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 lessons_for_leaders.rst
NAME
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Lessons For Leaders
===================
 
**lessons_for_leaders** - Lessons For Leaders
In the course of a multi-decade career, it has been my privilege to
work with- and for some terrific leaders. These people demonstrated
the essential behaviors that make leaders great. They were generous
with their time, but more importantly, they taught by example.
 
Leadership roles are now transitioning to the next generation. I see
so many younger people thrust into these roles without having had the
benefit of this kind of mentoring that was once so common. So, I
decided to write this to try and distill the core principles that have
served me so well over the years.
 
I claim none of this as my own. I'm just a scribbler that took
time to format the great notes given to me ...
 
 
SYNOPSIS
--------
Acknowledgements
----------------
 
lessons_for_leaders.rst [-hv]
Don Stuart, Manager Radar Alaska - Who taught me that the work isn't done
until you're proud of it.
 
Zvie Liberman, President, Talk-A-Phone - Who taught me the centrality of
work discipline.
 
Richard Brander, Director Of Research, Beltone - Who taught me to focus
on very hard problems for long periods of time.
 
David Cornwall, Sr. Architect, United Airlines - Who taught me to integrate
technology and business and then lead upward.
 
Mark Teflian, CTO Nets Inc., President Time0 - Who taught me to be a
relentless advocate for my people.
 
Jim Manzi, President Net Inc. - Who taught me that doing well includes
doing good.
 
H. Ross Perot, EDS and Perot Systems - Who taught me that leaders
begin and end with unimpeachable integrity.
 
 
DESCRIPTION
Who Is A Leader?
----------------
 
We've come to think of leaders as people who are *CEOs* or *Senior
Vice President Of Nothing Important* or some other lofty title.
Implicit in every young person's first promotion to *Manager 1st
Class* is the message, "NOW, you are a leader."
 
This is nonsense. In fact, it's a corrosive idea. First of all, you
manage *things*, but you lead *people, ideas, and strategies*.
Management - even when done at the highest levels - is essentially
glorified bookkeeping. Yes, it's necessary bookkeeping, but that's
all it is. It has been my misfortune to see more than a few "great"
managers who were fundamentally lousy leaders. This ends up being
destructive to the organizaton and bad for that manager's professional
development.
 
Secondly, title and pecking order do not correlate directly with
leadership. It is certainly true that the higher up you move in an
organization, the more "leadership" responsibility accrues to you.
But it does not follow that your new title magically makes you a
leader, let alone a good one.
 
The truth is that leaders are people that ... exhibit leadership
behaviors. And here's the great thing, *they exist at every level of
the organization*. There are leaders to be found among administrative
assistants, bookkeepers, engineers, teachers, soccer moms, and retail
clerks.
 
The point is that your title doesn't make you a leader. *Your title
sets the expectation that you will exhibit the behaviors of a leader*.
 
 
The Lessons
-----------
 
Long description
Great Leaders Have Permission
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Whatever your title, past accomplishments or educational pedigree,
your people have to give you their permission to be led. This is a
matter of trust. The Board Of Directors may have just annointed you
CEO and Chairman, but if your people do not find you worthy of their
trust, you will fail.
 
Trust is not built all at once, but great leaders exhibit daily
behaviors that - over time - create a deep reservoir of trust. This
is incredibly important when times are bad. People will hang in there
with you if you've proven yourself to be trustworthy. They'll do this
even if their jobs are horrible at the moment, or the raises are
lousy, or there have been RIFs and so on.
 
The inverse is really terrible. When people do not trust their
leaders, they don't necessarily quit. More usually, they just take
their foot off the gas, or in the most pathological cases, they will
practice what I call "Malicious Obedience". They will do *exactly*
what they are told, even though it's the wrong thing. The feedback
paths every leader needs to succeed will dry up and the wheels will
come off the organization. I've seen more than one putative leader -
even some fairly good ones - watch their organizaton implode because
their behaviors did not instill trust.
 
 
OPTIONS
-------
 
-h Print help information
-v Print detailed program version information and exit
Great Leaders Have Unimpeachable Integrity
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
 
OTHER
-----
Trust begins with one thing: Integrity.
 
You must have a reasonably current version of ``Restructured Text`` installed.
Great Leaders Are Stewards And Servants
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Think Strategy First
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Take Cues From Reality
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Are Often Lost And Lonely
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Maintain Perspective
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Foster Constructive Argument
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Take Risks
++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Can Identify Bricks And Mortar
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Are In Sales
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Share Success But Take The Blame
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Celebrate In Public And Remediate In Private
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Insipire People Beyond Their Boundaries
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Great Leaders Are Whole People
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
 
BUGS AND MISFEATURES
--------------------
 
None known as of this release.
 
 
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING
Copyright And Licensing
-----------------------
 
**lessons_for_leaders** is Copyright (c) 2015 TundraWare Inc., Des Plaines, IL 60018 USA
**Lessons For Leaders** is Copyright (c) 2015 TundraWare Inc., Des Plaines, IL 60018 USA
 
For terms of use, see the ``lessons_for_leaders-license.txt`` file in the
program distribution.
Permission for unlimited distribution and use of this document is
hereby given so long as this document is reproduced in full. This
article may also be quoted in any part so long as original attribution
is provided with the quoted material.
 
If you install **lessons_for_leaders** on a FreeBSD system using the 'ports'
mechanism, you will also find this file in::
 
/usr/local/share/doc/lessons_for_leaders
 
AUTHOR
Author
------
 
::
 
Tim Daneliuk
lessons_for_leaders@tundraware.com
tundra@tundraware.com
 
 
DOCUMENT REVISION INFORMATION
Document Revision Information
-----------------------------
 
::
 
$Id: lessons_for_leaders.rst,v 1.100 2015/03/06 19:58:59 tundra Exp $
$Id: lessons_for_leaders.rst,v 1.101 2015/03/06 21:26:48 tundra Exp $
 
You can find the latest version of this program at:
 
http://www.tundraware.com/Software/lessons_for_leaders
 
A PDF version of the document may also be downloaded from:
 
http://www.tundraware.com/Software/lessons_for_leaders.pdf
 
This document was produced using ``Restuctured Text`` and ``TeX Live``.