lots of people ask what is leadership? from my lifelong experience in the field of consulting, training and nationwide leadership development I build a point of view that leadership is about performance. you should build your own point of view. Marvin Minsky father of AI once said: ” Point of view is equal 80 IQ points”.
Yes, it isn’t just performance but however it is performance art, what do you think when a singer performs art? what do they do to perform well? learn -practice -reflect and relearn) , Yes leaders in order to lead they need to practice leadership every day ( you need to do something every day outside of your comfort zone)i.e if you talk a lot during meetings and control it, you should change the role in the next meeting and listen and give the lead to someone else to facilitate the meeting as a leader. Try to do something different ( develop the capability to deal with different situations), key skills for a leader is to listen and observe.
One of the important dimension in development is receiving feedback but the feedback is an art by itself, you should target the right person to obtain feedback from, someone who is part of the context you want to receive feedback about, someone closer to the event/behaviors. I will give an example of what I meant let’s look at how a Director of a movie gives a feedback when he/she gives feedback to an actor it should be very specific, related to the context and short. He /she will not give generic feedback for a period of 45 Min ( Like we do in our performance appraisals), so selecting the right person is very important.
Mentors might be part of the feedback process but the most important part of the mentorship is that you as a leader should be committed to yourself to improve.
I found out that the leader should practice and build a culture of empowerment and responsibility so people thrive and achieve results.
When leading you should balance between the Balcony view ( bigger picture) and the dancing floor ( playfield), what does this mean? Leaders should see the bigger picture but at the same time understand the playfield. From my point of view, leaders fail because they don’t see and lead from the balcony level and drawn on the dancing floor.
A leader must have the following (Courage, capacity, wisdom, decision, choice, and trust) to lead and be a star.
Tips
1- Obtain Feedback all the time ( The right person at the right time)
2- Practice different approaches ( out of your comfort zone, do something every day)
3- Empower people
4- Lead with a bigger view
5- Listen, listen, listen and observe, observe, observe
Khaled El Gohary
Thought Leader
Leadership Advisor