Lead With Strength
I was chatting with a professor at the United States Military Academy some years ago when he turned to me during a discussion of great military leadership and said, “It’s really pretty simple. Lead with your strengths. Call in reinforcements where you’re weak.” Now, he was smart enough not to think all battles are won by this simple strategy, but his words have stayed with me ever since. This is because they describe one of the essential strategies of effective leadership. All leaders have strengths and all leaders have weaknesses. Mediocre leaders tend to play to their strengths and conceal[read more]
Read To Lead
I am absolutely committed to this maxim: “Read to Lead.” Eminent lives that range from Abraham Lincoln to Warren Buffet, from Alfred the Great to Bono, confirm this truth. Leaders must be readers. Consuming great books helps leaders understand their times, anticipate trends, gain insight into human nature, stay inspired, master the practical skills of their profession, increase their mental capacity, and—as important as all of this—rest. Since we are at the start of the summer, I want to recommend five good books that will help sharpen you as a leader. So, find a shady spot and settle in for[read more]
Leaders Are Different
I wonder if you’ve ever heard this famous sentence: “The British Navy is a system designed by geniuses for execution by idiots.” Now, the problem with this sentence is that it calls everyone in the Navy an idiot. Obviously that’s not true. Still, there is an important truth here about leadership. Leaders are different from those they lead. They think differently, perceive the world differently, and —in most cases—behave differently. One religious leader said it like this: “There is a difference between sheep and shepherds.” There’s no arguing with that! Now, leaders fail when they neglect this truth. Those they[read more]
Power of Culture
I’ve been urging you recently to consider the power of culture in how you lead. I’ve asked you to think about the leadership culture you’re building, to recognize the enemies of that culture, to use tools like story and your vision of the future in building that culture, and to deal with anything that works against that culture on your leadership team. In this Leading Thoughts, I want you to know the imprint of the cultures that have produced you. Leaders must be self-aware. This doesn't mean self-absorbed. It means they should know themselves well, see themselves clearly. They should understand[read more]
Having a Will
There is a recent news story that tragically illustrates a principle of leadership I want to urge in this edition of Leading Thoughts. Let me state the principle first, then I’ll take you to the news story. Great leadership is largely about contending with the future. Leaders are expected to see what others cannot. They must perceive outcomes, project results, and play out the future implications of current actions in their minds. They have to be rooted in the present but clear-eyed about the likely future. This gives them the ability to fashion the future by crafting the present. It’s a[read more]
TEDx 2
I recently did a TED talk and was so challenged by the experience that I want to list some of the lessons I learned for you. In our highly verbal, video, “comm” world, all of us who aspire to be exceptional leaders will have to be exceptional communicators too. I want to do what I can to help you step toward this goal. Telling you what I learned recently will be a good start. The lessons I learned are remarkable because I was already a fairly accomplished speaker before I spoke for TED. I do not say this with arrogance.[read more]
Cultivating Leaders
Through all the years of consulting I’ve done, through all the years of cultivating leaders, I’ve had a chance to note some of the habits that lead to failure. One of the most glaring is an inability to recognize the end of a season. We are human and we are nesters. We want to hang on to what we have forever. But seasons come to an end. Times change. People leave. Sometimes we have to leave. It all must happen to make room for the new. Leaders who can’t recognize these moments and navigate them gracefully get themselves in trouble.[read more]
IMP
I want to let you in on my very personalized use of a word. That word is “imp.” In normal usage, this terms refers to everything from a demon to a mischievous child. I use it for something else: those distracting, dissipating, destructive habits that often surface among team members. You’ve surely experienced these imps, though you may have pushed them so far to the edge of your attention that you’ve never focused on them completely. This is precisely why I’m bringing them up. Most leaders never focus on these imps or deal with them decisively. It is a costly[read more]
Seasons
There are two things I want to mention before I explore this week’s leadership truth. First, my team tells me these Leading Thoughts articles of mine have been too long. They are right. From now on, they’ll be no more than 400-500 words. Promise. Second, I’m pretty exited about the good our new leadership courses are doing in the lives of some leaders I know. You can check these courses out here. So, onward. I have a dear friend who is in turn close friends with an older man we have both known for many years. Let’s call this older man Joseph. My[read more]
Holy Week
It is almost Holy Week as I write these words and so my thoughts naturally turn to Jesus Christ. Volumes have been written about Jesus as a leader and will continue to be. I want to focus on one aspect of his leadership since it is a vital part of all great leadership. That aspect is the repairing of lives. Now, we Christians believe that Jesus repairs lives mainly by destroying the power of sin and by restoring the human soul through scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit. I appreciate my non-Christian readers hanging in with us here,[read more]