To
be a Great Leader, You Don’t Have to be Great!
Hockey legend Wayne Gretsky or
basketball icon Michael Jordan. These are two individuals synonymous with
greatness in sports and life. But can I share a secret with you? They did not start out great! By his own
admission, Gretsky knew he was smaller and slower than his opponents on the ice.
Michael Jordan did not make his highschool basketball team the first time he
tried out. In the end, however, both men became great which has me thinking out
loud that as leaders, we don’t have to be great to eventually become great leaders!
During some recent travels, I
was scrolling through some in-flight movie options and happened upon a short documentary
called In Search of Greatness directed by Gabe Polsky. Gabe and his contributors
set out to highlight what makes world-class athletes that way. What they
discovered was surprising. They determined that the top-tier professional
athletes we admire today were often not the biggest, smartest, fastest, or even
the most talented compared to their peers at the start of their careers.
Instead, they tapped into something different to make up for what many would consider
their athletic deficiencies. Even more encouraging, the resources they tapped
into were not physical but rather emotional or attitudinal.
That is incredibly empowering
for us wanting to be better leaders because the resources they drew upon were purely
internal as opposed to physical, financial, or positional. Here are just a few
of those resources that I know resonates with any of us wanting to be a better
leader.
No
Formulas – these world-class athletes broke molds and many of the
sport conventions of their day. As leaders, we need to understand that we have
to create our own unique formulas for success. Like superstar athletes, we all
need to master the fundamentals of integrity, interpersonal concern,
organization, and intent but the best leaders improvise to meet the needs of
their contexts versus following a lock-step management development scheme.
Play
With Talent – the best athletes played and experimented
with their talents versus structured them. They experiment and found ways to win
that fit their strengths and abilities versus the use of any imposed strategy. The
same goes for leaders. We need to not impose or force our strategies on others,
rather adopt to our followers and what they bring to the situation.
Focus – one
thing world-class athletes do have in common is their incredible mental and emotional
focus. Actor Will Smith once stated in an interview that he would “die on the
treadmill”! He went on to say what he meant by that was there are others who have
more acting talent or stronger screen presence, but no one will ever out work him! If we want to improve as
leaders, we need to have the same focus or leadership ethos. We need to view
problems, situations, and opportunities through a leadership lens. We need to
not only focus on our own development but that of others. We need to consume
leadership learning and experiences (i.e. master the fundamentals) so that we
can then use these skills and attitudes to improvise to the situations we encounter.
Mentors –
finally, to a person from the William’s sisters to Jerry Rice to soccer great,
Pele, all owe their success to the mentors they have had in their lives. People
who saw their unconventional talents and allowed it to manifest versus put then
in a mold. They customized their coaching to the player as opposed to expecting
the opposite. We need the same as leaders. First, we need to mentor others in
the same way – not to lead as we do but to lead in a way that that allows them
to be and do their best. We also need to be mentored. For many years, leadership
expert and author John Maxwell would meet regularly with legendary UCLA basketball
coach, John Wooden. John never played for Coach Wooden but he became so
inspired by his knowledge and approach to life that he would spend time just talking
and learning from him.
Here’s the thing. History and
the movies love to portray leaders as big as life individuals. The fact is the
best did not start out that way. Lincoln came from very humble beginnings. Theodore
Roosevelt was often ill and weak as a child. What that means for those of us
wanting to be great leaders is that no one is born a great leader, we become
that way and how we do that can be informed from the points above.
Recently, a client asked me
how to incorporate all the leadership content they were consuming to actually change
the way they lead. Whereas not the only way, here is my simple process:
- Prioritize – what do you and your team need NOW? Leadership authors and trainers can provide you with a laundry list of skills, attributes, behaviors, etc. that leaders should have. Create a list that makes sense to you but rank order them in terms of importance, impact, etc. and pick no more than two at a time to work on.
- Practice – Once you have picked on or two competencies to develop. Focus ONLY on those two to intentionally develop and grow for 30 days.
- Reflect – reflect on what you are learning and how people, processes, and situations have IMPROVED due to your focus on these priorities.
- Incorporate – once you have mastered or at least consistently include a new leadership approach into your behaviors, attitudes, and habits they will become incorporated into your leadership ethos. You will more naturally draw upon them versus having to consciously think about how you will do so.
- Repeat – once
you have mastered and incorporated these first two competencies, work down your
list to the next two and repeat the process.
As you can start to gather, no
one gets great at anything by accident. From shots on goal to leading teams, you
must draw upon a variety of internal resources but do it your way and in a way
that works for you. There is a lot of great leadership content out there but
avoid the “theory of the month club” mentality. Incorporate what you like or works
best for you and use that to create a stable and effective leadership approach.
Trust me, you do not need to discard all that you have learned and gained just
because someone introduces a new paradigm. Just take the best and leave the
rest.
You do not have to be great to
be a great leader, just great at it!
As always if I can help you and
the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I invite
you to contact me.
Yours in leadership,
Bill Faulkner
Independent Coach, Speaker,
and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team TM
Email
= bill@outloudinc.com
Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com
For more information on the
John Maxwell Team, please visit
Feel free to “LIKE” our FB
Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc
No comments:
Post a Comment