Are People Born Leaders or Do They Learn Leadership?

As a leader, do you continue to 'practice' the art of leadership? 


Leadership is not an innate trait that you're born with. It can be learned. The key is to practice before you have the official title.  In fact, even leaders in the role need to continue to practice.  Start by focusing on the choices you make now, such as who to put on your team or who needs to participate in your projects. Recognize that you likely don't know everything. Making decisions based on incomplete information is a skill that every leader must master. Once you've acted, ask yourself: Was that the right decision? Could you have done something differently? This will get you comfortable with making decisions, acting upon them, and reflecting on their outcomes. Then, learn from your inevitable mistakes. You will build knowledge and skills as you work up to the larger decisions with broader consequences that all leaders have to make.






Adapted from "Wilderness Leadership—on the Job" by John Kanengieter and Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin.

Are you Mentoring? If not, why not?

As a leader, are you mentoring the next generation of leaders?

It's rewarding to become a mentor and it's a role that every leader should take on. But you can't take every young, aspiring leader under your wing. Ask yourself these three questions to choose the right protégé:

• How motivated is the mentee? Assess the reasons for the junior person's drive to become a leader. Your mentee has to be motivated if you're going to have a successful relationship.  Do your values align? 
• How far is there to go? Where is the mentee in terms of experience versus where she wants to be? You should take someone on with developmental gaps that you can help fill.
• Do I have the relevant experience and time? You never want to shortchange a mentoring relationship. Be sure you can effectively support the mentee in terms of knowledge and effort.  Remember, you're 'serving' them....so be ready to provide the time, energy, and skills needed to help.

Adapted from "Get the Mentoring Equation Right" by Whitney Johnson.

Planning Strategically for Meetings

As a leader, are you planning strategically for your meetings?

From the moment you send a meeting invite, as the meeting organizer you are responsible for setting the right tone and making the meeting a success. Here are three things you should do before people get in the room:

• Clarify the objective. Make sure people know why they're invited. If it's to make a decision, give participants the time and materials they need to prepare.
• Prep important people. Talk with key participants about agenda items ahead of time. You may hear insights that could change how you run the meeting.
• Include everyone who needs to be there.  Think carefully about who needs to be there.  Who truly cares about the topics?  Who has valuable knowledge insights?  Who might bring valuable divergent thinking to the group?
• Expect full participation. Ask attendees to do their homework, come with relevant materials, and show up ready to contribute.

Adapted from Guide to Project Management (HBR OnPoint Collection).

Engaging with Social Media - Do It...but Wisely

As a leader, are you wisely engaged with social media? 

Social media is not just for socializing. When handled correctly, you can use it to enhance yourself personally, establish your expertise, engage in learning, or demonstrate your digital fluency. Commit to using social media for professional reasons but be proactive about managing your activity and image. Consider what potential employers or colleagues will see—you don't want them to discover only pictures of you and your dog, or worse. Make sure at a minimum you have a LinkedIn - or similar - account with a completed profile. Try tweeting or blogging about your area of expertise, thereby creating content that others can forward, retweet, or repost. This can help you establish yourself as an expert and a leader who is truly passionate about your work.  As well, be sure to access the knowledge of others who are also engaged!


Adapted from "Boost Your Career with Social Media: Tips for the Uninitiated" by Amy Gallo.

How are You Unique as a Leader?

As a leader, what is it that makes your leadership unique?

To be successful as a leader, you need to know your strengths and what special skills and qualities you bring to your role. If you can't articulate them, you can't expect others to see them either. Here's a four-step process to identifying what makes your leadership great:

• List your strengths. Include skills and knowledge you've acquired through experience and education as well as softer intrinsic strengths, such as insightfulness or empathy.
• Ask for input. Ask colleagues for honest feedback - either directly or anonymously.  Just be sure to hear from those you lead.
• Revisit past feedback. Reread old performance appraisals or think back on coaching experiences.  Have you grown in these areas?  How? 
• Modify your list. Adjust your original list to reflect what you've learned. Make sure the strengths are specific so that they are credible and useful.

Adapted from "Five Steps to Assess Your Strengths" by Bill Barnett.

Admit what you don't know

As a leader, are you able to reveal your weaknesses in order to build a stronger workplace?

Leaders who insist on making all the decisions often find themselves with disengaged employees. If people aren't taking charge in your organization, your leadership style might be the problem. If you have an overly directive approach, take a step back. Acknowledge your failings (whether they be your knowledge base or a particular skill set) with your team. Share your personal and organizational goals. Then, admit that you don't have all the answers and you need your team's help in reaching those goals. This will give your people room to actively participate in the organization's success. This act of humility is often seen as courageous and inspires others to follow suit.

You can extend this idea to actually inviting some individuals to take on certain roles.  For example, if you're bad at remembering the social aspects of the workplace, ask for a couple of volunteers to take on this responsibility.  Another example might be asking for a volunteer or two to help identify what's missing from conversations at meetings.  Certain individuals could be asked to help the group identify perspectives that may be missed when your team gets together to work.  By engaging more staff with important workplace roles, you're sharing the responsibility of leading the school/organization.  You're building capacity, and you're ensuring the workplace is a healthy environment in which to work because responsibility is shared.


Adapted from "Fire, Snowball, Mask, Movie: How Leaders Spark and Sustain Change" by Peter Fuda and Richard Badham.

What is it about your leadership?

As a leader, what is it about your leadership that makes a difference?

Each of us is an individual.  We have unique knowledge, experience, stories, and skills.  The same can be said of us as leaders.  We each lead in different ways based on our knowledge, experience,and skills.  The important question each leader needs to ask himself or herself then is: What is it about your personal leadership that makes a difference in your workplace?

This question causes you to reflect on yourself as a person and as a leader.  What is unique about you and your leadership that makes your school/organization successful?  It's more than bringing together a great team of people.  Leaders add value.  What is your value added to your school/organization?  If this isn't an easy question to answer, it probably calls for some thinking/reflecting on your part. 

Here are just a few questions that might help guide your thinking:

• What are my unique knowledge, experiences, and skills?
• How do I use these as a leader in my workplace?
• Do I make conscious decisions to enact certain leader behaviours?
• Do I rely on 'gut reaction' (unconscious decision-making) in order to lead? 
• Is my school/organization doing well, at least in part, thanks to my leadership?  How do I know?
• Could I be replaced by another person and the school/organization would do just about as well?
• What value do I add as leader? 

Drop Your Mask and Be Authentic

As a leader, are you authentic with your staff?

Are you hiding from your staff? Too many leaders try to conceal their flaws and present a polished façade - the 'bluff exterior'. Or they try to behave like they think "great" leaders do. When you try to be someone else, it erodes trust and effectiveness and causes people to question your true identity.  Your staff can see through this behaviour.  So drop the mask and be who you really are. This can enhance your relationships, foster trust, and create better outcomes at work. Be honest about your imperfections and ask others to help you determine how to bring more of your authentic self to work.  By not being 'perfect', you're able to build capacity in your organization/school by cultivating the knowledge and skills of your colleagues. 

Adapted from "Fire, Snowball, Mask, Movie: How Leaders Spark and Sustain Change" by Peter Fuda and Richard Badham.

What are you planning to learn this year?

This post is a revised version of the Dec 22/11 post - with a view to the future....

As a leader, what are you planning to learn this year?

Michael Fullan (2008) reminds us that "Learning is the work."  As leaders, we aren't effective if we aren't learning - just as we want our staff members to be learning.  So....what are you planning to learn this year?  What will be your learnings as a leader this year?  You'll likely need to take a bit of time to think about it.  You'll probably have to reflect on what you might want to change. 

In order to identify what your leader learning could be for this new year, you might want to use some of these questions to prompt your thinking:

• What went well last year?
• What didn't go so well last year?
• If I were to do something from last year over again, what might I do differently?
• What would I not change in my leader practices for this year?  Why?
• Of my leader practices, which do I feel are really solid?
• Of my leader practices, which need some attention?
• As a leader, am I accomplishing the things I want to accomplish?  If yes, why?  If no, why not?
• As a leader, what knowledge do I still wish to gain? 
• As a leader, what skills do I still wish to gain?

What did you learn this year?

As a leader, what did you learn this year?

Michael Fullan (2008) reminds us that "Learning is the work."  As leaders, we aren't effective if we aren't learning - just as we want our staff members to be learning.  So....what did you learn this year?  What were your learnings as a leader this year?  You'll likely need to take a bit of time to think about it.  You'll probably have to reflect on what went well and what didn't go so well. 

In order to identify what your leader learning was this year, you might want to use some of these questions to prompt your thinking:

• What went well this year?
• What didn't go so well this year?
• If I were to do things over again, what might I do differently?
• If I were to do things over again, what would I not change?  Why?
• Of my leader practices, which do I feel are really solid?
• Of my leader practices, which need some attention?
• As a leader, am I accomplishing the things I want to accomplish?  If yes, why?  If no, why not?
• As a leader, what knowledge do I still wish to gain? 
• As a leader, what skills do I still wish to gain?

Stop Complaining

As a leader, do you have a tendency to complain?

As leaders, we face daily challenges.  These challenges can be difficult for us because they draw on our skills, our knowledge, our beliefs, our values about the work we do, and in some cases, our patience.  We can handle challenges that demand skills, knowledge, beliefs, and values.  We can learn the skills and knowledge we need.  Beliefs and values may be tested but if we hold them dear, they won't weaken.  Patience, though, can be tough.  At times, our patience is tried by the range of challenges we face.  When patience is tried, we can slip into complaining.  When patience is often tried, we can slip into complaining often.  In fact, complaining can become a habit. 

Is complaining just blowing off steam?  That might be a convenient excuse to use to justify our complaining.  However, we need to consider those whom we serve (students, parents, communities) and those who follow us (our staff).  What is the impact of our complaining on them? 

As leaders, we hope to inspire both those whom we serve and those we lead but if we slip into the habit of complaining, the impact on staff can be far-reaching.  When leaders complain, staff can become demoralized, unmotivated, cynical, even fearful.  Worse, staff may not want to bring forward important issues for fear of the impact on you as leader.  The potential for a downward spiral in the culture of the workplace is evident. 

Next time you feel like voicing your complaints, consider who's listening.  What impact might your complaints have on them?

Being an Enabler

As a leader, how do you serve as an enabler for your staff? 

As a leader, one of your key roles is to serve as an enabler for your staff.  You need to enable your staff to do their work to the best of their ability.  You do this by ensuring they have:

• the tools they need
• the knowledge they need
• the skills they need
• a workplace that supports their mental and emotional well-being
• clarity of purpose in their work
• a belief that their work has value
• freedom from distracters
• protection from activity traps
• easy access to you
• problem-resolving processes
• ...and on the list goes....

This list - and all of the other things that could be added to it - demands a significant skill set on your part.  How do you build and refine the skills you need to be a leader who enables others to do their best work?