Coaching & Leadership

Harry Truman once said that leadership is: "The ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do, and like it." Genuine leaders have an intuition about people and ability to visualize the big picture. They think long term. They grasp the relationship of larger realities, have political skills, they cause change, affirm values, and achieve unity.

Keys to Leadership*

Trust your Subordinates
Believe in the people you are leading. Show this belief by giving them responsibility.

Develop a Vision
Share the vision; let them know where they are going and why. Do not constantly change direction and purpose; this will create confusion and lack of direction. Set the tone and the pace through personal example.

Keep Your Cool
Crisis is the test of leadership. The ultimate test of leadership ability is how well you perform in crisis situations. Know yourself well enough so you understand how you handle pressure.

Encourage Risk
Take a chance and try something new. That is the only way that you can get better.

Be an Expert
Keep learning; as soon as you think you know it all you ability as a leader will diminish. Dedicate part of each day to personal enrichment.

Invite Dissent
There is strength in diversity. Varied opinions molded into a unified program are much stronger than a strategy dictated from above.

Simplify
Focus on the need to do rather than the nice to do. Determine what is important and focus on that in the context of the whole plan. Remember simplicity yields complexity.

*Adapted from Fortune, Oct 24,1988, "The Seven Keys To Business Leadership." by Kenneth Labich

You must be willing to constantly evolve and adapt your coaching methods to the situation and the matter at hand. But your philosophy must not change. Ask yourself what have you done in the last ninety days or do you plan to do in the next ninety days to make yourself better?