General Leadership
Basic Ingredients of Leadership *
Leaders come in every size, shape, and disposition - short, tall, neat, sloppy, young, old, male, and female. Nevertheless, they all seem to share some, if not all, of the following ingredients:
"The first basic ingredient of leadership is guiding vision. The leader has a clear idea of what he wants to do - professionally and personally - and the strength to persist in the face of setbacks, even failures. Unless you know where you’re going, and why, you cannot possibly get there...
"The second basic ingredient of leadership is passion - the underlying passion for the promises of life, combined with a very particular passion for a vocation, a profession, a course of action. The leader loves what he does and loves doing it...The leader who communicates passion gives hope and inspiration to other people..
"The next basic ingredient of leadership is integrity. I think there are three essential parts of integrity: self-knowledge, candor, and maturity...until you truly know yourself, strengths and weaknesses, know what you want to do and why you want to do it, you cannot succeed in any but the most superficial sense of the word. The leader never lies to himself, especially about himself, knows his flaws as well as his assets, and deals with them directly.
"...Candor is the key to self knowledge. Candor is based in honesty of thought and action, a steadfast devotion to principle, and a fundamental soundness and wholeness.
"...Maturity is important to a leader because leading is not simply showing the way or issuing orders. Every leader needs to have experienced and grown through following, learning to be dedicated, observant, capable of working with and learning from others, never servile, always truthful...Integrity is the basis of trust, which is not as much an ingredient of leadership as it is a product. It is the one quality that cannot be acquired, but must be earned.
"Two more basic ingredients of leadership are curiosity and daring. The leader wonders about everything, wants to learn as much as he can, is willing to take risks, experiment, try new things. He does not worry about failure, but embraces errors, knowing he will learn from them...
"Even though I talk about basic ingredients, I’m not talking about traits that you’re born with and can’t change...leaders are not born, but made, and usually self-made. Leaders invent themselves."
* Adapted from On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
Lessons From Geese **
Fact 1: As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an ‘uplift’ for the birds that follow. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater range than if each bird flew alone.
Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.
Fact 2: When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose, we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.
Fact 3: When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies to the point position.
Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other’s skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents or resources.
Fact 4: The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one’s heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek.
Fact 5: When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.
** "Lessons from Geese" was transcribed from a speech given by Angeles Arrien at the 1991 Organizational Development Network and was based on the work of Milton Olson.
