Leader vs. Non-Leader

Happy Thursday,

John Maxwell says, "True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not to enrich the leader."  Are you a leader?  Do you do things to benefit the followers?  Or are you out for the benefit of only yourself?

Here are some points to ponder and to help you understand where you are on the Leader vs. Non-Leader scale.

• A leader - gives credit to others.  Compared to - taking credit and complaining about lack of good people.
• A leader - has MBWA (manages by wandering around).  As opposed to - not having MBWA.
• A leader - is honest under pressure.  Versus - improvising and not giving straight answers.
• A leader - good listener.  Non-leader - good talker.
• A leader - Admits own mistakes and comforts others when they admit them.  In contrast - never makes mistakes, blames others, and starts witch-hunts to identify culprits.
• A leader - is tough and confronts nasty problems.  On the other side - is elusive and is the artful dodger.
• A leader - prefers eyeball to eyeball instead of e-mails.  Non-leader - hides behind e-mails.
• A leader - delegates entire important jobs.  A micro manager - keeps all final decisions.
• A leader - is available.  Opposite - hard to reach from below.

Be brutally honest with yourself and look at which side you are on.  It is never too late to start making changes to your thinking or leadership style.  Take some of these thoughts and debate with your colleagues.  Find a book, possibly in the PAi Library, that will help you with a better understanding of a certain topic.  Or just stop and think about it, what makes you do what you do?  

Remember, it's OK to change your thinking.  It's OK to tell others your past leadership style is not your new leadership style.  Or heck, go out on a limb and declare all this BS above hogwash....now that could create some great conversation and help make us all think just a little different.

Enjoy your Thursday,

Chris