Leadership - a few thoughts

 

colorful representation of the word leadership with arrows indicating growth and direction related to effective team management and leadership skills

 

At a recent NCEE Entrepreneurial Leaders module in Oxford www.ncee.org.uk/leadership, I made reference to the work of Prof Rosabeth Moss Kanter from the Harvard Business School- one of my favourite leadership and change gurus to share some thoughts on leadership. The following are a few brief notes on six actions that an entrepreneurial leader (or in fact any kind of leader) can implement to keep projects, change and innovation moving in a positive direction.

 

1. Show-Up

  • Be there- don't be invisible- turn up and put energy into what you are doing.
  • Make yourself available - your presence makes a difference.
  • Don't hide in your office or behind emails or meeting.
  • Get out and about - both within your patch and also outside the university.
  • Take control of your diary and prioritise these activities.
  • Be mindful of your followers and encourage them and encourage them to do likewise.
 

2. Speak-Up

  • Use the power of your voice and communicate with your team regularly.
  • Shape the agenda- be proactive to ensure progress.
  • Help people to understand what is going on- interpret and use language that is understandable to a wide range of audiences.
  • Be a thought leader - share ideas, don't keep good ideas to yourself.
  • Be confident (even if you don't always feel it) and credible- people often see what they expect to see.
  • Be the one to identify the problem and start to initiate ideas and actions- this helps to get things moving and keep plans on track.
 

3. Look-up

  • Look at bigger things and consider vision, values and beliefs.
  • Know what you stand for and communicate that.
  • Be enthusiastic and motivated and able to elevate people's thinking from the day-to day operational ups and downs.
  • Avoid getting too bogged down in the details.
  • Be mindful of and nurture the talent around you.
  • Create opportunities and take opportunities.
 

4. Team-up

  • Work with people.
  • Be prepared to empower and delegate to encourage innovation and risk taking.
  • Collaborate and develop partnerships.
  • Find partners who believe in what you are thinking and doing.
  • Embrace the power of the team and always remember the most important word in the leader's vocabulary is “we” and the least important is “I”.
  • NETWORKING is only one letter away from NOT WORKING.
 

5. Never Give Up

  • Innovation and change can look like a failure in the middle- but do not give up.
  • Projects and ideas hit bumps in the road, change-resisters and critics start sniping and raising all sorts of reasons and objections as to why things won't work and can create all kinds of obstacles.
  • Be resilient and determined.
  • Communicate endlessly to get buy-in and to get people to commit.
  • Find a way around the obstacles- be creative and entrepreneurial.

 

6. Lift others up

  • Recognise and acknowledge others.
  • Delegate and empower others wherever possible.
  • Let others share the success-they will remember and will support you again in the future.
  • Elevate others and enable them to develop and grow from the success.
  • Celebrate successes.

 

Remember these six skills of leadership:

Show-up; Speak-up; Look-up; Team-up; Never give-up and Lift others up