Think Like a Leader
A dictionary definition describes experience as ‘the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation’. We refer to ‘experienced’ or ‘inexperienced’ leaders, often without really thinking through what we actually mean.
And yet there is often a depth and maturity that shines through in leaders who have been in multiple situations, come through them, and – most importantly – learned from them. Have we really ‘gained knowledge’ from our experiences – or just scars?
Experience can indeed be a great teacher – but we need the pupil and learner mindset to really benefit from it.
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Feel Like a Leader
New to your leadership position? Or have you been ‘round the block’ many times? The experience we bring to our positions needs to be used carefully, regardless of whether we have a little or a lot. If we feel we have a lot of experience we should be distilling and processing it. If we feel inexperienced there are many ways to gain new experiences – and you need to be intentional and deliberate in how to plan for gaining experience.
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Act Like a Leader
Perhaps the greatest actions an experienced leader takes are characterised by the attitude brought – treating every decision as a new one, informed by previous experience, but an action unique, that also needs to be learned from.
Switching on ‘auto pilot’ or ‘cruise control’ is always a temptation but one that ignores the dynamism and context of each new action. And the more actions we take the more experience we accumulate – as long as we continue to learn from them.
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“Experience isn’t the best teacher – if experience were the best teacher, then everybody would be getting better as they got older. A lot of people go through experiences and they learn nothing. “I think evaluated experience is the best teacher. I think after the experience, we pull ourselves away and ask ourselves what did I learn from that?” – John Maxwell.
Experience, in itself, is nothing – unless we do something with it. Listen to this podcast by John Maxwell to learn where experience sits in leadership growth and development. The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish is one of my favourite podcasts. Parrish is a superb interviewer and always draws out key features from his guests.
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What Inexperienced Leaders Get Wrong (Hint: Management)
by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
This is another classic from the Harvard Business Review. A number of years ago I heard Rosabeth Moss Kanter speak at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Her quiet command of the platform and her topic was memorable and the ability to present even the most complex problems in ways that made them understandable to all is what has made her one of the Business World’s leading management thinkers – a veritable guru!
This is from the opening section.
“There are an awful lot of leaders in trouble these days. Not just those under attack for ethical lapses, accounting problems, or excessive compensation. But the trouble I’m referring to is getting new ideas implemented and brought to scale. The leaders range from entrepreneurs with great ideas but a flaw preventing expansion, to new CEOs with a vision their stakeholders won’t rally behind that won’t guarantee results anyway.
Good management is a series of well thought-through actions including phases, communications, checkpoints, customer-impact-testing, metrics, contingencies, and feedback loops, designed to produce specified results on time and on budget, based on known circumstances. Where circumstances are unknown, as with innovations, then good management proceeds in a series of pilot tests, rehearsals, or rapid prototypes, in which early feedback at a small scale improves later execution at a bigger scale.
Evidence of managerial experience (and what was learned from it) would be a good prerequisite for leadership.”
Read the full article via the link.
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This short, crisp video summarises the importance of leadership experience and how to develop more experience. Developed by GreggU it is presented by Lighthouse Organisational Development who provide thousands of free presentations for individual and organisational development.
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A castle for Christmas that isn’t a movie one! This winter scene is Kilchurn Castle on Loch Awe, Argyll. Kilchurn is the name of the little island on which the castle has sat since the mid-1400s.
Another of Scotland’s hidden gems, most tourists spot it en-route to Oban and the west coast. In the late 1600s it was converted into a garrison fort by the powerful Campbells of Glenorchy, but seldom used in anger. It was abandoned almost a century later and has stood, dominating the landscape since – a reminder of a very different time in our history, preserved today by Historic Environment Scotland.
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Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience; by Richard Hughes, Robert Ginnett and Gordon Curphy. First published by McGraw Hill in 1993.
Some books you circle back to – this is one I read over twenty years ago. It’s popularity is evident in the number of editions produced, since first published almost thirty years ago. The title says it all – experience is fine but you need to do something with it. Work at it, improve it and develop yourself. Some of the key points explored are:
- Leadership is not a position; it’s a process.
- Leadership is both a science and an art.
- Leadership is both rational and emotional.
- Leadership relies on "followership."
- Many myths and stereotypes get in the way of leadership.
- Leadership has long been romanticized.
- Leaders - for good or for bad - influence people in order to accomplish a goal.
- How a leader achieved leader status often determines the level of followers’ loyalty.
- Leadership can have drawbacks and limits.
- Leadership skills differ from management skills.
New edition available from Wordery
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...without a little reflection, there is no Insight Added.
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward."
Vernon Law
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Lead well
Graham and Lesley
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This email is brought to you by The Leader (Scotland). It encourages leaders at any age or stage, in all sectors, to deliberately improve their leadership.
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