What chance gathers she easily scatters. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Category Archives: Resonant
What’s The Key Difference Between Good and Bad Leadership?
Dwight D. Eisenhower said leadership is ultimately you trying to get your mandate and desires done in your time table and in your way, while the one who is doing it for you is doing so because he wants to do it. Leadership then, becomes a process of motivating, inspiring and leading somebody while getting that person to express him or herself in the process.
Since history is replete with examples of leadership being used for noble OR nefarious purposes, what is the key difference between good leadership and bad?
The key difference is this: Good leadership does not violate the individual or lead them contrary to the beneficial and/or transcendent purpose which they desire.
Good leadership is a paradoxical blend between: a) personal humility and b) a noble, visionary driven will. Good leadership then, has to start in the area of the leader’s being. You have to BE a good leader in order to DO good leadership.
How would your followers rate you on these two criteria? What do you need to start doing, do more of, or change in order to become more of the leader you desire and your followers need you to become?
Content that helped bring these thoughts to mind and are worthy of your time and a look:
Ravi Zacharias (podcast: Leader Seminar Workshop: part 1 of 3)
Simon Sinek (book: Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams pull together and Others Don’t)
Never waste your time trying to explain who you are to people who are committed to misunderstanding you ~Dream Hampton
Ask, Don’t Tell!….Of Leadership & Questions
People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.” ~ Blaise Pascal
Indeed. While Transactional Leadership has it’s place, it can never replace or have the positive impact afforded by higher Leadership forms. Funny, people just don’t do well over the long-haul by simply being told what to do all the time…at least not the ones you want on your team.
On the other hand, Resonant and Transformational Leadership approaches can accomplish what Blaise Pascal so astutely observed. How? Transformational Leadership in particular accomplishes this through: Idealized Influence; Inspirational Motivation; Intellectual Stimulation; and Individual Consideration.
The other key component is to cut-out all the telling and instead start asking powerful questions. So, here are a few for us to consider: How would others characterize my Leadership style and approach? Would what they say be what I want to hear? If so, what do I need to do more of? If not, what do I need to do less of or change?
So, are you being and becoming the type of Leader you want to be? Regardless of your answer, how do you need to act on the last two questions to get more of what you and others want out of your Leadership?
“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.” ~ Blaise Pascal