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Navigating leaders get ideas from many sources. They listen to members of their leadership team. They talk to the people in their organization to find out what’s happening at the grassroots level. And they spend time with leaders from outside the organization who can mentor them. They always think in terms of relying on a team, not just themselves.
NAVIGATORS BALANCE BOTH FACT AND FAITH
You’ve got to have faith that you can take your people all the way. If you can’t confidently make the trip in your mind, you’re not going to be able to take it in real life.
you also have to be able to realistically deal with facts. You can’t minimize obstacles or rationalize challenges and still navigate effectively. Pretending obstacles don’t exist won’t help you to overcome them. If you don’t go in with your eyes wide open, you’re going to get blindsided.
Predetermine a course of action. Lay out your goals. Adjust your priorities. Notify key personnel.
Allow time for acceptance. Head into action. Expect problems. Always point to the successes. Daily review your plan.
Leaders who are good navigators plan ahead. They see more and before others, and they prepare more and before. This enables them to find a way forward as well as convey confidence and gain trust from people. Great leaders do all that, plus they make navigational adjustments, changing course when needed as they go along.
In the end, it’s not the size of the project that determines its acceptance, support, and success. It’s the size of the leader.
“Sometimes it costs money to put people first.”
Leaders who navigate well do their homework. For a current project or objective, draw on your past experience, have intentional conversations with experts and team members to gather information, and examine current conditions to inform your navigational planning. Once you’ve taken these steps, and formed your action plan, take action.
Leaders Add Value by Serving Others
“It’s improper for one person to take credit when it takes so many people to build a successful organization.” —JIM SINEGAL
But contrary to conventional thinking, I believe the bottom line in leadership isn’t how far we advance ourselves, but how far we advance others. That is achieved by serving others and adding value to their lives.
If you are a leader, then trust me, you are having either a positive or a negative impact on the people you lead. How can you tell? There is one critical question: Are you making things better for the people who follow you?
90 percent of all people who add value to others do so intentionally. Why do I say that? Because human beings are naturally selfish.
Being an adder requires me to get out of my comfort zone every day and think about adding value to others. But that’s what it takes to be a leader others want to follow. And eventually if you add value to others long enough, that value tends to multiply.
Albert Einstein, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921, asserted, “Only a life lived in the service of others is worth living.”
As a leader, your best place to be in an organization is where you can serve others best. The specifics will depend on vision, talent, opportunities, and organization, but the intention should always be the same—to add value.
I believe we can add value to others when we . . . 1. TRULY VALUE OTHERS
We must value people and demonstrate our caring in a way that our followers know it.
attitude that servant leaders should possess: they should be open, trusting, caring, offering their help, and willing to be vulnerable.
Leaders who add value by serving believe in their people before their people believe in them and serve others before they are served.
MAKE OURSELVES MORE VALUABL...
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The more intentional you have been in growing personally, the more you have to offer. The more you continue to pursue personal growth, the more you will continue to have to offer.
KNOW AND RELATE TO WHAT OTHERS VALUE
Inexperienced leaders are quick to lead before knowing anything about the people they intend to lead. But mature lead...
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They listen to learn their people’s stories. They find out about their hopes and dreams. They become acquainted with their aspirations. And they pay attention to their emotions. From those things, they learn who their people are and what is valu...
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DO THINGS THAT GOD VALUES
I believe that God desires us not only to treat people with respect but also to actively reach out to them and serve them.
Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’”
That standard for my conduct influences everything I do, not just in my leadership, but especially my leadership. Because the more power I have, the greater my impact on others—for better or worse.
when you give, you receive back even more than you give. And what you give gets multiplied.
“You cannot help someone else get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself.” —NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF
When you serve others, their success becomes your success.
How important is trust for a leader? It is the most important thing. Trust is the foundation of leadership. It is the glue that holds people together on a team, in an organization, and even in a nation. Leaders cannot repeatedly break trust with people and continue to influence them.
Character and good values make trust possible. And trust makes leadership possible. That is the Law of Solid Ground.
CHARACTER COMMUNICATES CONSISTENCY
Leaders without inner strength can’t be counted on day after day because their ability to perform changes constantly.
CHARACTER COMMUNICATES POTENTIAL
“No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character.” —JOHN MORLEY
CHARACTER COMMUNICATES RESPECT
How do leaders earn respect? By making tough decisions, by admitting their mistakes, and by putting what’s best for their followers and the organization ahead of their personal agendas. Respect is earned on difficult ground.
“The only thing that walks back from the tomb with the mourners and refuses to be buried is the character of a man. This is true. What a man is survives him. It can never be buried.” —J. R. MILLER
How can you improve your character? I recommend that you focus on three main values: integrity, authenticity, and discipline. To develop your integrity, make a commitment to yourself to be scrupulously honest. Don’t shave the truth, don’t tell white lies, and don’t fudge numbers. Be truthful even when it hurts. To develop authenticity, be yourself with everyone. Don’t play politics, role-play, or pretend to be anything you’re not. To strengthen your discipline, do the right things every day regardless of how you feel.
Sarah Bradford, said that Tubman told her: “I had reasoned this out in my mind: there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for my liberty as my strength lasted.”
The more leadership ability a person has, the more quickly he recognizes leadership—or its lack—in others.
When people respect you as a person, they admire you. When they respect you as a friend, they love you. When they respect you as a leader, they follow you.
Respect is gained on difficult ground. Any time leaders care enough about people to positively confront them to help them solve a problem, overcome a blind spot, or change a destructive behavior, both of them grow. The leaders grow in the respect they’ve earned. The followers grow because they experience breakthroughs they might otherwise never experience.
“A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.” —HENRY KISSINGER
Good leaders do what’s right, even at the risk of failure, in the face of great danger, and under the brunt of relentless criticism.
