Coach Mike Krzyzewski said: Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated. If you follow college basketball, you recognize the name, Mike Krzyzewski. And if you do, you’ll know what a greater leader and developer of talent he is. His leadership strategies are seen every day on the basketball court and are very effective.
Leadership is a lifelong learning process. Every great leader always looks for ways to improve. Leadership can be especially challenging for entrepreneurs. Balancing the need to run a business and the need to lead company personnel is quite a task. But nonetheless, still very necessary.
I have almost 40 years in both the military (a little) and the business (a lot) environments. In my speaking engagements, I often get asked about the most valuable leadership advice I could offer.
Related: The Zen of Abraham Lincolns Leadership Lessons
Here is my list of the ten most valuable lessons on leadership I could offer:
Leadership strategies … multiplier leadership
Multiplier leaders know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is not the lone genius. Instead, it is the leader who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone around them. My most valuable lesson. No question.
Peter Drucker is a silent mentor for our small agency. We are big fans. He once made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say ‘I’ He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say ‘we.’ ‘We’ is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
So the next time you interview someone with a resume that states, ‘I accomplished x’ or ‘I did x’, it should send up a few warning signals.
Leadership strategies examples … staff development
Many companies follow the motto: “Hire for character, train for skill.” You hire people that are eager to learn. They don’t have a ton of competence; but as a leader, you teach them, and they become better. They grow with your company and contribute to its success.
You see this with football coaches. In football coaching, it’s almost unheard of for someone with no experience to be hired as the head coach of a team. Most people start in a low-level position and gradually move up.
The same occurs in business. George Bodenheimer is the former president of ESPN. He began working in the mailroom of ESPN. It would have been tough for him to rise to the presidency if he hadn’t had a boss who wanted to help him grow and succeed in the company.
If you’re a leader, a primary objective is to develop your employees. In skills and leadership. You might have a great employee waiting to be a star, but if you don’t help them grow, you’ll never see it. Worse, they might leave the company to go to an employer where they will grow and succeed.
Types of leadership strategies … build confidence
We have written several articles on employee attitude. Employee attitude is so critical that it can’t be overemphasized. It trickles down from employers. Your business can never be what it can be if you don’t focus on employee happiness and engagement in their jobs and the workplace.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll have dozens of people criticize you. Customers, current and former employees (whether you know it or not), and family and friends may give you constructive criticism. It can be stressful to hear or read, and it can be easy to pass on criticism to employees. It doesn’t help. As a leader, you should ensure employees have high confidence in their abilities.
Leaders should make employees feel good about themselves. Always criticizing and pointing out the flaws in an employee is a sure-fire way to decrease morale and engagement.
People first
No matter what the job is, leaders always want to look for the best people and then take care of them. Business is just a group of people working on various creations and inventions. People are your business. It is as simple as that. It’s all about the people. They are the lifeblood of the firm.
When you’re leading a business or an organization, you’re leading people. It makes sense that leaders need to take care of their people. Many leaders work to have relationships with their employees. Taking them out for coffee and getting to know them better is common among leaders. Putting people first is an essential element of being a leader.
Establish clear direction
Getting people on board, aligned, and pointed in the right direction is vital for an organization. If every individual is going in a different direction, it can be like chaos in an organization.
Keeping people coordinated and aimed is a continual process. You’re the luckiest leader in the world if this happens by default. Two ways to ensure people are coordinated and targeted is setting milestones and having multiple coaches and promoters for your employees.
Do what you can to make sure people enjoy what they’re doing. If people aren’t passionate about the business and love what they’re doing, they are more likely to be going in a different direction and susceptible to becoming disengaged. Indeed not a good thing.
This isn’t an excuse for being a jerk to your people. Often an invention is at first misunderstood before it becomes a revolution. So if you aren’t willing to be different or unique, you may never be a pioneer in your industry.
A perfect example of standing out as being different from business leadership is Netflix. It was a unique way to receive movies. In the late 90′s, if you wanted to rent a movie, you’d have to go through your cable or satellite provider or get one at Blockbuster or something similar.
Getting rental DVDs via mail was unconventional. No question, very different. Undoubtedly, Netflix needed to be willing to stand out as different. They were pioneering and attempted to change the way people watch movies. Breaking the norm is not an easy thing to do.
Have people follow you
Leadership is hard to define and real leadership is even more challenging. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.
Indra Nooyi
We often forget that we’re not anointed with leadership skills. We have to earn our stripes and competencies. We have to gain the ability to have people trust us and be willing to follow. Not many people will mindlessly follow a leader.
This is why leaders need to earn leadership. People won’t blindly follow someone.
It’s important for leaders to know their followers and clearly, communicate why they’re doing what they’re doing. This will help gain the trust of fans and thus earn them the position of leader.
Lessons on leadership … motivate people
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it.
-Dwight Eisenhower
A quality of great leaders is being able to clearly articulate ideas and get people excited and motivated. It’s not selling people on an idea; it’s motivating them on the concept.
Getting a person to work with a leader when they’re not obligated is more than just motivating them. It’s about ensuring people have fun. Employees at Zappos can operate at dozens of other places, but they choose Zappos because of the culture.
Many charities get people to volunteer for them by promoting a noble cause. They say that if you donate, you’ll be spending your time working toward something greater than yourself. This motivates and inspires people to take a few hours to work for a charity promoting a cause they believe in.
One of the most famous stories of a leader inspiring another is when Steve Jobs recruited John Sculley to join Apple. Jobs asked the famous question:
Do you want to sell sugar water all your life, or do you want to change the world?
Learn good listening habits
To be a good leader you have to be a great listener. Brilliant ideas can spring from the most unlikely places, so you should always keep your ears open for some shrewd advice.
–Richard Branson
You don’t gain insights by talking. Nope. Ideas can come from anywhere, so it’s important to keep your ears open to new ideas and insight.
Leaders need to be good listeners of everyone … customers to employees to business colleagues. They need to listen to what other people say and not just hear it. Branson even carries a notepad with him so he can take notes on what people say.
Listening also helps a leader get multiple perspectives. When making a decision, a good leader always looks at different people. They know they own the final determination but always make sure they get input from multiple different perspectives.
The bottom line
Remember this simple fact. Does leadership focus on people the best definition of a leader? Someone who helps people succeed. Let your leadership success be your difference maker.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
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More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Are they ones that you continue to hone and develop? Do they hold the keys to future successes in leadership?
I have been in the military and business world for forty years and often get asked what I believe are the most important leadership competencies. It takes time and practice to be a top line leader. You are not borne with leadership competencies. And you are never done developing them.
My experience leads me to this list of 10 business leadership competencies that most successful leaders all share. They rank as the most significant to success as a leader in my perspective.
Related: The Zen of Abraham Lincolns Leadership Lessons
If you want to be a better leader, work on continuously developing this list of leadership competencies:
No matter how good you are, you will only be as successful as your team. So … getting the most from each team member is critical. We call this being a multiplier leader.
Multiplier leaders know the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone around them.
Balancing listening
Part of the balancing is going beyond hearing to develop your full sense of listening. This includes watching body language and observing emotions. If you don’t listen in this way you’ll miss plenty of opportunities to learn and connect with others.
Another part of the balancing is knowing how to exhibit strategic silence, i.e. knowing when to stay quiet. Great leaders understand the impact of words that can hurt, anger, or create fear. They know that when they say too much, others stop speaking and creativity and inclusion are a lost cause.
Foster teamwork
Peter Drucker made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say “I.” He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say “we.” “We” is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
It can be negative for an organization to have an “employee of the month” or a “who gets credit for what” attitude. You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
So the next time you see someone with a resume that states, “I accomplished x” or “I did x,” it should send up a few warning signals.
Collaboration
It’s important to know it is OK to ask for help, advice and constructive criticism. There are very few places where a lone wolf leader can be effective. Decisions are complex, and it takes a village of smart people to help make them. Leaders who aren’t inclusive may find that their organizations lack creativity.
No fear of daring choices.
There’s never one formula to achieve something. Don’t be afraid to take a leap; even if the outcome is not ideal, it provides you with the opportunity to learn the next time around. Step out of rigid mindsets and explore new ideas outside your comfort zone.
Leadership competencies … boost team self-esteem
We have written on employee attitude on several occasions. Employee attitude is so critical that it can’t be overemphasized. It trickles down from employers. Your business can never be what it can be if you don’t focus on employee happiness.
No matter, you’ll have dozens of people criticize you. Customers, current and former employees (whether you know it or not), and family and friends may give you constructive criticism. It can be stressful to hear or read, and it can be easy to pass on criticism to employees. But it doesn’t help. As a leader, you should ensure employees have high self-esteem in their job.
Leaders should make employees feel good about themselves. Constantly criticizing and pointing out the flaws in an employee is a sure fire way to decrease morale and performance.
While completing certain tasks and achieving success is the ultimate goal, it’s important to have a work-life balance so you don’t burn yourself out. Lots of leaders espouse this balance, but only a rare few actually walk the talk. Great leaders can’t say this and then work 60 or more hours per week (or more!).
If you’re not developing yourself, you’re coasting. If you’re coasting, it means you’re going downhill. Don’t get comfortable. Continue to learn and develop. Continuously. Those around you will follow your lead.
Lead with questions, not directions
Rarely tell staff what to do. While that may seem the easiest way, it’s more beneficial to help by allowing them to figure things out for themselves. The real learning is created within the team by ensuring that we’re asking the right questions.
Patience
Many leaders are intolerant of others who might do things differently or at a pace the leader finds unacceptable. Action-oriented leaders may have a tendency to jump to conclusions before things are thought through.
The lack of patience can manifest itself as anger or decisions that aren’t fully thought through. Be patient and reflective and always set aside thinking time. It is imperative for success.
The bottom line
A simple reminder … business leadership competencies, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it … it takes lots of consistent practice. You need to dive into the pool as soon as possible.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business.
Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated.
– Mike Krzyzewski
Developing these habits is a lifelong learning by doing a process. You are never done with these experiences. Every great leader always looks for ways to build and improve these habits.
Leadership can be especially challenging for entrepreneurs. Balancing the need to run a business (i.e., products, investors, customers, etc.) and the need to lead company personnel is quite a task.
Related: How to Create the Best Leadership Accountability
Active leader habits as an entrepreneur mean that you can “make things happen,” instead of just “letting things happen.” The quality of leader influence involvement is required in many activities.
It is involved in a variety of situations and problems, from the very simple to the very complex.
Leaders must influence others to achieve goals, and they must gain the respect of followers to change them. This is no easy task, but if you want to have the respect of your followers you have many trusted leader habits.
Here are 13 leader habits Digital Spark Marketing uses with clients to improve their ability to develop to be the best leaders they can be:
Great leaders … foster teamwork
Peter Drucker made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say “I.”
He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say “we.” “We” is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
We believe that employing an “employee of the month” or a “who gets credit for what” attitude is not a good process.
You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
Great leaders of today … encourage growth in others
Some companies follow the motto: “Hire for character, train for skill.” You hire people that are eager to learn and are very “raw.”
They don’t have a ton of competence; but as a leader, you teach them, and they become better. They grow with your company and contribute to its success.
You see this with football coaches. In football coaching, it’s almost unheard of for someone with no experience to be hired as the head coach of a team.
Most people start in a low-level position (i.e., video coordinator, quality control assistant, scout, etc.) and gradually move up if they become successful in their roles.
Sometimes it takes more than thirty years before they finally get a chance to be the head coach.
The same can occur in business. George Bodenheimer is the former president of ESPN. He started out working in the mailroom of ESPN.
It would have been tough for him to rise to the presidency if he hadn’t had a boss who wanted to help him grow and succeed in the company.
Employee attitude is so critical that it can’t be overemphasized. It trickles down from employers.
Your business isn’t optimized if you don’t optimize for employee happiness.
Leaders should make employees feel good about themselves.
Always criticizing and pointing out the flaws in an employee is a sure fire way to decrease morale and performance.
Action
Orient toward action. Don’t just talk about it, do it.
If it didn’t go as well as you had hoped, learn from it and change it for next time.
Transparency
We deserve openness, honesty, and transparency about our work together.
If something is unclear or is causing concern, let’s chat. When in doubt, over communicate.
Be an optimist
People want to follow an optimist, a person always looking to prioritize and solve problems.
Be willing to be misunderstood
This isn’t an excuse for being a jerk to employees. To colleagues in your industry, sometimes an invention is at first misunderstood before it becomes a revolution.
So if you aren’t willing to be misunderstood, you may never be a pioneer in your industry.
A good example of a willingness to be misunderstood as a business leader is Netflix. It was an entirely unique way to receive movies.
In the late 90′s, if you wanted to rent a movie, you’d have to go through your cable or satellite provider or get one at Blockbuster or something similar. Getting rental DVDs via mail was unconventional.
Undoubtedly, Netflix leadership needed to be willing to be misunderstood. They were pioneering and attempted to change the way people watch movies.
Get people to follow you
You earn leadership by what Anne Mulcahy calls “followership.”
“I think sometimes we forget that we’re not anointed leaders, we have to earn it and we have to have people that trust us and are willing to follow. I think that is the differentiator between great leadership and average leadership.”
– Anne Mulcahy, Former Chairman, and CEO of Xerox Corporation
Even if a leader is anointed, it doesn’t mean that they’ll have followers. The manager needs to gain the trust of the supporters. It has to be earned because not many people will mindlessly follow a leader.
Inspire people
Inspire and motivate to get the most from each team member and succeed based on your ability to work with others.
A quality of great leaders can clearly articulate ideas and get people excited and inspired about them.
It’s not selling people on an idea; it’s inspiring them.
Wear your passion and enthusiasm
Always wear your passion and enthusiasm for what you are doing. To do that, you must find those things that you love.
Follow the passion; it is what gives you the strength to overcome the obstacles to everyday tasks.
Passion is power … it is what keeps you going when everyone else gets tired and gives up.
Be a continuous learner
Observing and learning from those around you makes you stronger, better. Never fail to see its value.
Your peers, as well as competitors, can usually teach you more than your friends. Let them.
Learn from them. To be a great leader, you need to have a strong will and an even stronger stomach.
At the end of the day, you need to remind yourself that your job isn’t to make everyone happy, but rather to improve the organization as a whole.
Good leaders are constantly trying to improve, surround themselves with the ablest people they can find.
They look squarely at their mistakes and deficiencies, and they ask frankly what skills they and the company will need in the future.
And because of this, they can move forward with confidence that’s grounded in the facts, not built on fantasies about their talent.
Always work hard at being a little better than you were the day before.
Continuous learning is one of the most important attributes in the work and personal environment.
Show persistence
Persistence is key. Always keep up the effort as you will never know how close to success you may be.
Think about your energy. It’s not just about what you like best, but about what feeds you and what depletes you.
And who. Do what you can to increase the good stuff and decrease the bad.
You just need to realize you have the power to accomplish it. Much more than you may have imagined.
Respect
Everyone brings multitudes of skill and insights to the table. We need to honor people’s voices and talents.
Autonomy is a fundamental human need.
Kindness
Sniping, backbiting, bullying, and general meanness have no place in either our personal or professional lives.
Everyone deserves a happy work environment.
Conflict
Productive, healthy disagreement can get us through roadblocks. Lean into conflict rather than shy away from it. The path to resolution does not start with avoidance.
Limit your fear of failure
No matter how confident someone may seem, everyone is afraid of failing. All of us are afraid of screwing up or worried about looking stupid.
But great leaders know that everyone they interact with is also afraid.
These people are successful because they act in the face of fear. They go after what they believe, seek change and, ultimately, make a difference.
They also believe they can take a risk because even if they fail, they’ll be able to learn from it and overcome it. Their fear doesn’t hold them back. Instead, it springs them into action, because they know not stretching themselves is worse than failing.
Be a good listener
You don’t gain insights by talking. Ideas can come from anywhere, so it’s important to keep your ears open to new ideas and insight.
Focus on hearing everything that’s being said so you can make the most informed decisions.
Listening helps a leader get multiple perspectives. When making a decision, a good leader always looks at some different people.
They know they own the final determination but always make sure they get input from multiple people.
The bottom line
Business leadership skills, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it … it takes lots of consistent practice. You need to dive into the pool as soon as possible.
Great leaders know that every step they take, every decision they make, matters in the end. They know they must strategize carefully, and then act decisively.
They know they must think ahead — not just to their next step — but to the many steps after it.
Practice these leadership behaviors often and think ahead for your greatest leadership advantages.
Need some help in capturing more improvements in your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
CoachKrzyzewski certainly understood the leadership qualities of being an effective leader, didn’t he? Spot on. I have been in the military and business world for forty years and I often get asked what leader qualities contribute most to a coaching leadership style. This is a question I have studied on several occasions.
Favorite coaching leadership style
Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated.
Developing these qualities is a lifelonglearning process. You are never done learning. Every great leader always looks for ways to improve on all of these qualities.
Leadership can be especially challenging for entrepreneurs. Balancing the need to run a business (i.e., products, investors, customers, etc.) and the need to lead company personnel is quite a task.
Effective leader qualities as an entrepreneur mean that you can “make things happen,” instead of just “letting things happen.” The quality of leader influence involvement is required in many activities. It is involved in a variety of situations and problems, from the very simple to the very complex.
Leaders must influence others in order to achieve goals, and they must gain the respect of followers in order to influence them. This is no easy task, but if you want to have the respect of your followers you have many trusted leader qualities.
Here are many leader qualities Digital Spark Marketing uses with clients to improve their ability to develop to be the best leaders they can be:
Coaching leadership style … foster teamwork
Drucker makes an interestingpoint when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say “I.” He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say “we.” “We” is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
We believe that employing an “employee of the month” or a “who gets credit for what” attitude is not a good process. You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
Avoid decisions in the heat of the moment
Do you know those bosses that get all riled up and then start rapid-firing people? That’s not a leader. That’s a trigger-happy manager on a power trip—and there’s a difference. A leader waits until the heat of the moment has passed so that he or she can give solid thought to the situation before coming to a conclusion.
Coaching leadership style examples … encourage growth in others
Some companies follow the motto: “hire for character, train for skill.” You hire people that are eager to learn and are very “raw.” They don’t have a ton of skills; but as a leader, you teach them, and they become better. They grow with your company and contribute to its success.
You see this with football coaches. In football coaching, it’s almost unheard of for someone with no experience to be hired as the head coach of a team. Most people start in a low-level position (i.e., video coordinator, quality control assistant, scout, etc.) and gradually move up if they become successful in their roles. Sometimes it takes more than thirty years before they finally get a chance to be the head coach.
The same can occur in business. George Bodenheimer is the former president of ESPN. He started out working in the mailroom of ESPN. It would have been very difficult for him to rise to the presidency if he hadn’t had a boss who wanted to help him grow and succeed in the company.
Listens firsts and acts second
Someone who jumps to conclusions without first seeking to understand has made a fatal error—for themselves and their team. In order to lead people effectively, you have to take the time to listen and see things from their perspective. You have to put yourself in their shoes and fully understand the situation.
Always demonstrate your courage in making tough decisions, knowing that bad decisions will be penalized. Remember that doing nothing is always an option.
Effective leadership behaviors.
Boost employee confidence
Employee attitude is so critical that it can’t be overemphasized. It trickles down from employers. Your business isn’t optimized if you don’t optimize for employee happiness.
Leaders should make employees feel good about themselves. Constantly criticizing and pointing out the flaws in an employee is a sure fire way to decrease morale and performance.
Admits what they don’t know
It’s dangerous when someone claims to “know everything.” A good leader is ok with not having all the answers, and knowing that they will find the people who do. They don’t see it as a weakness—because it’s not. It’s merely part of the process.
Be an optimist
People want to follow an optimist, a person always looking to prioritize and solve problems.
A real leader doesn’t make decisions in the heat of the moment
Do you know those bosses that get all riled up and then start rapid-firing people? That’s not a leader. That’s a trigger-happy manager on a power trip—and there’s a difference. A leader waits until the heat of the moment has passed so that he or she can give solid thought to the situation before coming to a conclusion.
Be willing to be misunderstood
This isn’t an excuse for being a jerk to employees. To colleagues in your industry, sometimes an invention is at first misunderstood before it becomes a revolution. So if you aren’t willing to be misunderstood, you may never be a pioneer in your industry.
A good example of a willingness to be misunderstood as a business leader is Netflix. It was a totally unique way to receive movies. In the late 90′s, if you wanted to rent a movie, you’d have to go through your cable or satellite provider or get one at Blockbuster or something similar. Getting rental DVDs via mail was unconventional. Undoubtedly, Netflix needed to be willing to be misunderstood. They were pioneering and attempting to change the way people watch movies.
A real leader knows what they don’t know
It’s dangerous when someone claims to “know everything.” A good leader is ok with not having all the answers, and knowing that they will find the people who do. They don’t see it as a weakness—because it’s not. It’s merely part of the process.
Types of leadership behaviors.
Get people to follow you
You earn leadership by what Anne Mulcahy calls “followership.”
“I think sometimes we forget that we’re not actually anointed leaders, we actually have to earn it and we have to have people that trust us and are willing to follow. I think that really is the differentiator between great leadership and average leadership.”
-Anne Mulcahy, Former Chairman, and CEO of Xerox Corporation
Even if a leader is anointed, it doesn’t mean that they’ll have followers. The leader needs to gain the trust of the followers. It has to be earned because not many people will mindlessly follow a leader.
A real leader never wants to be the smartest person in the room
If someone hires people or surrounds themselves with people less qualified than themselves simply to remain in a position of power, then they feel threatened. You never want to be the smartest person in the room—and if you are, you’re in the wrong room. Great leaders know this and seek to surround themselves with masters of their crafts. The leader’s job, then, is to “play the orchestra.”
Contribute most to leadership results … inspire people
Inspire and motivate to get the most from each team member and succeed based on your ability to work with others.
A quality of great leaders is being able to clearly articulate ideas and get people excited and inspired about them. It’s not selling people on an idea, it’s inspiring them.
Always wear your passion and enthusiasm for what you are doing. To do that, you must find those things that you love.
Follow the passion; it is what gives you the strength to overcome the obstacles to everyday tasks. Passion is power … it is what keeps you going when everyone else gets tired and gives up.
Be a continuous learner
Observing and learning from those around you makes you stronger, better. Never fail to see its value. Your peers, as well as competitors, can usually teach you more than your friends. Let them. Learn from them. To be a great leader, you need to have a strong will and an even stronger stomach. At the end of the day, you need to remind yourself that your job isn’t to make everyone happy, but rather to improve the organization as a whole.
Good leaders constantly trying to improve, surround themselves with the ablest people they can find. They look squarely at their own mistakes and deficiencies, and they ask frankly what skills they and the company will need in the future. And because of this, they can move forward with confidence that’s grounded in the facts, not built on fantasies about their talent.
Always work hard at being a little better than you were the day before. Continuous learning is one of the most important attributes in the work and personal environment.
Persistence is key. Always keep up the effort as you will never know how close to success you may be.
Think about your energy. It’s not just about what you like best, but about what feeds you and what depletes you. And who. Do what you can to increase the good stuff and decrease the bad. You just need to realize you have the power to accomplish it. Much more than you may have imagined.
Be a good listener
You don’t gain insights by talking. Ideas can come from anywhere, so it’s important to keep your ears open to new ideas and insight. Focus on hearing everything that’s being said so you can make the most informed decisions.
Listening helps a leader get multiple perspectives. When making a decision, a good leader always listens to a number of different people. They know they own the final decision but always make sure they get input from multiple people.
A simple reminder … business leadership skills, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it … it takes lots of consistent practice. You need to dive into the pool as soon as possible.
Great leaders know that every step they take, every decision they make, matters in the end. They know they must strategize carefully, and then act decisively. They know they must think ahead — not just to their next step — but to the many steps after it.
Practice these leadership behaviors often and think ahead for your greatest leadership advantages.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated. You should certainly learn from Mike Krzyzewski personal leadership, shouldn’t you?
Spot on. I have been in the military and business world for forty years, and I often get asked what leader qualities contribute to the best leadership.
Developing these qualities is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning. Every great leader always looks for ways to improve all of these qualities.
Leadership can be especially challenging for entrepreneurs. Balancing the need to run a business (i.e., products, investors, customers, etc.) and the need to lead company personnel is quite a task.
Effective leader qualities as an entrepreneur mean that you can “make things happen,” instead of just “letting things happen.” The quality of leader influence involvement is required in many activities. It is involved in a variety of situations and problems, from the very simple to the very complex.
Leaders must influence others to achieve goals, and they must gain the respect of followers to influence them. This is no easy task, but if you want to have the respect of your followers, you have many trusted leader qualities.
Here are 13 Krzyzewski leader qualities Digital Spark Marketing uses with clients to improve their ability to develop to be the best leaders they can be:
Krzyzewski personal leadership … foster teamwork
Coach K made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say “I.” He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say “we.” “We” is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
We believe that employing an “employee of the month” or a “who gets credit for what” attitude is not a good process. You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
Krzyzewski personal leadership … encourage growth in others
Some companies follow the motto: “hire for character, train for skill.” You hire people that are eager to learn and are very “raw.” They don’t have a ton of skills; but as a leader, you teach them, and they become better. They grow with your company and contribute to its success.
You see this with coaches. In football coaching, it’s almost unheard of for someone with no experience to be hired as the head coach of a team.
Most people start in a low-level position (i.e., video coordinator, quality control assistant, scout, etc.) and gradually move up if they become successful in their roles. Sometimes it takes more than thirty years before they finally get a chance to be the head coach.
The same can occur in business. George Bodenheimer is the former president of ESPN. He started out working in the mailroom of ESPN. It would have been very difficult for him to rise to the presidency if he hadn’t had a boss who wanted to help him grow and succeed in the company.
Show courage.
Show courage
Always demonstrate your courage in making tough decisions, knowing that bad decisions will be penalized. Remember that doing nothing is always an option.
Krzyzewski personal leadership … boost employee confidence
Employee attitude is so critical that it can’t be overemphasized. It trickles down from employers. Your business isn’t optimized if you don’t optimize for employee happiness.
Leaders should make employees feel good about themselves. Constantly criticizing and pointing out the flaws in an employee is a sure fire way to decrease morale and performance.
A leader … Mike Krzyzewski.
Listens firsts and acts second
Someone who jumps to conclusions without first seeking to understand has made a fatal error—for themselves and their team. To lead people effectively, you have to take the time to listen and see things from their perspective. You have to put yourself in their shoes and fully understand the situation.
Always empowers their people
Many of my leadership philosophies were learned as an athlete. My most successful teams didn’t always have the most talent but did have teammates with the right combination of skills, strengths and a common trust in each other. To build an ‘overachieving’ team, you need to delegate responsibility and authority. Giving away responsibilities isn’t always easy. It can be harder to do than completing the task yourself, but with the right project selection and support, delegating can pay off in dividends. It is how you truly find people’s capabilities and get the most out of them.
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Krzyzewski personal leadership … get people to follow you
You earn leadership by what Anne Mulcahy calls “followership.”
“I think sometimes we forget that we’re not anointed leaders, we have to earn it, and we have to have people that trust us and are willing to follow. I think that is the differentiator between great leadership and average leadership.”
-Anne Mulcahy, Former Chairman, and CEO of Xerox Corporation
Even if a leader is anointed, it doesn’t mean that they’ll have followers. The leader needs to gain the trust of the followers. It has to be earned because not many people will mindlessly follow a leader.
Inspire people
Inspire and motivate to get the most from each team member and succeed based on your ability to work with others.
A quality of great leaders can articulate ideas and get people excited and inspired by them. It’s not selling people on an idea; it’s inspiring them.
Krzyzewski personal leadership … wear your passion and enthusiasm
Always wear your passion and enthusiasm for what you are doing. To do that, you must find those things that you love. Follow the passion; it is what gives you the strength to overcome the obstacles to everyday tasks. Passion is power. It is what keeps you going when everyone else gets tired and gives up.
Be a continuous learner
Observing and learning from those around you makes you stronger, better. Never fail to see its value. Your peers, as well as competitors, can usually teach you more than your friends. Let them. Learn from them. To be a great leader, you need to have a strong will and an even stronger stomach. You need to remind yourself that your job isn’t to make everyone happy, but rather to improve the organization as a whole.
Good leaders are constantly trying to improve, surround themselves with the ablest people they can find. They look squarely at their own mistakes and deficiencies, and they ask frankly what skills they and the company will need in the future. And because of this, they can move forward with confidence that’s grounded in the facts, not built on fantasies about their talent.
Always work hard at being a little better than you were the day before. Continuous learning is one of the most important attributes in the work and personal environment.
Krzyzewski personal leadership … show persistence
Always show persistence.
Persistence is key. Always keep up the effort as you will never know how close to success you may be.
Think about your energy. It’s not just about what you like best, but about what feeds you and what depletes you. And who. Do what you can to increase the good stuff and decrease the bad. You just need to realize you have the power to accomplish it. Much more than you may have imagined.
Limit your fear of failure
No matter how confident someone may seem, everyone is afraid of failing. All of us are afraid of screwing up or afraid of looking stupid.
But great leaders know that everyone they interact with is also afraid.
These people are successful because they act in the face of fear. They go after what they believe, seek change and, ultimately, make a difference.
They also believe they can take a risk because even if they fail, they’ll be able to learn from it and overcome it. Their fear doesn’t hold them back. Instead, it springs them into action, because they know not stretching themselves is worse than failing.
Krzyzewski personal leadership … stay optimistic and positive
To achieve greatness, you must create a culture of optimism. There will be many ups and downs, but the prevalence of positivity will keep the company going. But be warned: This requires fearlessness. You have to believe in making the impossible possible.
The bottom line
Mike Krzyzewski’s simple reminder is that leadership skills, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it. It takes lots of consistent practice. You need to dive into the pool as soon as possible.
Great leaders know that every step they take, every decision they make, matters in the end. They know they must strategize carefully, and then act decisively. They know they must think ahead — not just to their next step — but to the many steps after it.
Practice these leadership behaviors often and think ahead for your greatest leadership advantages.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your ability to lead. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, history may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
It’s up to you to keep improving your leadership learning and experience from all around in your environment.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your leadership better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add to the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on continuous learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
Leadership and teamwork go hand in hand, don’t they? So to build a strong team you need new leadership for these turbulent times, don’t you think? Not doing so well, are we?
Future leaders certainly need to grasp this fact and understand the concepts of the best leadership lessons, qualities, and attributes didn’t they?
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated. Coach Krzyzewski certainly understood the leadership qualities of the best leadership, didn’t he?
Employ your best leadership.
Spot on. I have been in the military and business world for forty years, and I often get asked what leader qualities contribute to the best leadership.
Developing these qualities is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning. Every great leader always looks for ways to improve on all of these qualities.
I have been in leadership positions in the military and business world for forty years, and I often get asked what the best lessons for future business leaders I have found. Surprisingly (or not) my list of lessons probably had varied to a degree, depending on when in my career it was constructed.
I have many leadership lessons learned in my years in the military (6 years) and business (35 years). Being a leader is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning. Every great leader always looks for ways to improve the ability to improve their leadership qualities and attributes. These leadership qualities are a great source of learning.
Trust
Among all the attributes of the greatest leaders of our time, one stands above the rest: They are all highly trusted. You can have a compelling vision, a rock-solid strategy, excellent communication skills, innovative insight, and a skilled team, but if people don’t trust you, you will never get the results you want.
Leaders who inspire trust garner better output, morale, retention, innovation, loyalty, and revenue, while mistrust fosters skepticism, frustration, low productivity, lost sales, and turnover. Trust affects a leader’s impact and the organization’s bottom line more than any other single thing.
Leadership that is not deeply rooted in a foundation of truth is leadership destined to fail. The reality is that the best leaders are also absolutists when it comes to the truth – they view truth as a non-negotiable.
However, in the wake of some of the recent, and highly publicized political scandals, it’s not too difficult to understand how some may question the existence of truth in business or government.
If you peel back the layers on most of the debacles that often transform themselves into highly sensationalized headlines, you’ll see that said problems often begin with rationalizations, justifications, posturing, and spin being substituted for the truth.
Courage
People will wait to see if a leader is courageous before they’re willing to follow his or her lead. People need courage in their leaders. They need someone who can make difficult decisions and watch over the good of the group.
They need a leader who will stay the course when things get tough. People are far more likely to show courage themselves when their leaders are.
For the courageous leader, adversity is a welcome test. Like a blacksmith’s molding of red-hot iron, adversity is a trial by fire that refines leaders and sharpens their game. Adversity emboldens courageous leaders and leaves them more committed to their strategic direction.
Exceptional leaders have contagious enthusiasm
What sets these leaders apart from mediocre leaders-every time, is a passion and enthusiasm for what they do. Their attitudes are positive, and their temperament is even-handed.
A leader in your organization with enthusiasm and passion will be the benchmark for the rest of your team. Without them, your work will be hard, but with them, your team can see extraordinary results.
These leaders bring out the best in those they serve.
Humility
Great leaders are humble. They don’t allow their position of authority to make them feel that they are better than anyone else.
As such, they don’t hesitate to jump in and do the dirty work when needed, and they won’t ask their followers to do anything they wouldn’t be willing to do themselves.
Accountability
Great leaders have their followers’ backs. They don’t try to shift blame, and they don’t avoid shame when they fail. They’re never afraid to say, “The buck stops here,” and they earn people’s trust by backing them up.
Listens firsts and acts second
Someone who jumps to conclusions without first seeking to understand has made a fatal error—for themselves and their team.
To lead people effectively, you have to take the time to listen and see things from their perspective. You have to put yourself in their shoes and fully understand the situation.
Gratitude must be a constant drumbeat of your dialogue. Infuse your conversations with an appreciation of your team’s acumen and determination to improve.
Learn to be thankful certainly when there’s great success, but also be thankful for what you’ve learned through the hard times because there’s great wisdom in those experiences.
After you have been knocked down, gain your composure, reflect on why this occurred and make changes.
Keep an open mind
Those who close themselves off from certain ideas and associate only with like-minded people are missing out on not only personal growth but also opportunities for advancing their careers.
Maintain patience
The proper timing of your words and acts will give you a big advantage over people who are impatient.
Have a place for everything, and put everything in its place
Inspire and motivate
No matter how good you are, you will only be as successful as your team. So … getting the most from each team member is critical.
We call this being a multiplier leader. Multiplier leaders know the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone around them.
Foster teamwork
Peter Drucker made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say “I.” He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit.
They don’t force themselves to say “we.” “We” is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
It can be negative for an organization to have an “employee of the month” or a “who gets credit for what” attitude. You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
So the next time you see someone with a resume that states, “I accomplished x” or “I did x,” it should send up a few warning signals.
Collaboration
It’s important to know it is OK to ask for help, advice and constructive criticism. There are very few places where a lone wolf leader can be effective.
Decisions are complex, and it takes a village of smart people to help make them. Leaders who aren’t inclusive may find that their organizations lack creativity.
Be decisive
While it’s helpful to get more than one opinion, strong leaders know when and how to make decisions.
Cabinet members could have argued forever, but Lincoln could know when he had all of the information he needed. Walking away to seek solitude, he was able to determine the best solution and make a decision without wavering.
Good leaders clarify their decision criteria, identifying musts and wants, and using that as a guide to compare options. Assess the risk of each option as well as the benefits, to help in making smart tradeoffs between alternatives.
Patience
Many leaders are intolerant of others who might do things differently, or at a pace the leader finds unacceptable. Action-oriented leaders may tend to jump to conclusions before things are thought through.
The lack of patience can manifest itself as anger or decisions that aren’t fully thought through. Be patient and reflective and always set aside thinking time. It is imperative for success.
Multiplier leadership
Multiplier leaders know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is not the lone genius.
Instead, it is the leader who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone around them.
No matter what the job is, leaders always want to look for the best people and then take care of them. An organization is just a group of people working on various creations and inventions.
People are your organization. It is as simple as that. It’s all about the people. They are the lifeblood of the business.
When you’re leading an organization, you’re leading people. It makes sense that leaders need to take care of their people. Many leaders work to have relationships with their employees.
Taking them out for coffee and getting to know them better is common among leaders. Putting people first is an important element in being a leader.
Learn good listening habits
To be a good leader you have to be a great listener. Brilliant ideas can spring from the most unlikely places, so you should always keep your ears open for some shrewd advice.
–Richard Branson
You don’t gain insights by talking. Nope. Ideas can come from anywhere, so it’s important to keep your ears open to new ideas and insight.
Leaders need to be good listeners of everyone … customers to employees to business colleagues. They need to listen to what other people say and not just hear it. Branson even carries a notepad with him so he can take notes on what people say.
Listening also helps a leader get multiple perspectives. When making a decision, a good leader always listens to some different people.
They know they own the final decision but always make sure they get input from multiple different perspectives.
The bottom line
No doubt these leader qualities are ones I demand from future leaders
Need some help in capturing more improvements in your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
