Leadership
Saturday, July 18th, 2009- PROACTIVITY: a leader takes ownership and responsibility of his destiny and life; his behaviour is dependant on his decisions, not on external conditions. He exercises free will decisions based on his values, a leader does not blame others for his situation, he is not controlled by the external circumstances.
- VISION: a leader knows where he is going, has a goal in mind which is related with his values. Goals or vision is applied to different aspects of his life: family, professional, friends and social. However, a leader’s definition of success is not to reach those goals, is to work hard to try to achieve them while enjoying the journey. A leader provides direction, has the big-picture in mind. Is not tight to his history, he is only constraint by his values, beliefs and philosophy (and he is 100% committed to them).
- MANAGEMENT SKILLS: a leader has the skills to organize and coordinate the way to achieve the vision stated. A good leader is able to prioritize and decide what things to do first and how to do them; he manages himself, not the time (because it is impossible to manage ‘the time’). See time management matrix: pay attention to not urgent + important issues (quadrant 2). To do this, he has to be proactive to avoid urgent and important things to happen (prevent them) and he says no to the other quadrants. Quadrant 2 things to do include: planning, doing exercise, building relationships and reading.
- OTHER: other attributes of leaders is to be emotionally inteligent and try to find solutions that benefit all parties; this is not easy and it does not imply to let your interests go: you must be brave to defent your interests, to take hard and necessary decisions and to listen and understand others. Finally, leaders must be creative in order to find new solutions and synergies.
Reference: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
