John Eades* says there are thousands of professionals in today’s workplaces who call themselves leaders, but far fewer who actually live up to the title.
There are thousands of professionals all across the world who call themselves a leader in their respective organisations.
The reality is the vast majority of these people are a leader in title only.
Sure, people report to them, and they have some authority over others because of seniority or prior performance, but they aren’t a leader to anyone on their team.
Before we go any further, it’s important to set out how I am defining a leader:
‘Someone whose actions inspire, empower, and serve others to produce an improved state over an extended period of time.’
There are many reasons why people never have this kind of impact on others.
A few reasons include:
We are taught management, not leadership, in school.
We have a shortage of real leaders in organisations, so people don’t have a close role model.
Performance reviews rarely focus on the development of direct reports.
All of these are completely fair and acceptable reasons why people never become leaders, but there is one that stands above the rest.
Being a leader is hard work. It requires a level of self-discipline and commitment to others that most people aren’t willing to have.
If you want to be different and rise above the average, give a few of these ideas a try.
Think of others’ needs before your own:
What do you do when you look at a picture for the first time with you and others in it?
Most likely you look at yourself at first. It’s human nature.
In order to be a real leader you have to combat your human nature of thinking about yourself, and proactively think about others.
Your people know if you are willing to sacrifice, serve and listen to them.
Set high standards and hold people accountable to them:
The best leaders rely on standards as a way to elevate the performance of their teams.
A standard is simply ‘defining what good looks like’.
Once standards have been clearly defined and communicated, then it’s your job to hold people accountable.
Accountability is all about making others aware of the deficient behaviour that is causing them not to meet the standards that have been set.
Devote time every day to the development of leadership skills:
Leadership is a journey and not a destination.
Which means you can be improving your leadership skills or they can be getting worse.
Invest in the development of your skills by attending conferences, reading books, listening to podcasts, or writing down lessons learned throughout daily interactions.
Admit you don’t know all the answers:
No one likes a professional who thinks they know it all.
There is simply too much information and too many balls in the air for one person to solve every problem.
Humble yourself and be vulnerable with others by admitting you don’t know it all and ask for their help.
Come up with a mantra that motivates and inspires others:
The best leaders understand the power of words.
They can motivate, inspire, and capture the hearts of people.
In the Welder Leader Program, we call a collection of words that do this a ‘maximising mantra’.
Every leader, regardless of what kind of an organisation they are in, should leverage a maximising mantra.
Some of my favourites include ‘row the boat’, ‘take dead aim’, ‘let’s go’, ‘move the needle’, and ‘sacrifice is rewarded’.
*John Eades is the Chief Executive of LearnLoft and author of, F.M.L. Standing Out and Being a Leader. He is also the host of the Follow My Lead Podcast and can be followed on instagram @johngeades.
A version of this article originally appeared on Inc.com
