Welcome to Part Two of my series on leadership mindsets. You can find Part One here.
First, some philosophical paragraphs about leadership tenets that I believe to be true.
My first tenet: I believe Awesome leaders aren’t born, they are made. The same goes for Awful leaders. I wouldn’t be spending the time I do on sharing my lessons learned, thoughts and observations if I didn’t believe anyone can become a better leader.
I started Part One of this series by explaining the difference between fixed and growth mindsets because you have to be willing to be a better leader before you can become one. I don’t know all there is to know about leadership, and I suspect I’ll die wondering how I can become a better leader.
The point is no one person can do it all – we need each other to find greatness, and some of us need to step into the breach of leadership and give it our best shot, again and again until we hit the mark, because that’s what it takes to find Awesome.
The second tenet: I steadfastly believe each of us has a natural born talent, gift or untapped potential – and it’s up to us to figure out how to use it. But most of us (this definitely includes me) need help from others to realize our potential.
Awesome leaders understand this and know that part of their job is helping others unlock their potential. By doing so, they not only build immense trust with those they help, but they also make their team that much better. Another less obvious action occurs when you help others become better – you become better too.
Take Action
Above all else, never forget the sacred tenet of leadership is action. If there’s one theme throughout everything I write: it’s TAKING ACTION. Taking action is the difference maker, everything else is just talk, thoughts or a whole host of excuses. Wayne Gretsky once said: “You’ll miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
The same is true in life and in leading. If you don’t take action you are guaranteed not to get the results you’re looking for. Too many of us either get anaylsis paralysis or find excuses (or both) for not taking the actions that matter.
Are you worried about failure? Don’t be – get it over and know that you’ll learn from it and adjust as quickly as you can. But no action means no results – and that’s not an acceptable outcome for you or for your teammates.
Make no mistake, you can be the best, most charismatic, inspirational, goal-oriented leader in the world, but at the end of the day, you’ll be judged on the results your teams deliver. And for your teams to deliver they need to believe in you, trust you and want to help you and the team. Humans are complicated and we’re all different (for better and for worse), but one thing is clear – people respond more positively to other people when you they truly believe you care about them, their well being and their future success. That’s what I hope you’ll take away from this article.
Mindsets develop behaviors and behaviors drive actions to create results. Of course, the key focus is building the correct behaviors for the desired results. In an effort to help you (and me) consolidate a list of helpful mindsets that will build the behaviors for Awesome leadership results I’ve assembled what I call “The A&A Chart”. It’s incomplete – it’s not perfect, and in fact, thanks to some of your comments it’s gotten even better (specifically thanks to Andy McLaughlin, Joseph Reagan, and Leon Brown for your comments regarding serving others – I put that one at the top of the chart!).
Assuming you can be honest with yourself, the idea behind the chart is to reflect, remind and retool our mindsets to be better leaders. Enjoy the chart and PLEASE send comments – I read them all; they don’t fall on deaf ears and your comments make me better along with those that read them!
Yours,
Alden
P.S. Are you on Twitter? Let’s connect: @AldenMills