It has always been essential to raise up the next level of leadership.
As leaders we need to intentionally work with our people so we capitalize on the velocity we create. These are the 5 essential concepts I wish someone had shared with me when I was a young leader.
Time to figure this leadership thing out
I’ll never forget my first management job. I was excited to get hired by the top telecomm company in San Diego. They asked me to lead a high performing sales team. My manager assumed that with my military experience he could just turn me loose and everything would work out well.
In the Navy when you gave an order people actually followed it. Everyone was dedicated to mission of our squadron. I knew I could count on everyone I worked with.
Walking into this company with these same expectations was like walking into a buzz saw. Without mentorship, my first year learning how to lead people that didn’t have to do what I said was definitely character building.
5 core leadership traits
I have been reading the Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley. These are the five concepts that he feels represent the irreducible minimum that we as leaders need to teach the leaders we are bringing up.
1. Competence
Leaders must channel their energies toward those arenas of leadership in which they are most likely to excel.
2. Courage
The leader of an enterprise isn’t always the smartest or most creative person on the team. He isn’t necessarily the first to identify an opportunity. The leader is the one who has the courage to initiate, to set things in motion, to move ahead.
3. Clarity
Uncertain times require clear directives from those in leadership. Yet the temptation for young leaders is to allow uncertainty to leave them paralyzed. A next generation leader must learn to be clear even when he is not certain.
4. Coaching
You may be good. You may even be better than everyone else. But without a coach you will never be as good as you could be.
5. Character
You can lead without character, but you won’t be a leader worth following. Character provides next generation leaders with the moral authority necessary to bring together the people and resources needed to further an enterprise.
Your Legacy
An inheritance is what you leave to someone, a legacy is what you leave in someone. If God has gifted you with leadership then lead you will. My passion is to equip and inspire you so that everyone that follows you has a no regrets experience and that the world is a better place for you having been in it.
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