“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” -Jack Welch
Jay Ledesma
I have had the privilege of leading people and teams for most part of my corporate career. While it was challenging, it was also rewarding and fulfilling. There were mistakes along the way but with those mistakes came important lessons that guided me throughout my leadership journey…and even now that I am retired.
While there have been many changes and new challenges in today’s workplace, I believe that most of these leadership lessons are still relevant and applicable. Regardless of the generation, leaders want the same thing…to do their job to the fullest and provide the best for their team.
Let me share my Top 10 leadership lessons with the hope that they can also help you grow and become better leaders.
Lesson #1: It’s not about Titles or Positions. You may have the fanciest position title but it does not make you a leader. On the other hand, you may not have a leadership title but people will still follow you. Good leadership is about your actions and behaviors that inspire and motivate people. It’s your ability to influence others to do or move towards a specific goal.
Lesson #2: Have and share vision with the Team. Have a clear idea of where you want to bring the team and share it with them. Team members are excited to know and be part of the bigger picture. An effective leader is able to remove silos, foster a sense of shared purpose and promote teamwork and collaboration among team members. In leadership, there is no “I”, only “We”.
Lesson #3: Have a clear picture of your organization. Your organization chart should support the objective and operations of the team. It is created to define what roles are responsible for what job, how the roles interconnect and what skills are required by each. This allows you to hire the right person for the right position. Issues usually arise when organization chart is created to accommodate existing individuals in the team.
Lesson #4: Understand the role of your team members. As a leader, you can only fully harness the potential and contribution of the team when you know and understand the roles and functions of every team member. You don’t have to be an expert on each, but take time to learn the different roles. Team members appreciate when their leader makes effort to appreciate what each member does for the team.
Lesson #5: Have a growth mindset. Whether it’s about your team performance, work relationships or your personal skills, growth is key to success. A growth-oriented leader views challenges as opportunities to learn, develop and grow rather than as threats or obstructions. He welcomes and listens to feedback from team members as part of
self- growth. This mindset trickles down to the team members creating and promoting a culture of learning, innovation and creativity.
Lesson #6: Your personal goals can’t go before the Team. Leaders usually have big aspirations for themselves. They have their goals and plans set way ahead. It’s fine until leaders become too much focused on advancing their personal interests and ambitions and not what the Team needs. Your people will know and feel when you do things to serve your own agenda. The way to lift yourself is by lifting others in your team.
Lesson #7: Be Fair, be Consistent. Effective leaders know they can never please everybody. Trying to do so will cause more harm than good. For every decision you make, there will always be people who will favor and be against it. The key is to do what is right, what is fair and be consistent with your actions and decisions. You may not win all the votes but you win the respect.
Lesson #8: Don’t grab credit from your people. When results are not achieved, leaders own up the responsibility. But when tasks are done and targets are achieved, leaders take the back seat and allow members to shine and take the accolades. When team members feel that you are their biggest supporter, they will surely have your back. And without you knowing it, people are giving you credit when your team members are doing great.
Lesson #9: Be honest and transparent. A leader’s common mistake is keeping information to themselves and not sharing with team members. The worst is when they learn it from others as some facts may have been altered. Misunderstanding and distrust easily happen when there is lack of open communication between you and your team members. Some information may be difficult to share but still your team deserves to hear it from you. They may even give useful suggestions.
Lesson #10: Be there for your people. They won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care for them. Talk less, listen more and be accessible. Sometimes your people don’t expect you to give solutions, they just want to be heard. Don’t instruct, inspire. People follow you because they believe and admire your vision, passion, action and decisions. Be more patient and don’t give up on developing your people. Their confidence to get better improves when they feel your support and belief in them.
There are many more leadership lessons that I’ve learned throughout my personal and career life. But the above are what sustained me in my leadership journey. I am sure you have your own list. Let’s just be mindful that being a leader is a great opportunity to empower others. It’s a blessing to be a blessing to other people.