My Understanding of Leadership

1. respect

   Annotations:

   • Effective leaders know and respect their followers.  This comes from building a personal relationship with followers and recognizing their value as individuals as well as members of the team.
2. communication

   Annotations:

   • Leadership requires communication between leaders and followers.  Leaders should create an environment that is safe for sharing ideas, concerns, motivations, and feedback.

1. timing

   Annotations:

   • Everyone - leaders and followers - has strengths. They key is knowing how to use those strengths at the appropriate time.
2. variety

   Annotations:

   • Successful projects utilize a variety of strengths. An effective leader knows the strengths of followers and uses them.

1. delegate

   Annotations:

   • Leadership involves delegating tasks to followers.  Leaders should trust followers with responsibility. This prevents leaders from becoming overwhelmed or burned out, and it gives followers a sense of purpose on the team.
2. benefit

   Annotations:

   • Leadership takes into consideration the needs of the followers and of the organization and tries to reach a common good.
3. inclusive

   Annotations:

   • Effective leaders utilize everyone involved to successfully complete a project. The more people feel connected to the mission and vision, the more they will work to see that mission and vision accomplished.

1. skill

   Annotations:

   • Leaders are required to possess certain skills in order to be successful. Some leadership skills are communicating effectively, mobilizing people, organizing people, etc.
2. knowledge

   Annotations:

   • Though I see leadership as a learned skill, I recognize that some knowledge is involved.  A leader needs to have a solid working knowledge of the organization in order to make objective and widely-beneficial decisions.

Annotations:

• Though some natural traits are helpful in becoming a leader, leadership isn't for the elite, but can be learned over time. 

1. practice

   Annotations:

   • Like everything else that is worth being good at, leadership takes practice. It takes years to weed out all of those false beliefs and bad influences and to cultivate leadership skills.
2. growth

   Annotations:

   • Part of learning leadership is continuing to grow personally.  This means exploring and overcoming insecurities, triggers, etc., and growing in confidence, love, patience, etc.
3. information

   Annotations:

   • Leadership can be learned in part not only by personal experience but also by information of others' experiences (books, blogs, conferences).

1. weaknesses

   Annotations:

   • Leaders need to know their strengths, but they also need to be aware of areas they can improve.  The worst thing a leader can do is pretend she doesn't have any weaknesses. Realizing weaknesses also fosters collaboration between leaders and followers, as leaders accept that they need the strengths of others.
2. beliefs

   Annotations:

   • Leadership requires the leader to know his/her beliefs, to assess their validity, and to change the false ones.
3. influences

   Annotations:

   • Leaders need to understand how influences and role models are affecting their beliefs, attitudes, and motivations.