Monday 25 May 2015

These three behaviours/attitudes show you're being a leader

This is part six in a series of seven about rehumanising leadership and management. Part one is here. Part two here. Part three here. Part four here. Part five here.

I meet a lot of people when walking with our dog Molly who don't understand dogs. These people want their dogs to be like them e.g. if they're frightened of large dogs they think their dog is too.

I meet many parents who don't understand children. They have an expectation for their kids to be like them, rather than the one-of-a-kind human being that each of us is.

I meet leaders everywhere who have an expectation that other people should be, feel, and think and act, just like them.

A key difference between my work and the work of most leadership mentors is that I'm about being a leader, most others are focused on doing. Not a right or wrong situation, just how it is.

I've met a lot of business school graduate leaders. Most learned what to do, not how to be. Be Feel Think Do = what is.

Leadership's great challenge
One consequence of being a leader, and a great paradox, is that you'll be able to close the gap between what your people do and what they're capable of doing. The narrower this gap of course, the greater your business results, your life/work harmony, and your peace of mind.

What’s the biggest reason there’s a gap between what people do and what they're capable of doing? Well, it's a being gap!

In the 5 minutes 50 seconds video below I explore this.



My message is this:

You have a small percentage of people bringing their best to their work every day. I refer to these people as the Happy Being Magnificent.

You have a similar small percentage of people who drive you crazy. They're not bringing their best to their work. These people take up a lot of your time and energy. They're disengaged, disruptive and discouraging. I refer to these people as the Happy Being Miserable.

And then you have the majority of your people who are doing their jobs, yet not consistently bringing their best to their work every day. I refer to these people as the Happy Being Mediocre.

You don’t have to be bad at leadership to get better.
Stephen C. Lundin Ph.D. Author of the five million copy best selling FISH!

While I agree with Stephen, in today's technology driven, mobile centric, and self-focused world you have to be a remarkable leader to move up the Mediocre to Magnificent and move up or move on the Miserable. In short you have to be a leader.

These three behaviours/attitudes show you're being a leader

Most people either don't know or have forgotten they're remarkable. Real leaders inspire, remind, and persuade people to be remarkable (Happy Being Magnificent).

Behaviour/attitude one: See yourself as remarkable and become who you see.

We are all unique. Not a single duplicate in the 100 billion lives that have walked planet earth. When we bring our best, free of BS, we are all remarkable.

Everyone's birth is remarkable. Being born at all is even more remarkable. For most men only one or two of the 500 billion sperm cells produced in a lifetime reach the female egg, one of less than 500 that each woman produces in her life.

The fact that any of us is alive at all says to me that every life has a profound purpose.

Robert Louis Stevenson put it this way: To be who we are, and to become all that we are capable of becoming, is the only purpose in life.

Real leadership is living this purpose and inspiring others to do the same.

Behaviour/attitude two: See other people as remarkable.



I define leadership as the art of inspiring people to bring everything remarkable that they are (that one-of-a-kind that each of us is) to everything they do.

Leadership falters and usually very badly without management.

I define management as the practice of making it simple for people to bring everything remarkable that they are to everything they do.

Leadership is about people. Management is about processes, policies, procedures, practices, and systems.

How remarkable are you?

Behaviour/attitude three: Be accountable for your intentions, feelings, thoughts and behaviours and let other people be accountable for theirs.

Be remarkable.
Ian

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
Ian MacLaren/John Watson.

PS Until midnight on the 31st May 2015 you can get a years access and more to my Leadership Momentum online learning program for just $27. It's all about being a leader. Get access here.

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