Posts
by Dr. L. Michael
Hall, Sept. 4,
2012, www.neurosemantics.com
If you are a “lone wolf” or
“lone ranger,” are you a real leader? What leader is a leader if
he or she doesn’t gather people around him or herself and empower them to feel
that they are a part of something bigger and better than all of them? This
highlights a fundamental fact: You can’t be a true leader unless you are
collaborative in your style. Anyone who thinks and calls him or herself a
leader but does not share, coordinate, cooperate, and create a sense of a team
is self-deceived. They are only a leader in their mind, not in
reality.
But how? How do you develop
into a collaborative leader? What’s involved in developing the skills of
collaboration?
1) Set the vision of
collaborating and being a collaborative leader.
Since vision is what drives big
outcomes, start with a vision. What is yours? How robust is your vision? How
exciting? If you are more excited about doing things to gain the glory, the
recognition, the praise, etc., then it will be very hard to create a compelling
vision of collaboration.
This goes right to the heart of
leadership. John Maxwell puts it best when he said that “He who thinks he’s a
leader and looks around and sees no one following is out for a walk.” To be a
leader you have to win the minds and hearts of people, you have to attract them
to a vision that captures their heart and imagine. Are you doing that? Are you
willing to learn how to do that?
2) Commit yourself to adding
value to those who share your vision.
People follow a vision and the
leader who sets out the vision that enable them to recognize that there’s
something in it for them. What they see is that the vision and all of the
effort that goes into actualizing it will make their life better and improve the
quality of life for others. Leaders who think that people want to stand in
adoration of their intelligence, good looks, charm, rhetorical skills, etc. want
to be a cult-leader, a guru, or a dictator, not a true
leader.
This is the paradox, leadership
is not about the leader. It is through the person of the leader, but it
is not about the leader. Anyone who believes that doesn’t understand the
dynamic processes of leading. The person who is a true leader leads by going
first. He or she invests as much value as possible into the vision and into
those who are part of the team to make it happen. How does this settle with
you? Are you adding massive value to those who raise their hands and say that
they want to be a part of where you’re going and what you’re doing? What value
are you investing in them? How could you add more value?
3) Communicate constantly to
keep the vision and the mission alive.
The work of leadership is not
over with the creation of the vision. The work only then begins, next comes the
effort of keeping the vision before people and letting them help to co-create
the ongoing evolution of the vision as things change and develop. This work
also includes gathering people together to create solutions to the obstacles
that stand before the vision.
The vision you create as a
leader will not endure in the minds and hearts of people unless you are
constantly refreshing it, providing new and different ways of expressing it, and
getting people involved in moving toward it. It is never enough to state the
vision and leave it at that. As a leader your task is to make the vision come
alive— to sing and dance in the minds of people so that it stays meaningful and
significant. Are you doing that? Do you know how to do that? Are you willing
to learn how to do that?
4) Keep involving people to
be collaborative partners of the vision.
From the activity of constantly
communicating comes the leadership skill of involving people in practical ways
that turns them into collaborative partners. This means sharing the
vision-making process with them. This means bringing people into the inner
circle and empowering them with decision making powers. This means transfer
responsibilities to them and trusting them to come
through.
People want to have a say and
to be consulted if they are to become co-leaders of the vision. This is another
secret of true leaders. Leaders do not create followers, they create more
leaders. They groom people to become the next generation of leaders. How are
you doing at that? Who are you grooming to be part of your leadership team?
Who are you preparing to assume leadership powers and
responsibilities?
5) Make yourself open and
vulnerable to people.
Leaders are not invincible
statues made of stone, they are made of flesh-and-blood and suffer all of the
fallibilities of mind, emotion, speech, and behavior that the rest of us do. A
true leader leads out in this— being authentic, real, and down-to-earth. True
leaders do not hide behind personas or masks, they come out from behind their
personas and show their humanity. They are open and even vulnerable to people.
They let people see their heart.
If this seems scary and
frightening, it is. Embrace it. That’s why it is “leadership.” That’s because
when people know your heart and sense your spirit of passion for the vision,
they know they can trust you. There’s no hidden agenda and no secrets. As a
leader you are upfront, straight-forward, candid, a truth-speaker, and
transparent. How are you doing with this? This may indeed be the very heart
of how to be a collaborative leader— to lead from your
authenticity.
What is Neuro-Semantic
NLP?
Neurons:
Get your free subscription to the weekly
International Post on Neuro-Semantics by Dr. L. Michael Hall. Subscribe at
www.neurosemantics.com.
Solutions:
Sign up for the Neuro-Semantic
Newsletter - newsletter.neurosemantics.com. This is a monthly newsletter for anyone new to Neuro-Semantics.
Femke Stuut, Editor.
Coaching: For
world-class Coach Training - The Meta-Coaching System: www.meta-coaching.org and www.metacoachfoundation.org. Meta-Coach Reflections sent every Wednesday to the
group of Licensed Meta-Coaches.
Self-Actualization: Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential
Movement in 2007, for information about this, see www.self-actualizing.org
