What Makes A Good Leader

Leading others is about FIRST serving others. As a reference, I recommend Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness, by Greanleaf, Spears, and Covey. Servant leadership is about working, as a leader, to enable those that you lead to have what they need in order to fully exercise their gifts, talents, and skills in accomplishing the organizations goals. As to those who are a member of the team that is lead by an individual who is truly modeling Servant Leadership, those team members are responsible for helping that leader to have what they need in order to execute to business goals (be successful): this can include information, perspectives, insights, feedback, etc. As an effective leader in my own right, and as someone who serves an individual who models Servant Leadership, I feel impelled to have fierce conversations about goals, objectives, and outcomes in the light of a people centric culture. It IS my responsibility to bring my gifts, talents, and skills to the table and to provide all of the information that I have at my disposal to strengthen my leader's position. This DOES NOT mean that I am a YES person, or coddle to his vanities or feed him what he wants to hear. I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THIS IS IN ANYONES BEST INTEREST! As a VALUED member of the team, it is my responsibility, my obligation, and my honor to share what I know, think, feel, and experience. "When the right people with the right mindset come together, you've a championship team."

With regards to Simon Sinek's Tweet: "A team's job is to provide their leader more options. The leader's job is to give his/her team the resources to do so." The options available are about the teams efforts to provide leadership with the input they need to be able to consider all viable options. It is in the role of best serving the team, that the leader willingly and open-mindedly considers the insights and ideas coming from the team. This support structure is SYMBIOTIC in nature and inclusive regarding the importance of the team to the ultimate success and viability of the outcomes.

As a part of an effective team, we must all engage in the kinds of sharing of information and unfiltered dialogue that challenges and strengthens each of us.