I was looking for something to read today before starting my shift, anticipating a slow day, since nothing was open and the strike halted all Canada Day celebrations. That amounts to people not travelling around and a holiday for the bus driver. Lot's of time to read at the end of the line. Nothing was open, so I picked up this free magazine from a stand at Royal York Subway Station called " Fifty Five Plus Magazine". Surprisingly, it had some interesting articles in it. The first one I read was about a retired Major-General Lewis Mackenzie, who is retired from the Armed Forces and is now speaking on leadership and racing cars. He is very highly respected and in much demand as a public speaker and lecturer. What caught my eye was some tips on leadership taken from his book " Soldiers Make Me Look Good". I thought I would like to share them with you. These tips come from pages 231 to 248 of his book.
Here they are:
Definition: Leadership is getting people to do what they don't necessarily want to do, and having them enjoy the experience.
Tip:
-be yourself
-Lead by wandering about: your primary responsibility is the people who work for you.
- Listen: pay attention and pick up good ideas.
- Set difficult but achievable objectives: determine how much is enough to be proud of and how much is too much to ask.
- Accept responsibility, even when you're not responsible. Accepting responsibility frequently makes the problem go away much more quickly.
- Be an actor. This means be consistent. A good leader does not exhibit moodiness.
- Think outside the box. Step back and think about the problem. Don't just tinker with the status quo.
- Strive for ethical decision-making. Imagine that someone you love is looking over your shoulder when the decision involves an ethical issue. Then you will do the right thing.
- Have the courage to disagree. It's a leaders job to create an atmosphere in which honest disagreements are aired.
- Prepare and train your subordinates.
- Be approachable.
Good advice from someone with over 35 years experience and has spoken to over 1,ooo,ooo people. He also wrote a best seller in 1993 called " The Road To Sarajevo".
He is also humble enough to say; " I'm not an author". He'd rather be known as a race car driver. He does that very well too!
Very Interesting.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I like the "be an actor" one. Some would say that is being fake. But it's not. It's choosing how you will lead.
They're all good though!
My favorite is the one to do with creating an atmosphere for airing disagreements. That takes a secure person to be able to listen to other ideas and points of view without attempting to control the situation and abusing their leadership position to push their idea's and beliefs on to others.
Post a Comment