Leadership: Shape your mind

Your state of mind is key to your leadership

Leadership is not always constructive and can unfortunately be very destructive. We all agree that there are A1's leaders and unfortunately really bad leaders in this world. What do you think differentiates them?

Leadership has always been an area that I tried to understand better when I was at University. At the time some individuals would stand out naturally from a group just by the way they were. Some of them became president of student associations, others would excel in organizing student activities while others seemed to lead gangs and appeared to not do much. Already at the time, I could differentiate different types of leadership.

But what is the secret ingredient of successful "native" leaders?

Leadership is not a concrete notion and it is certainly not something I could learn in a chapter of a book like accounting or economy or stats. So, You'll agree that leadership is not a knowledge that we can infuse in ourselves after a session at school--- it has to do with the way we actually see the world, see the challenges, see others, with our level of energy and with the way that we actually prevent or react to situations. Leadership is a STATE OF MIND.

How could we describe a true leader? 

My own definition of a true leader is someone that has the inner POWER to attract and influence others,  the power to stimulate and motivate others, someone with a very high level of energy, someone that has the power to move mountains when needed without much apparent effort and the power to drive and direct a team a company in the right direction. They are like our super hero's, a super power that they mastered to use accordingly.

What are the characteristics of a true leader?

One characteristics that seems to come back in all literature is the capacity of the leader to build a clear and consistent VISION and to COMMUNICATE his/her vision at all levels (top-bottom)

Most of the time, true leaders are very PRAGMATIC and have a SIMPLE THINKING. They encourage KISS principle and tend to articulate problems and solutions in a simple manner. 

The third element is key, I believe that they have a sense of GRATITUDE and COMPASSION very developed. They are HUMBLE and recognize that PEOPLE (their team) is the key ingredient of their own success. They have RESPECT for others. Actually, it is know that all leaders that influences the world as we know it all had one thing in common: they were all thankful! Einstein used to say thank you hundreds of times to his collaborators! Other known leaders that were thankful; Martin Luther King, Lincoln, Jung and many others.

The fourth one is EMPOWERMENT, they understand that staff need to be empowered. They trust the judgement of their team members and encourage decision making from them. They know how to delegate and are not getting into micro details. Employees feel in control of their work, feel an important contributor and feel valued and important.

Leadership is very POWERFUL if used accordingly.

Some impacts of destructive leadership

STAFF ROTATION: You see a lot of rotation and resignation in key positions around you? 99% chance that the cause is not linked to the individuals leaving. Look upwards, look at the leaders managing those individuals --- What is the leadership style of the manager or director and exec? Are employees valued? Are employees empowered by the leader?

EMPOWERMENT and MICRO-MANAGEMENT Few years ago, I was a consultant for a 60M SAP delivery program? The execs in charge of the project were all over the place and did not empower their teams to make decisions. even the sponsor was challenging his own program director in front of everyone and did not show respect to anyone. Are you surprise if I tell you that the motivation of the all team was lower than ever? We actually had a serious talk with the execs and made them understand how their current attitude was impacting the program and the productivity of the all team, it had to change and it did. I spare you the details here but thank god that we did speak up! As a consultant, I learned to be straight forward even if it is not what the execs want to hear. It did pay off to all of us, including execs.

CONFUSION ON ACCOUNTABILITY; So now that you see how bad lack of empowerment and micro-management impact the dynamic of your team. Imagine if the same execs make you accountable with those conditions. IMPOSSIBLE! How can you actually put someone accountable for the results if in first place they are not empowered and second if you always put your nose (as an exec) in the decision making process? Who can be hold accountable if they have no control?

Imagine a pilot driving an airplane, first he is sitting at the back (not even in the cockpit) while executives are in the cockpit starting the engine and doing everything they need to do (without a proper knowledge) to start the plane. They call the pilot at the last minute and ask him to kick-off the plane without understanding fully what was done previously. The pilot had a hard time to complete the start up routine but did it. Now that the plane is almost at the right altitude, one executive decides to ask the pilot to step back and decides to sit on the pilot chair... This goes on and on and on throughout the flight until someone decides that it's time to get down - oops, there's no more fuel... they are kind of on the middle of the Atlantic! IF YOU HIRE A PILOT, LET HIM FLY ALL THE WAY, GIVE HIM ALL THE INFO HE NEEDS TO FLY AND TRUST HIM!! Do not interfere! As a true leader, don't you want your pilot to get you anywhere you need to with all his heart, judgment and deep motivation?

DISRESPECT; Recently, one of my Ex-director was telling me that his new exec participated in a call with him and a client. The call was disastrous in his perspective and he got out of the call demotivated, discouraged, frustrated, demobilised and angry. WHY? While he had followed every step and recommendations that the new exec gave him to resolve a problem, the same exec got in the call and questioned in front of his client the solution (that he had prescribed) and opened the door to other negotiations. The message that the new exec conveyed to my ex-director unconsciously (or not) is 1) I am better than you are 2) You are not important 3) I am the king and you are my submissive, you better listen to me. Anyway, this was the perception. Imagine the client that was on the line, what did they perceive?

I have so many examples I could share of destructive leadership and feel very sad when I hear or share those types of stories.

At the end of the day? How can we be the best leader we can be?

I truly believe that our employees ARE more important than we are, they are the ones that will MAKE US FAIL OR SUCCEED. They are our biggest assets!!!

We need to be thankful to have them everyday! Appreciate their qualities and straights. Trust their judgement. Put appropriate decision points in their hands!!! They will surprise you! Don't micro-manage! Learn to oversee their work! CHANGE YOUR MINDSET. True leadership is largely associated to a state of Mind.

So rather than thinking that you are the KING on top of your ivory tower, think of yourself as an active, friendly, opened, MENTOR. We are not superior than anyone, we just have a different role to play.

LOVE your team unconditionally, they will love you back!

Be THANKFUL everyday to them, they will be thankful and will give you the moon

You will attract the POWER of true LEADERSHIP

What do you think? Do you think that true leadership is a state of mind?