Leadership is not for the Weak!
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Leadership is not for the Weak!
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Crosby
The quote above by Bill Crosby could not be more accurate. I was very fortunate in my life to be given leadership experiences at a young age. These life changing experiences created many challenges and many rewards throughout my career in both the school system, municipal government and community organizations. My first experience was at the age of 21 coaching sports teams at both the middle and high school level. I loved sports and felt it would be a natural extension of my abilities to coach and mentor these student-athletes. What I did not realize is that the selection of who would make the team would cause certain parents and community members to become disgruntled. I had no clue a 7th grade girls basketball team would solicit such raw emotions. Due to this I fell into the trap of selecting some students that did not have necessarily the top of the line skill set as others simply to avoid the controversy that may come along from their parents. Years later, similar experiences happened when I become a middle and high school principal. I found myself sometimes worried more about pleasing staff and community members with my decisions than doing what would positively impact the mission and vision of the organizations I served. Every single time I did this and went against what my gut said was the right thing to do it had huge impacts on my standing as a leader and on the ability for the organizations to meet their goals.
As a leader, you have to realize it is not a popularity contest and at times your approval rating my be lower than that of your local congressional representative. Leadership is a contact sport and can be messy at times. As Bill Crosby, articulated above so eloquently trying to please everyone actually leads to failure. I will take it one step further and say it will lead to organizational stagnation and not meeting performance objectives. This whole concept of not pleasing others all the time was my biggest learning experiences I gained from roughly four years as being a high school principal. It took me to my last year to finally realize this. Anytime you supervise 160 employees there will be times that those you interact with have different agendas. To many times, I put trying to make everyone happy above what was the most efficient or effective way to serve. Even after holding numerous positions and being in leadership spots for over 16 years I still needed to work on that. My personal desire to have people like me as the leader and like their jobs and coming to work had a major influence on my decision-making. This was a huge mistake but one that if you are currently in can be easily corrected.
It is important to realize in leadership an individual will never please everyone. In fact, if you were trying to please every one there would be something wrong or you may get labeled as being to a weak leader by some in your organization. It is essential to maintain your primary goal or vision and that is to do what is in best interest of those you serve. In the case of a school principal, your direct customers will be the students. In an elected official capacity it would be of the residents that elected you.
When push comes to shove a leader..is one that leads others even when they may not like the action or decisions that are made. Leaders that are high performing realize this through maturity and time in the particular role or in my case when you have your entire world turned upside in a blink of the eye!
Leadership is not for the Weak!
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Crosby
The quote above by Bill Crosby could not be more accurate. I was very fortunate in my life to be given leadership experiences at a young age. These life changing experiences created many challenges and many rewards throughout my career in both the school system, municipal government and community organizations. My first experience was at the age of 21 coaching sports teams at both the middle and high school level. I loved sports and felt it would be a natural extension of my abilities to coach and mentor these student-athletes. What I did not realize is that the selection of who would make the team would cause certain parents and community members to become disgruntled. I had no clue a 7th grade girls basketball team would solicit such raw emotions. Due to this I fell into the trap of selecting some students that did not have necessarily the top of the line skill set as others simply to avoid the controversy that may come along from their parents. Years later, similar experiences happened when I become a middle and high school principal. I found myself sometimes worried more about pleasing staff and community members with my decisions than doing what would positively impact the mission and vision of the organizations I served. Every single time I did this and went against what my gut said was the right thing to do it had huge impacts on my standing as a leader and on the ability for the organizations to meet their goals.
As a leader, you have to realize it is not a popularity contest and at times your approval rating my be lower than that of your local congressional representative. Leadership is a contact sport and can be messy at times. As Bill Crosby, articulated above so eloquently trying to please everyone actually leads to failure. I will take it one step further and say it will lead to organizational stagnation and not meeting performance objectives. This whole concept of not pleasing others all the time was my biggest learning experiences I gained from roughly four years as being a high school principal. It took me to my last year to finally realize this. Anytime you supervise 160 employees there will be times that those you interact with have different agendas. To many times, I put trying to make everyone happy above what was the most efficient or effective way to serve. Even after holding numerous positions and being in leadership spots for over 16 years I still needed to work on that. My personal desire to have people like me as the leader and like their jobs and coming to work had a major influence on my decision-making. This was a huge mistake but one that if you are currently in can be easily corrected.
It is important to realize in leadership an individual will never please everyone. In fact, if you were trying to please every one there would be something wrong or you may get labeled as being to a weak leader by some in your organization. It is essential to maintain your primary goal or vision and that is to do what is in best interest of those you serve. In the case of a school principal, your direct customers will be the students. In an elected official capacity it would be of the residents that elected you.
When push comes to shove a leader..is one that leads others even when they may not like the action or decisions that are made. Leaders that are high performing realize this through maturity and time in the particular role or in my case when you have your entire world turned upside in a blink of the eye!
Very though provoking post about society in general and modern church organizations. My question is – Is this common in small town America or is the the norm of human behavior around the country?
How would you finish that sentence? Pick up any book written in the past 5-10 years, and you’ll hear mega-church pastors from across the church world proclaiming the urgency to show Christ’s love to a lost world. They’ll know we’re Christians when they see how much we love them. Start a food bank, a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, a home for unwed mothers or a relief agency for the poor. Go to where the hurting people are and meet their physical needs. There is no greater way to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to show His love for a lost and hurting world. Well, that’s what they tell us.
Maybe our town is unique. One man told me the story of how he visited an elderly neighbor who invited him to take some food from his overflowing cupboards. He explained how he had a regular route…
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5 Tips to bring SUCCESS in 2013
5 Tips to bring SUCCESS in 2013
It is tradition this time of year to come up with New Year resolutions. I am not a big fan of this. I prefer to come up with several important tips or strategies that will increase the likelihood of your success for 2013. Use this list below as helpful strategies to bring success in 2013.
1. HAVE A SENSE OF URGENCY– Don’t settle for being comfortable. Always maintain the fire in the belly to improve or enhance whatever you are working on.
2. COMMIT TO LIFE LONG LEARNING– In order to be cutting edge in the job market it is essential to keep up to date with best practice and industry trends.
3. TAKE TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES– Having a balanced life of deity, family, work and friends is a must to be able to perform at high levels. Don’t get so caught up that you look up and life passed you by.
4. LIVE BY THE “GOLDEN RULE”– Treat others as you want to be treated.
5. STEP OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE– Doing this will make you a stronger and more balanced as an individual.
I wish everyone an exciting and rewarding 2013 as we embrace whatever life throws at us.
Drawing lines in Leadership
Drawing lines in Leadership
Leadership is not for those that don’t posses thick skin. It is essential that those who lead take the time to learn about those they serve. It is important to be human and find out what makes them tick. How are their families doing? What life struggles do they have, etc.? However, boundaries are essential. In fact, as a leader, if you don’t draw lines, it can be destructive to you and your career. I can speak from personal experience on this. Most people in leadership are compassionate and are genuinely concerned about people and their well-being. It is essential for this to be balanced and for a boss to remember that they are boss and subordinate.
I hired a lady that I dated. She was a single mom with two kids. She was bright and had the potential to move up the ranks quickly. I hired her because I wanted to help her family. THAT was the BIGGEST mistake in my life and my life has been impacted by that decision in every way.
My message for the day is to keep healthy boundaries. Don’t hire anyone that you had a prior relationship with and surely don’t EVER -and I can not stress this enough – forget they are your subordinate and, despite any prior friendship, you are the boss and need to act like it.
Views on Leadership
Views on Leadership
Leadership is an intriguing concept. Some feel leadership is something obtained by a title or a fancy name plate on a door to an executive office. Leadership is none of that nonsense! Leadership is simple to define. To be a leader you need to get others to follow. However, in reality it is not simple at all. A true leader motivates and inspires others to take control of their own destiny. It is not about power or authority. The whole idea that someone is in power is a perception not the reality in life. (Only one true person is in power and that is the man upstairs.) Refer back to my original statement above. It doesn’t matter what title you have on the door or what the organizational chart of your company may illustrate. If you turn around and you don’t see anyone behind you that means you failed. A transformational leader is one that cares about others and provides them the tools to dictate their own future and be held accountable for their own production. Do you know of any leaders like that? Unfortunately, these types of leaders are becoming less and less frequent in organizations. Instead you see many that cling on to Raven and Raven’s model of leadership that focuses on leading by positional power or title. This will never be the leadership style I use. What about you?
Steve Van Gorden 