I read Erik Sherman’s article entitled: “ 7 Things Great Leaders Do To Be Courageous”. A more accurate title would be “7 Things You can Do to Decrease Your Fears in The Leadership Role.” Erik starts by citing an article in Harvard Business Review by Julie Irwin: “The Myth of Absolute Loyalty”. He summarizes her position that placing all responsibility on the leader is a “set-up” for failure. It places unrealistic expectations on the leader that he/she is “all knowing”, has all the answers and doesn’t make mistakes. Erik then points to his book: “The Everything Leadership Book” (2nd Edition) and how he found that such pressures as Julie Irwin was describing lead to fear. His book then describes what 7 things he found great leaders do which reduces the pressure and fears they feel as the leader. Succinctly, he describes how smart leaders see leadership as a team effort with a joint mindset creating a process that evolves as issues are dealt with as a team. The leader works hard to enhance and facilitate others as a means to enhance the team’s skills and performance.
Part
1 Analysis How many
people do you know have refused to lead out of fear? Just about everyone? Fear = Weakness in most people’s eyes. So…… most people come up with excuses why
they cannot accept a leadership role.
The reason I think Sherman’s article is
so important to entrepreneurs is that learning to lead is a key to
success. A major theme of “Think and
Grow Rich” is that you cannot be
successful until you accept the fact that you must become a leader. Napoleon Hill states that most successful
people were very good followers before they became leaders. Being a good follower is the training. What Sherman does not discuss in his article is
how you assemble a team willing to join their leader in sharing the
responsibility and goals of the organization. “Think and Grow Rich” describes this team as “The Master Mind”. Like minded people. When you find such people you will notice
their taking on ownership of the goals and direction of the organization. They share in the mission or vision. When this occurs, everyone is self-directed
with little need for supervison. When
you don’t have this you have employees or workers with a “whatever”
attitude. Problem today is we are loaded
with these people in our workforce.
Once you take on the goal to become a
leader and you begin the process of self-improvement (often by being a good
follower first), the next step is to
seek the “right” people. I believe you
must have the “right” people to accomplish what Sherman describes in his
article.
