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Develop Yourself, Please



Leadership. There is no one key. It is a series of skills and strengths. Leadership seems born in some people but must be developed and - can be developed.

Leaders collaborate - they work together with their teams and with their peers.

Leaders cooperate - they cooperate with regulatory bodies, with higher ranking leaders, with peers, and even with customers. They find ways to be helpful, to serve without being subservient. It's where the science of leadership meets the art of leadership.

Leaders prevail when they continue to develop. They continue to develop through the early times, through the easy times, and through the tough times.

Leaders develop technical skills (budgeting, staffing, recruiting, solving problems) and they develop core skills. The five core skills that I find most compelling and useful are clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion plus the ability to center yourself in the use of each of those four.

- clarity: knowing your sense of direction and also your quality standards, values, vision
- courage: standing up and making the tough choice even when it's not a perfect choice
- creativity: finding new ways to solve problems, new ways to please customers, new ways to make a better world
- compassion: speaking and acting with respect and love for others, for all life (because all life matters)

These are lofty. These take a lifetime to develop. And along the way, high performance leaders continually collaborate, cooperate, and (when they stick to it) prevail. If you want to build your team into a high powered, results-producing, great place to work, try all three. Continue to develop your team by continuing to develop yourself.

Now, go out there and lead something important!

-- Doug Smith


key words:

Comments

  1. David SpiegelJanuary 5, 2017 at 9:21 AM

    Thanks for these 4 words.....they look like February, March April and May for me!

    ReplyDelete

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