I keep saying that leadership is something one does and is recognized later. I was reading Leadership DNA: Myths, Your Brain, and a Real-Life Leader and loved the comment from the interviewee, “I realized early on that I didn’t learn anything about leading until I tried to lead something. Only after I examined what had just happened and my part in it did I learn anything. Books and workshops gave me a way to frame what I had learned as well as some language to go with it. But none of that had any meaning at all without being tied to an activity.” Definitely a guy after my own heart.

Interviewer Steve Roesler adds, “He was quite adamant about building people through experiences and letting them–and the organization–determine their capabilities as a result.”

Reminds me of the Nike tag line Just do it, that kind of says it all.

That’s what it’s all about, folks, doing it. I’m not belittling what you can learn from books and classes, but it’s still learning, not doing. And everyone who’s ever taken their learning into the field knows that it changes in the doing.

Further, what works for one person won’t work exactly the same for another—as the saying goes, different strokes for different folks.

Doing is a function of your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy)™, which doesn’t match anyone else’s, just as no two snowflakes match. So anything you learn needs to be tweaked to fit your MAP and the circumstances even though the language used to describe what you do will be the same as that used by someone totally different in a totally different situation.

So go do, remembering that while it’s you who does, it’s the people/organization involved who deem you a leader, so quit worrying about it—just do your best.

One more note, but be sure to check out the links to Robyn McMaster’s Brain Myths Shape Your Choices. (Thanks, Steve:)

Looking for a few good leaders!

I’d like to invite my readers to suggest leaders in the instance who might be interested in writing a guest post about their experience. Self-nominations are welcome.

Nominees must actually be in the trenches doing it. I’m looking for managers, executives, volunteers, supervisors, parents, team members, etc. who may not even see themselves as leaders, but others do.

The only caveat is that they don’t formally teach, write or give talks about leadership.

You may nominate them publicly using “comments,” send them to me, or call me at 866.265.7267

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 1:49 pm and is filed under About Leadership, Announcements, management, What Leaders DO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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