Pro Memoria — Essential Points of Leadership

Maybe it’s the algorithm influencing all my feeds or the broader zeitgeist in general, but I have noticed very few people are talking about leadership — influencers aplenty talking about other things but little about leaders or leadership. Is “influencership” even a word? There may be communities talking about leadership but I’m not getting the newsletter or seeing the blogs. I thought I would offer some thoughts on the essential points of leadership as a flare to catch someone’s attention and get some invitations.

I wanted to mention I wasn’t trying to be pretentious when I titled this blog Pro Memoria — Essential Points of Leadership. I could have easily called it “crib notes” or “a cheat sheet” but leadership is so important that I wanted something that stood out and offered weight (much like the topic). Pro Memoria is derived from Latin and literally means “for memory” and in modern terms means “A memory aid; a reminder or memorandum” — with that said, here are the essential Points for Leadership to get the conversation started.

1) Leadership is as much a philosophy as it is a journey, and it’s about perpetual learning — a case in point, great leaders are always reading about leadership and other things to improve. I suppose that is why Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is considered in the top must reads for anyone interested in leadership. This is not the only step on the journey but one of many.

2) Will you be a Selfish leader or a Selfless leader? If you raise your hand and say you want to be a leader you have to pick a camp. I am not here to tell you which type of leader to be… but there is a saying that goes something like this, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”. My experience is Selfless leaders go far.

3) Leaders are not defined by a title. Everyone and anyone can be a leader — ask all those people that spend their day with lots of responsibility and no authority. A leader by definition is someone who acts like a leader — beautifully circular.

4) Leaders have a vision. And right after that they have goals, objectives and expectations. This becomes even more important the larger the team you are working with gets — effective execution on a vision comes with alignment and everyone involved.

5) Ownership, the ability to make decisions and communication transparency are crucial traits for a successful leader. A leader owns what they do and takes responsibility, makes decisions to help the vision and team progress and is always communicating as honestly as possible to make sure everyone understands, and is clear with what is happening.

6) Leaders encourage others to shine and foster personal and professional growth. An abridged quote by Marianne Williamson reflects what great leaders do:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won’t feel insecure around you.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.”

7) Leaders create an environment to drive action. I remember listening to a CEO I very much admire — someone was making a pitch for a big idea and his only response was, “Do it”.

8) True leadership skills are forged when it is difficult — it is easy to be a good leader when times are good. You can’t control when your world decides to get hard but you can decide to take on difficult things to practice for when it becomes real.

As I look at my notes, it seems I have landed on 8 points for my Pro Memoria. I appreciate that each of these points are large topics in their own right and there are probably other points that could be added — but remember, this was just intended to be a cheat sheet.

Hopefully it starts up a conversation about Leaders — we can’t let the Influencers win.

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