Leadership
I’ve recently been thinking a lot about what it means to be a leader. I’ve run a small business for the past 10 or so years so it has to be in my DNA right? Truth is it’s hard to be a leader, it’s tiring and stressful and it’s a 24 hour a day job.
I’ve learned two really important things over the years, one is to find really smart, inspiring people that you respect a lot to work with. Then work really hard to gain their respect. Once you’ve done that your main job is to just sort of steer the ship. I think this quote sums it up perfectly:
Leadership is simply the willingness to persuade, influence, and inspire those around you—regardless of whether they are a peer, a leader over you, or subordinate to you.
From: How to be a Leader: Practical Advice for the 99.9% of Us Who Aren’t Steve Jobs
The other thing (which is really the first part of the above) is to make sure you’re working with people who understand and internalize what it is you’re trying to do. They not only need to buy into your plans but they need to understand how to persuade, influence and inspire in their own terms as well. Another great quote & post that gets into this is:
Are you going to ask your boss, “What do you want me to do?” Or are you going to ask her, “This is what I think we should do. Can we move forward?”
