Leadership is Responsibility
All effective leaders have four simple things:
1. A Leader is someone who has followers;
2. Popularity is not leadership, results are;
3. Leaders are highly visible, they set examples;
4. Leadership is not rank, privilege, titles, or money, it is responsibility.
When I was in school, one of my professors had us pick from a list of books on World War I and write a major essay on our selection. When we were discussing these essays in class, it was mentioned that every one of the books mentioned that the Great War was a war of total military incompetence. We asked our professor why. Our teacher said, “Because not enough generals were killed; they stayed way behind the lines and let others do the fighting and dying.” Effective leaders delegate, but they do not delegate the one thing that will set standards. They do it.
We cannot expect to retain the respect of employees, customers or any others, if we completely delegate the central function of our enterprise, if we don’t take responsibility for good and bad decisions and if we don’t take a place on the front lines.
Leadership skills are essential for all positions and jobs in today’s economy.
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