Learning Leadership

Great Leaders Lack Condemnation

This month's One Word at a Time Blog Carnival is on the word condemnation.

I believe this word relates closely to leadership because great leaders lack condemnation.  To "condemn" someone means you disapprove of them, do not like their work, despise, and look down on others.  (At least this is my opinion of what the words means, Mr. Webster might disagree.)

Great leaders don't condem people.  Leaders are meant to be the antithesis of condemnation.  We are meant to build up the people we lead.  To encourage them, motivate them, inspire them, and show them what is possible.  And the single greatest thing a leader can do is help his people discover and deploy their own strengths for the benefit of others (this topic is further discussed in chapter three of my book).  If a leader can help a person draw out his strengths and use them for the greater good, the leader has been successful.  However, you can't do this if you have condemnation as a regular part of your work.

In short, great leaders do the very opposite of condemnation.  They inspire others, encourage them, and support them to be more and do more. And they draw out the good qualities and strengths that their people have.

Learnings from The Paths of Leadership

A great leadership book I just finished reading is The Paths of Leadership by Andrew T. Le Peau.  It was one of those great books I picked up a few years ago at a thrift store for no more than fifty cents.

Just as the book title implies, the author Andrew T. Le Peau outlines different "paths" of leading.  Here's a few different paths he shares:

The Path of Serving
The Path of Following
The Path of Teaching

There were several others but the one which stuck out with me the most was the Path of Teaching.  This is definitely an area of my personal leadership I can improve.

The Path of Teaching according to Andrew was laid out clearly in the book when he asserts:

"But Jesus never lost sight of why he was teaching.  He sought to change not only what people thought and did, but who they were.  Lecturers who lose sight of these goals and merely seek to transfer so many bits of information from one head to another can be deadly."

Throughout the chapter Andrew continues to lay out this premise more and more.  He shares that leaders are able to teach by inductive thinking.  This is where you pose questions and share stories that encourages people to think reflectively and to come to an answer on their own.  I remember attending Tony Robbins' Unleash the Power Within seminar where he said many times, "I will ask you questions to get you to the answer that is true.  Because if I say it, you will question it.  But if you say it, you will believe it."

This really caused me to realize I need to ask more questions of the people I teach and lead.  I need to ask them questions that will help them think and come to the conclusion I would have told them.  This way they know it's true because they had to come up with it, and they will remember it longer because it's something they had to realize and learn on their own.

Question: What are some questions you ask of the people you lead?

 

We need healing

Sometimes I get the feeling that people expect leaders to be distant, out of touch, tough, an unemotional.  Often, this just isn't the case.

Leaders at times need healing.  Healing is what happens when we have an issue, problem or something that has happened where we need help getting over our feelings. 

Here's some examples of why leaders might need some healing:

• A staffer who has worked for us loyally and hard for a long-time takes a similar job at another company with all the same responsibilities, but slightly more pay.
• Someone within your organization is spreading poor discord and bad morale among the team, but they are doing it behind your back.
• A big deal you had been working on and cultivating for a long time was close to being finished, but someone else got in the way and caused it to not happen.

More times than not, healing is needed for a leader because of something someone else did or didn't do.  Leaders deal with people; often in the messy part of people issues.  And because of this, leaders often need healing.

*This post was part of today's One Word at a Time Blog Carnival on Healing.

Win a FREE Book: Abandon the Ordinary

I love to lead and I love to read.  And I really love to read leadership books.

A leadership book I'm very excited to read is, Abandon the Ordinary: Building a Distinctive Leadership Brand in Business, Family, and Church by Richard Lytle. 

I'm excited because not only do I get to read this book, but you do too.  Today I'm giving away a free copy to one of my blog readers.   Just follow the criteria to enter, and if you win, I will ship you the book to you for free. (Special thanks to Leafwood Publishers.)

Here's what you need to do to win a free copy of Abandon the Ordinary:

1. Tweet this: Win a free copy of Abandon the Ordinary given away by @ChristopherLS. Details here, http://bit.ly/bbaHQT

or

Post this link on Facebook - http://bit.ly/bbaHQT

2. Leave a comment below so I can track who shared the link on Twitter and Facebook.

At 11 PM PST on Friday, October 1st I'll randomly choose a winner.