What Does Leadership Mean to You?
What Does Leadership Mean to You?
Leadership is a specific set of skills and attributes which enable people who possess them to inspire others to achieve goals.
There are six key leadership skills and attributes:
- Goal focused mentality: the ability to set and achieve goals.
- Clear communicator: the ability to make oneself always, clearly understood.
- Planner, prioritisation and delegation: the ability to determine the best use of time, money and effort.
- Conflict manager: the ability to resolve conflicts rationally not emotionally.
- Self-Mastery: self-discipline, self-awareness, self-motivation, self-correction.
- Inspiration: the ability to use words to help people believe in themselves and in the goals we share.
Rationality is the leadership quality that most people overlook
Human beings are defined as the rational animal. It is reason that gives us everything that is uniquely human: language, mathematics, music, science, history, art, literature, philosophy, politics, ethics, technology, production, trade and economics.
Reasoning is deductive, inductive and creative.
- Deductive reasoning is the art of applying existing knowledge to new instances, (for example, medical diagnosis is a deductive science).
- Inductive reasoning: is the art of discovering new knowledge by observation and experimentation. (for example, the CERN particle accelerator is attempting to discover new subatomic phenomena).
- Creative reasoning logic is the art of invention using the imagination logically in order to create new products and services. (for example, Steve Jobs created the I phone which revolutionised the world).
- Reason is also a code of ethical conduct; we owe it to ourselves and others to treat all people reasonably.
- Rationality is the foundation of good mental health, since the more irrational minds become, the more detached they are from reality, and the more disorientated people get.
Most leaders ignore the issue of Rationality. The majority of leaders focus their attention on stirring up peoples' emotions and getting them to act in accordance with their vision.
If we have irrational leaders, who are able to stir-up people's emotions and make them act in accordance with an irrational vision, then all hell breaks loose. Examples of irrational leaders include Napoleon Bonaparte who was a power-lustre, and Adolf Hitler who held irrational ideas about the superiority of the Arian race. On many measures, both men were effective leaders, but they were irrational and, consequently, they created death and destruction.
Today, all over the world, we see the collapse of reason and logic in favour of naked ambition and emotionalism.
Until we restore reason and logic to its proper position in government, in economics, and in society, then we will continue to chase illogical goals advocated by irrational leaders, and many people will continue to "live lives of quiet desperation" (as Henry Thoreau said).
I want to help the world run on reason.
Develop a Trained Memory.
If you had to focus on one skill or action to really excel in your personal life and career, what would it be?
Memory is the ability to accurately perceive, encode, retain and recall information at will.
Memory is a fundamental skill which most people take for granted, so don't think about training to improve it.
If we forget things; where they keys are, what their name is, what she said, what we read, then we are at a major disadvantage, when compared to what we could achieve, if we developed the ability to remember everything that was important to us.
Memory is a fundamental skill, which can either be improved or neglected.
My 83-year-old mother is now suffering with dementia. She cannot find the light switch in a house she has lived in for 60 years. Her ability to create and store new memories is almost completely collapsed, and it is pitiful to watch.
If we see a person whose memory is failing, then we recognise the fundamental importance of this mental faculty. We are more motivated to look after our minds and train them to gain better recall abilities.
Memory training is based upon five principles: Repetition; Association; Imagination; Structure; Effort (RAISE)
The Secret Weapon for Success
Success is not an event, it is a process, which is composed of five interrelated concepts: Purpose, plan, action, feedback, change.
These five concepts combine to form a prescription for successful goal directed action.
Purpose - A specific goal. Ambitions. Desires. SMART targets.
Plan - A written document which explains how we intend to achieve them.
Action - Intelligent implementation of our plans.
Feedback - Carefully observe the positive and negative feedback results our recent actions have created. Feedback is a key concept and it comes in two kinds, positive and negative.
Change - How we replace or adapt the plan and / or its implementation.
Use these eight success formula questions:
- What is our specific goal?
- Where are the detailed plans?
- What are our top three priorities?
- How will we measure the feedback results?
- What is going well/easy?
- What is not going well/difficult?
- How do we need to adapt or change our plans?
- How can we improve upon what is already good?
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About the Author: Chris Farmer
Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years’ experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.
Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.
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