Photo by Hamed Saber
Jon Ferguson has a great post titled “You Know You’re Not Leading When . . .” that asks the question “Ever catch yourself not leading?” and provide the following check list.
You know you are not leading when . . .
- You wait for someone to tell you what to do rather than taking the initiative yourself
- You spend too much time talking about how things should be different
- You blame the context, surroundings, or other people for your current situation
- You choose not to speak the truth in love
- You are more concerned about being cool or accepted than doing the right thing
- You seek consensus, rather than casting vision for a preferable future
- You aren’t taking any significant risks
- You accept status quo as the way it’s always been and always will be
- You start protecting your reputation instead of opening yourself up to opposition
- You sleep a little too sound
- You procrastinate to avoid making a tough call
- You talk to others about the problem rather than taking it to the person responsible
- You don’t feel like your butt is on the line for anything significant
- You think what you say doesn’t matter
- You ask for way too many opinions before taking action
This is a great list. I think we have all, at one time or another, caught ourselves not leading. I know that I have. Two insights which struck me after reading this list:
- To lead means we are out of our comfort zone, that we lead from the front, that we take risk, that we don not sleep a little too sound. We need to lead from the front. This means we go first, we push to the edge, we take the risk. What percentage of you time do you spend out in the front? What percentage of your time is spend outside your comfort zone? If it’s less than 10% you need to take action as soon as possible!
- Leadership is not a matter of position. We are prone “not to lead” when we begin to rely on our position as “leader”, the fact that we are the manager or have the position of leadership. We must never forget that leadership is a choice. The moment we articulate a vision and take responsibility for achieving it… leadership begins.
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Lead, Management, Business, Status, Attitude
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Great post!
Again, you’ve shared very nice tips.
It’s really worth visiting your blog.
Dude, some leaders are so far ahead, and in todays sheeple age; the sheeple or cattle ain’t got the balls to follow; and there are plenty of cannibals slaughterhouses open for sheeple followers of sheeple leaders…
The real true leaders are the leaders who make sure that they challenge anyone who wants to follow them, to psychologically, emotionally, politically, spiritually, etc. grow; because they know the current paradigm of leadership, where your qualities of a ‘leader’ (sic) are meassured in the number of sheeple you can manipulate and lead to the slave and cannon fodder breeding slaugherhouse is an illusion of real radical leadership, its fascist leadership, but anyone with a half wit understanding of fromm’s escape from freedom psychological principles of man’s subconscious fears of true freedom and liberty, know how to manipulate their sheeple followers to provide them with the illusion of freedom and liberty….
You want some leadership, that there is probably one or a few men in Africa who would appreciate, not as followers but as peers….
try, Is an Ethical Emotional, Financial, Political or Military Reputation based on Honour?
Then we can start talking about some radical change, about challenging people to grow for a real radical go**amn change we can believe in…