I met a great bunch of leaders at the Common Purpose insideOUT event today. I was asked to put together a session on leadership aimed at stimulating some 'thought and debate' on 'The Leader I Will Be'. I identified 7 things I've seen successful leaders do, and although this is obviously not a 'complete list' of key factors, I put them forward for 'thoughts and ideas'.
The 7 things great leaders do are:
- Get That 'Vision Thing': Successful leaders create a clear picture of the future that stimulates, excites and inspires (both themselves and their people)
- Go For A Walk!: This is all about proactively creating time to think and work 'strategically' - that's working 'ON' the business, not just 'IN' it.
- Remove Your Blind Spots: The best leaders actively seek feedback, and put themselves in situations that help them identify the things they're not doing so well
- Play To Your Strengths: Winning leaders don't try to be all things to all people - they recognise that they can't be brilliant at everything - they work on their strengths and accept their 'tolerable weaknesses'
- Engage Others: It's about creating other leaders, not followers and maximising people performance at every level
- Fish In Different Ponds: This means getting out of your 'comfort zone', mixing with people 'not like you' and tapping in to new environments that you're not familiar with (more information here)
- Challenge The Status Quo: Successful leadership is about questioning what's going on, and encouraging others to do the same
You can download the slides from the presentation here, and download a simple assessment tool to help you evaluate how you 'measure up'.
In the meantime - what do you think of the 7 key factors - do you have any key habits of successful leaders that you'd like to add? If so, please do so below