something to identify with makes it easier to do so.
I think we all need lists, we need to add to them and most importantly stick to them, adjust them as we learn more about life, ourselves, and how we are involved in this world and how we affect it.
References:
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Carnegie, Dale (1981). How To Win Friends & Influence People. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.