Get Out of The Way

I was asked recently what I thought makes a good leader. There were several things that came to mind but one stood out for me – can you guess which of the following it is: 

• Have a clear vision and communicate it often, especially to your team

• Be bold, not incremental

• Act fast – don’t delay

• Don’t get too close to daily operations - hire and equip people to manage and focus on vision and strategy

• If you have good leaders, get out of their way – if not, find better leaders

• Make time to learn – success breeds complacency and complacency breeds failure

 It’s the “get out of the way” comment. I’ve had experience of “hands-on leaders” who insisted on various forms of micro-management – all of which sapped motivation and satisfaction. Thankfully I also worked with leaders who got out of the way.

 Here’s a valuable definition of leadership I came across which sums this up: “Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal”