If the “perfect” list of leadership tips existed, it would highlight “Take A Break”. Leadership is demanding, so demanding in fact, that burnout is much too common. Stress may kill, and as Tom Peters says, it also kills effectiveness. When "innovation" needs to happen, leaders need to show everyone around them that they are r-e-l-a-x-e-d.
How's that again? Innovation is about letting go of "the plan", the analysis, the financial implication. Innovation may end there, but it starts with...mindless meandering, crawling along the rocks by Lake Superior...wandering in the woods...playing with childlike abandon, preferably with children. When you are free to see issues from a new perspective, with a wide horizon, the solutions appear.
The Rest Of The "Almost Perfect" Leadership List
Just like "fast food" isn't healthy every day, "fast leadership" can lead to an unhealthy organization. For innovation, think "slow".
“Slow Leadership’s” shortlist of attributes would include:
* The willingness to think deeply and independently.
* A true focus on creating the best outcomes for the most people over the longest period of time.
* The willingness to reflect carefully on all the available options before committing to action.
* An acceptance of the ethical and moral responsibilities that go with all leadership positions.
* A sound appreciation that the bulk of his or her job is about helping others succeed, not improving his or her own position.
* An understanding that profit is an outcome of good management, not a goal to be pursued for its own sake.
* Open-mindedness and adaptability, in place of rule-bound, silo thinking.
* Most of all, moral courage to stand up for what is right and accept full responsibility for all his or her actions and their outcomes.
Source: Carmine Coyote is the founder and editor of Slow Leadership http://www.slowleadership.org/blog/
Are you in synch with the demands of leadership as we know them now?
Or have you been left behind in a cloud of dust, while the innovators are truly changing the world?
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