How to Solve the Garbage Problem in Leadership
You insult your friends, colleagues, and your maker, when you neglect your abilities. But, worst of all, you insult yourself. Garbage is neglected; valuables cherished.
Stop treating yourself like rubbish.
Develop your gift.
Stop expecting others to do what you must do. Take responsibility for the swamp you slipped into.
Despise downward stagnation
before you sink out of sight.
Peter Drucker said, “Leaders are not born, nor are they made – they are self-made.”
Self-made isn’t selfish:
Develop yourself by serving others. Enhance your ability to make the world better for others and you enhance yourself as well.
Develop yourself by developing others. Leaders are more than learners, they’re teachers. Those who teach develop the most.
Giving is vitality;
hoarding is death.
Pour into your cup by pouring into others.
Generosity is the path to maximum impact.
Generous leaders give others confidence to be themselves, before they give information and advice. Those without confidence reject learning.
The gift of confidence:
Confidence isn’t the result of encouraging words like, “You can do it.” Those who lack confidence reject encouragement. Confidence is the result of achievement followed by acknowledgement.
Develop yourself by helping others achieve.
Topics for self-development:
Follow your whining.
- “No-one listens to me.” – Listen to others.
- “I feel neglected.” – Make others feel important.
- “I’m not getting ahead.” – Help others reach their goals.
You aren’t neglecting yourself when you seize opportunities to be generous with others.
Suggestions inspired by Facebook contributors:
- Try stuff. Gain broad experience. Don’t get stuck in one thing.
- Welcome feedback. Excellence requires feedback.
- Connect with generous leaders who share what they know.
- Seize opportunities.
- Hang with those who are more talented and wiser.
Great leaders are great at developing themselves and others.
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Good post as always, Dan.
How can leaders develop their own leadership?
Learn who you are. Find out what you are naturally good at, study and work at the things that you are not good at. Listen, listen, listen.
Developing your own leadership is a process, and how it develops is in your hands. Make every effort to become better; better than you were before. Take every opportunity to grow and learn. Find practical lessons in every event and every person.
Embrace change.
Thanks Martina.
I’m glad you added self-knowledge to this discussion. It’s the place all development begins. We must have some idea of who we are developing.
I really need a Love button for this post, it’s just perfect. I love the idea of following your whining, definitely sharing this post 🙂
Thanks Vanessa.
I don’t know about you but I see lots of whining around me and I do it myself. We might as well make good use of it. 🙂
Good post Dan, here’s my two cents:
Listen to as many points of view as possible and then trust your own judgement.
Explanation by hammer gives people headaches. SPAM works if you use Emmanuel Gobillot’s definition (Stories, Proverbs, Analogies and Mantras)
Work toward goals for the sake of the result and not for the credit it might bring to you or your team.
If you see garbage that needs cleaning up ask yourself: If not me, who? If not now, when?
At the end of the day whatever we do will always have some kind of an impact on someone, somewhere so make it a positive one!
Always Care!
Paul
Thanks Paul.
You make me want to do things that make me proud of myself.
One of my favorites is “work toward goals for the sake of the result and not for the credit…”
Morning Dan!
GREAT GREAT GREAT stuff today!
Here is the way that works for me and MILLIONS of others and for ANYONE who does it.
1. Trust God(whatever you think or feel that is, that is the dignified position the 12 Step Fellowships offer you, generic, open to all Gods kids, no qualifiers to separate folks into separate teams)
2. Clean House
3. Help Others
Sound like a plan?
I Concur!
Shifterp Back to the Present where IT all happens!
Thanks Scott.
I’m a firm fan of faith too. In this case the faith that God made me for a purpose, I’m not an accident, helps me believe I’m worth it. Faith justifies and gives purpose to self-development for me.
Thanks Dan,
With you up to the point of self development.
Can’t recall any Spiritual literature I have ever come across that directs development of self.
To the absolute contrary all of it encourages losing self to discover the true nature of our being.
I know for me and my experience if I went into an AA meeting and said I am here to develop my-self….I’d get laughed out of the room.
We alcoholics tried everything till we were ready to admit complete defeat. I heard it called “deflation at depth”. I know what that is, happened to me. Been sober and clean Dan since that moment.
That is what happens when one has a true spiritual experience, things change in an instant. Happened to me just like that.
If that glorious moment doesnt happen for a spiritual being having a human experience I doubt they understand it at all. I didn’t till I experienced it myself.
My ONLY goal now is to follow my Higher Powers will as closely as I can perceive it with my developing sixth sense the AA Big Book talks about.
My quiet meditation time has no self development quotient, just the opposite.
So with ya, right up to that self point. I see it needs to go bye bye and think from what you said it needs to be developed.
I see that as different. Not right or wrong.
Really interesting to see how folks see themselves and the world, huh?
Thanks again,
SP back to the moment of creation…..NOW!!!!!
Thanks again Scott. What do you call it when you learn new skills? I think of it as self-development. But, I’m thinking you’re using the term in a much deeper sense.
I think that to develop our own leadership we must first learn to lead ourselves. It is hard to have people follow (especially other leaders) if you can’t lead yourself.
Thanks Anthony.
If you can lead yourself, you’ll be better at leading others. I don’t know about you, but self-leadership is the toughest leadership.
Yes! In a recent post, I mentioned that we have to claim a “New Sheriff in Town” attitude when we reclaim our confidence. But it also means we have to be the “New Garbage Men in Town”, hauling off the trash we believe about our limits. Great thoughts, Dan.
I’m really working on giving to others, especially in rejecting the urge to just give advice and solutions rather than to cultivate them in my team.
Thanks Justin.
For those interested here’s the link to Justin’s article: http://bit.ly/14tIwuJ
On giving advice vs helping others find solutions… I’m telling myself over and over… Being helpful isn’t owning other people’s problems.
You’re right, Dan. Because we as leaders often feel like we own the aggregate outcome, this is a difficult distinction.
Dan, Your post today has (at least) 3 things to love about it. 1. Peter Drucker’s quote – love it, live it; all well-rounded leaders are living proof of it. 2. Leaders learn the most by teaching others — it’s the best way to root and affirm your knowledge. 3. Follow your whining — or as I like to think of it . . . turn your whining around. In the end, leadership for me means helping others.
Thanks Scott
I appreciate your affirmations and the shift from follow your whining to turn your whining around. Nicely said.
Your comment, “Generous leaders give others confidence to be themselves, BEFORE they give information and advice,” is bang-on. This keeps people developing, as opposed to becoming dependent on the leader. Leaders with insecurities will have a hard time with this one.
Thanks again, Dan. Your posts have been a welcome “interruption” to my day.
Thanks for letting me “interrupt.”
I continue to see the power of instilling confidence in others. Confident team members are free to listen, try things, seek advice and give it, and just get more done!
I wish more leaders got this idea that building confidence takes everyone further than telling people what or how to do stuff.
This one hit right between the eyes. I love the Peter Drucker Quote. Anyone who is truly sucessful is self made. Keep up these excellent blogs. I am looking down the barrell of a big change and I love the encouragement to follow my true self
Thanks Sammer and best wishes for the journey. I’m glad someone other than me gets hit between the eyes.
The challenge for todays successful leader is to evolve to a new mindset that relies on human skills, talents, integrity, humility, and most importantly ‘TEAMWORK’.Personal character means everything and is the foundation of Character Based Leadership. Character based leadership requires us to look deep within ourselves, to contemplate the human condition, to discover who we are and who we need to be in order to lead effectivly. To fulfill the potential our future offers (WE NEED TO IDENTIFY, CULTIVATE, SUPPORT AND INSPIRE, THOSE WHO WORK FOR US THAT HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE CHARACTER BASED LEADERS). If you/we are are to capitalize on our greatest asset, we must rediscover the importance of fundamental relationships between human beings. I can not tell you what this will mean for your decisions and actions as A leaders. I’m asking you to truly look at your employees with a more character based approach, with an eye to what human beings can bring to the table and gain from it. This commitment to taking respondsability to honor each others worth, and the way life itself is expressed through the productivity of peoples hands, heads, and hearts, is not only a decision, but also a journey. “It is my sincere hope that through your struggles to see this vision in action, you will realize it’s infinate power. “Cheers Dan”
Kapow! Thanks Steve.
So many things I read my thoughts are I wish I could forward this to so and so, or I wish so and so would only read this. This post for me was an ouch I am glad is was me read it. ; O)
Thank you
Kymee
I guess all we can do is take lessons for ourselves… But, I hear you, sometimes I just wish someone would learn the lesson I think they need. 🙂
“Confidence is the result of achievement followed by acknowledgement.”
— there’s a great take-away! 🙂
Let me acknowledge your insight… 🙂 Thanks Ken
thanks, that builds my confidence! 😉
Wow! Can we call you Drill Sergeant Dan! Whew! This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks IAm. I think? Drill Sergeant, I’ve been called lots of things but never Drill Sergeant. Hop to it there soldier! 🙂
It’s a great thing! Drill Sergeants push you to develop the best in you. They cause you to get up and get going. They don’t allow you to have pity parties. They are in your face. They speak the truth. They are the foundation of training for your military journey. It’s training that lasts a lifetime. Great response – Hop to it there soldier! Great response! 🙂
“Giving is vitality” – I love this principle. You get what you give. Whatever you want more of just give it and you will be amazed at how it comes back to you. I’ve tried it and its true. The key is not to expect it back….just give love, hope, peace, money without expectations and they will all come back to you. In the Bible it states, “Whatever a man soweth THAT shall he also reap”. Leaders keep giving…
Thanks for your wonderful ideas in helping people like me to know what I ought to know to get to the highest high.I know that I may not be able to pay, but my prayers will always go for Leadership freak which I believe God will answer for your good works deserves God helps and assistance. once again I say thanks for give this opportunity in Jesus name amen.
When I read Sun Tzu, he spoke about three kinds of leaders:
1. When the task was done, the people said they did it because they feared the leader
2. When the task was done, the people said they did it because they were inspired by the leader
3. When the task was done, the people said they did it themselves.
I tried, in my career – and not with total success – to emulate the third kind. Life is all about learning. You must continuously learn about yourself if you are to grow as a leader, and have the humility to accept that the journey never ends
Powerful statement: Those who lack self confidence reject encouragement. That one hit me like a ton of bricks. It makes perfect sense. We have to look at leadership from the inside out. Great read. Thank you.