3 Keys that Unlock Masterful Leadership
Being a Great Leader Requires Thinking Differently.
Are you in a leadership position over anyone? A manager? A parent? Little League Coach? CFO?
If you are, I hope you are practicing these three keys to great leadership.
Give Information, Not Advice
Ryan Holiday once told a young man asking for advice to “get information that you can translate into advice.”
Give Information, Not Advice
If we examine this maxim from the leader’s perspective, an effective one should be able to give useful information while recruiting workers who are savvy enough to translate it when necessary.
In my own teaching career, I have discovered that people seeking advice rarely followed through when I gave it. Most of the time someone who asked for advice was really just looking for encouragement. I learned to give that encouragement with concrete information about how to do something. If my message was delivered at the right time and they grasped what I was saying, they had a breakthrough.
Most self-help books are full of advice and very little information. People need information to act with confidence. A leader who can teach skills and foster growth in someone else — that’s a person worth following.
Some of the most valuable information a leader can offer is how someone can get on the inside of something where the real opportunity exists.
Each career path has its own collection of social codes. Only the people who learn how to decipher the codes are invited to play.
You may be an emerging talent and have all the motivation you need to be successful in your chosen career, but if someone who is already on the inside doesn’t explain the social codes needed for acceptance into that world, you will always be on the outside looking in.
Anyone who has ever rushed a fraternity or sorority understands this. It takes a strong leader to recognize useful traits in someone and show them the way inside. Leaders decide who gets in the room where it happens and who gets the door shut in their face. If you’re fortunate enough to be in a leadership position you are a doorkeeper, so remember this next key.
Leave Judgement at the Door
Being judgmental is a time killer that is better spent on strategy and execution. Unless your leadership position is to be an actual judge, you probably want to ignore poor behavior when possible and constantly encourage productive ones.
Leaders often mistakenly think that their job is to fix problems.
Most problems are caused by people — therefore ineffective leaders get caught up focusing too much on people they label as “problem people” when their real task should be empowering people.
This happens in education all the time. A teacher labels a student a “problem.” Then many parent meetings, faculty discussions, and administrative time are devoted trying to “fix” the problem. A negative pursuit.
The amazing Quincy Jones once said, “The moment you see your challenges as a puzzle and not a problem, you’ve found your way out.”
A puzzle has a solution. Good leaders should avoid addressing problems and instead bring everyone together to collectively solve a puzzle. This avoids the issue of assigning blame, which is pointless and turns potential allies against you.
Being the positive practical voice when everyone else is freaking out and pointing fingers can be a powerful position to be in.
Imagine you are responsible for an individual who has gotten a reputation for being rebellious, irresponsible, or lazy. This person is probably somewhat aware of how others perceive them — they may have even been accused of things to their face.
Now imagine how receptive to your direction this person will be when you treat them as if their questionable behavior does not exist? That might sound like neglectful leadership, but if done right, it’s actually an attitude of grace that will earn you a loyal disciple.
If you are in a management position, I want you to try something the next time you catch an employee not doing their job. When you call that person to your office, instead of giving them the rebuke they expect, say that you see great potential in them. In fact, make them believe that if they really focus and perform well for the next six months, a raise or promotion isn’t out of the question. Make them believe you see value in them, and they will become determined to prove you right.
Dwelling on past mistakes doesn’t get anything done. Instead, by dangling a carrot of potential reward in front of someone, you have given them hope. It doesn’t matter if the person really has potential or not, they will try harder for the next six months than ever before. And if that doesn’t motivate them to change — fire them for wasting an opportunity.
Use Authority as a Backscratcher, Not a Hammer
If you are in a leadership position, you already been granted authority by title.
If others are not recognizing your authority, you may be doing something (weak body language, self-depreciating talk) to undermine yourself. Of course, there are situations where an individual refuses to accept a leader’s authority because of personal bias (women in leadership positions experience this from insecure men). But more often, leaders lose their authority by first losing respect. If you don’t give people reasons to respect you, they will never want to follow you.
The leader who barks loudly gets tuned out.
When your Mom or guardian would yell at you to clean your room. How did that usually go? Wasn’t your response usually to slam your door or yell back? This same bullying attitude passes for bad leadership all the time.
The two natural human reactions to aggression are fight or flight, not agree and submit.
A good leader keeps a cool exterior, even when someone may be single-handedly burning the place down because they understand that if you want to affect change, you have to get that person on your side first.
If you are invested in a goal, it is normal to feel angry when some careless person jeopardizes its success, but that’s precisely the time to act counterintuitively.
“The supreme art of war is to subdue someone without fighting.” — Sun Tzu
Keep the offending person off-guard by approaching them with kindness and humility instead of an iron fist. Offer them something that they don’t deserve, and they will be willing to help you in return.
It’s very telling that when you role play with a child, as soon as that child is given the role of an authority figure, they immediately start stomping, pointing, and shouting orders at everyone. We must ask ourselves: is that what mature leadership looks like?
Being a leader in anything is a massive responsibility. Whether you are a counselor at a kid’s summer camp, or the CEO of a fortune 500. Don’t be the type of leader who just ends up imitating all the bad leaders you once suffered under. Strive to be a leader who holds the keys to genuine motivation and productivity.
