Learning Leadership

I get repeated reminders in my head to adopt continous scanning and learning of leadership styles in my career. Whether I have mettle to apply them and will I shape up better depends more on how I train myself to learn it. These posts are self ruminations in the learning journey on the soft aspects of leadership.

Fact: You can either learn it the hard way or hardly learn it.

Good News: You get a style to suit you and you develop your own. So earlier the good lessons learnt, the better part will be available to live and flaunt the style for years ahead.

Bad News: is learning what your style is, or imbibing the practiced ways of established leaders to your style is tough. Following the prescriptions that worked for others will lead to fail if it is not a part of you.

Worse: is that we need to fear the self to prevent us doing harm to others (knowingly or as a consequence) yet not be scared of taking right steps in the stride.

It is a dichotomy world to live a leader life. Only if it is seen this way. The better part of leadership is to maximize the good within available and utilized resources.

The tough tasks get tougher because
1. All things you stand up for, are always critically reviewed in context (not yours but in receivers own world). Hence the need to be critically self-aware of the chances to succeed. To achieve it is imperative to persist as last man standing throughout the distance to deliver maximum good of everyone involved.

2. Assuming good behaviour and intentions in people yet looking for bad patches or tracking and coaching on undesired outcomes is not a contradiction, but the essence of leadership. As long as it helps you to ensure assured returns that do not diminish in/with time, it needs to be a contigous exercise.

3. Essential to explaining hard decisions is to apply the lens of logic and combine them with emotions and impact. Not everyone will see it a good move. But it is essential to move for good. If the move expands to take advantage within available means, then it becomes a harmonious existence of you, your organization and the spread of economic value.

4. Pushing the limits is not to test the breaking point but to challenge the greater innate abilities that is desired to be tapped.

5. Making decision on people is tough and is hard, but it is never postured nor executed with the suprise of attack. It is with good grasp of future that you value people, relationship and their suitability to changing trends.

6. Even in leading small teams, we find multiple differences and the need to make a coherent view to make a rationale decision and move with strict execution.

There are many facets of organization, shades of people and social/business opportunities where good things do churn out continously. It is the learning to lead the wave (even to change the direction or steer it off the blocks) that makes the job stressful yet eventful and colourful careers do exist for us to aspire and emulate.

How much mine will be is for years to tell me. 

Entertain your Market

If you are like me, managing small teams, being all for your customers without other departments attention, interfacing for sales, maintaining relationships across accounts, involved as a single point in sales and deliveries, this would be my advice to you.

Your market is made up of your own people, solutions they develop, clients who use them and competitors who have the equivalent of your solutions and want the same people and client. Thus the entertainment starts in making sure you keep your people, clients and increment or change the market to steer the competition far away behind. Even competition would love if you can create the entertainment that is enjoyable as playing catch up always gives excitement to stay the course.

Try to create the music that would make the constituents keep you company and this would benefit you to run your business as an independent offerring.

There are 2 currencies that can help you determine the entertainment levels.
1. Smile: Bring forth it and make it your companion in tough times of listening to an irate boss, customer or in tough negotiations. Your smile will get you a thaw point and that will bring you up steadily.

2. Thoughtfulness: Believe me, it doesn't cost much to be thoughtful and doing something worthwhile that will aid in keeping the constituency happy and satisfied. It is the little things that makes you the master entertainer in a crowded market place. Never replace it for processes, organization dynamics or short term gains.