We’ve taken a simple and clear take for this article to bring you 5 things that really matter and 5 Don’ts of Leadership.
We looked at our culture dashboard data and interactions with some of the very best leaders across a range of Australian contexts. One day we will properly circuit-break the over-emphasis on the traditional leadership epicentres of the USA and Europe, but for now, this gives you an essence of some great Australian leaders, and their approaches.
We give you a clear list of 5 definite ‘Dos’ from leaders and CEOS who have impact and success in the best way possible; and 5 downside ‘Don’ts’ that the best leaders simply never do.
5 Things that really matter
The very best leaders know what really matters.
These are:
- Impact – Prefer to see impact of their work on others (or whole organisations or communities) than ever needing a thank you. Almost uncomfortable when you call them out for praise.
- Generosity – Creating space for others to be successful, and contribute at their best. Expect others to collaborate and lift others for the good of the whole.
- Timeframe – Take actions for which the impact or outcomes is beyond them and their era. Good for the organisation. This is the old ‘grow a shade tree’ metaphor – planting a tree you’ll never sit underneath, but you know those in the generation behind you will.
- Change to meet new opportunities. Whatever the legacy, however well it’s served, they’re open to where the future goes. They’re open to new answers to new challenges, new options that haven’t been available in the past.
- Learning all the time! Seeking out people who can teach and show them new ways, new ideas, and possibilities. Put great people next to them without any concerns whatsoever.
Those five seem simple, but as a combination they’re all too rare.
5 Leadership Don’ts
Just as the very best leaders know that you’re trying to unlock potential to realise what might be possible – and any cap on that is of detriment to growth in every sense of the word, the worst leaders have limiting behaviours. These are the five that we think limit the most.
The leaders that limit, do these five things:
- Make their limitations everyone else’s. They stop others going beyond where they’re comfortable, or what they can go/think/deliver. They stop others from going past their limitations.
- Incessantly, persecute the past. How many times do you hear “We’ve tried it before. It didn’t work when we tried it last time, so never again” from leaders who are stuck in old lessons? They litigate and limit ideas based on their history, rather than being open to what’s right for right now.
- Control versus enable – They make themselves the final hurdle/permission, rather than clearning a path and cutting back the forest so others can be successful, they block the path, and make it impossible to go around them.
- Take credit for other people’s work, so there’s never any sunshine shared with the team. Rather than applaud and appreciate and give more space, they make the work of others look smaller.
- Talk about other people’s limitations – not about what’s great, but the shortfalls. You hear it in talent. Leaders who are afraid to have a successor, talk their team down. In their eyes, no one is good enough. Everyone has shortfalls, and to understand a person, you have to hear their value wholistically – the good, the potential and the things that need to change or improve. Hearing only the bad sounds bad on anyone.
Guaranteed, these five behaviours are limiting – for the leaders who do, and the teams and organisations they lead.
The landing
The landing is a reminder from the dawn of time here in our content at mwah. Making Work Absolutely Human.
It’s frighteningly simple, and yet requires ongoing diligence, thoughtfulness, and care – and that is the notion that leadership is FOR OTHERS.
It ain’t about you.
It’s about positive impact: on others, with others, for others.
Lifting together.