Musings on Leadership

 One of the biggest lessons I learned, as a leader, was to say "no" without feeling guilty.  As a leader there seems to be a never-ending demand on your time. Someone wants to talk with you. Someone else wants you to attend their meeting. Someone has a great idea for a new project. And on and on. It feels like the more you do, the more you're asked to do. If your plate is full, what they're asking doesn't take priority over what's on your agenda, and it doesn't absolutely HAVE to be done by you, it's okay to say, "no". In fact, saying "no" can be an excellent delegation opportunity! " That sounds like a GREAT idea but I don't don't have the bandwidth to take that on right now. Could YOU head that up for us? " (You'll find out quickly just HOW good of an idea THEY think it really is! LOL!)

 ( This post is inspired by an article I read on the Trello blog. If you're not familiar with it, Trello is a web-based collaboration tool. At one glance you can see what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process. Think of it as a white board, filled with sticky notes, with each sticky note being a task. ) If you're not familiar with them, one-on-one meetings are meetings between a manager and a team member to discuss how things are going. Do we really need more meetings? Let's face it, most meetings could have been better handled by an email. In fact, 67% of employees say that excessive meetings get in the way of them making an impact at work! One-on-one meetings CAN be very helpful - and not just for the team member! They can also help YOU improve YOUR performance. For the team member, use them to discuss priorities, challenges, and professional development. For you, the leader, these meetings provide an opportunity to: build

To be an effective leader, you essentially need two traits: 1) the skill and competence to be promoted to a leadership position and, 2) the ability to attract willing followers. John Maxwell says, " If you think you're leading, but no one is following, then you are only taking a walk. " I was very careful, in that first paragraph, to qualify "followers" with "willing". You can absolutely be a leader with unwilling followers. I've often heard it said that the most difficult type of leadership is leadership in a volunteer organization. At your job, you HAVE to follow what your boss says or you'll be fired. In a volunteer organization, they don't HAVE to do ANYTHING you say. You have to MOTIVATE them to WANT to do what you ask. Good leaders, on the other hand, spend their time ensuring that their "followers" actually WANT them as their leader. Lieutenant General Hal Moore, the solder on whom the movie " We Were Soldiers " w