How many tomes have been written on this subject? Probably millions. Depending which stats one reviews, seems that of all the bestsellers ever written about 15-20% are on leadership.
Ranked by sales, authors such as Simon Sinek and Patrick Lencioni are sure to be in the top five in this category. Rarified air indeed. Both are highly educated, off-the-chart brilliant, and possess a true gift of storytelling. Yet from what I can research, neither has ever founded and built a manufacturing or service industry firm from scratch. Rather, their success has come from consulting and pontificating on how to be a better leader. I would like to offer some thoughts from the trenches of grinding it out, building multiple successful businesses from zero in two separate industries.
Unlike the two named above, what leadership knowledge I have gained throughout my business career has come from constantly reading, self-education and ultimately from the very real, very painful, school of hard knocks. It is a stupid person indeed who, after being smacked in the face by a baseball bat, fails to duck when the swing is headed their way. Yet it happens every day.
The world of business, especially the real estate industry, is filled with people occupying leadership positions who reject the notion of being both a continual learner and perpetually sharpening their craft. Sadly, many believe they learned all they needed to know by year 3 of their current 15-year career. With this attitude from leadership, how can we expect improved performance from the rank and file? Monkey see, monkey do.
Prevalent among leaders with this type of attitude is a knack for surrounding themselves with people who always agree and never challenge. A sword cannot be sharpened if it only pushes against straw. It only becomes dull. Iron sharpens iron. Period.
This trait seems to exist because starting a business is hard. Growing a business is hard. Learning and expanding your knowledge is hard. Everything about business leadership is hard. A key tenet to learn is that the concept of status quo in any organization or career is a complete myth. There is growth, or there is decline by default. Attempting to hold the status quo WILL result in the demise of the business, the organization, the career. No forward motion ever continues unless there is a driver or engine. That engine is the leader.
Leaders fail for various reasons. Lack of courage is a big one. Faced with hard conversations daily, it takes courage to ask new questions and to act. Courage to expand one’s horizons to whatever point is necessary to resolve the problems that arise. The easy thing to do is to NOT decide, but then not deciding IS deciding. Either way, there are unavoidable outcomes. Better to control the ones you can, than allow your organization to become a victim of unwanted outcomes.
Fear is another cause for leadership failure. Fear of offending. Fear of being wrong. It all plays in together and circles back to courage. As a leader, YOU are the one in charge. Accept counsel if needed, certainly do so in areas where a shortcoming in expertise exists. Then make the decision. Fear paralysis only feeds negative outcomes. They won’t be avoided; they’ll just bring their nasty friends to the party.
Successful leaders are defined by courage, curiosity, loyalty to their people, the ability to motivate others WITHOUT the need to “sell” them on the mission, and above all, a constant focus on service to others.
Failed leaders are those primarily focused solely on money, self-interest and leisure. To be clear, there is nothing per se grotesquely wrong with the last three, so long as they are subordinate to the successful list. Money, self-interest, and leisure can never be the primary focus of a leader. This type is easy to see because it just doesn’t feel good in your gut when you are around them. Humans are funny that way. We all have a BS meter built into our DNA. We just unplug it way too often.
A strongly held belief of mine is that money is nothing more than a scoreboard reflecting the degree of our service to others. The higher the service, the bigger the numbers. If additional money (in the case of a business, increased revenues) is desired, then the focus should be on increasing service to others, not money itself. Focus on helping others achieve what they desire, and you will never lack for anything. Not a new concept, but one rarely pushed to the forefront.
Should the reader find they are working for a leader who fails to exhibit the traits discussed here, my encouragement is to confront and discuss. If that fails, move on. We spend 33% or more of our lives at work. In real estate, it’s more like 60% but whatever. The point is: life is way too short to spend that much time working with a leader who operates contrary to these beliefs and just sitting around hoping they will change never results in good outcomes.
“Hope” is never a good career strategy.
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