This management class piles so much theory, models, and studies on how one should demonstrate leadership. I’m cramming it in and will purge it upon completion of the exam since a lot of it is pretty shallow or irrelevant. So I’m asking AF, how do you demonstrate leadership in your place of employment, community, and so forth.
Volunteering always works for leadership development. I volunteer in my community and it has provided me with a lot of credibity at work.
There are many differences between “management” and “leadership.” Perhaps a good question for your prof will be to ask him what he thinks that difference is and how you can apply it to your own life. People demonstrate leadership through initiative, vision, innovation, and inspiration, and this can happen at any level of an organization.
kick somebody’s ass.
That was something I hated about going through the MBA program. The whole “building tomorrow’s leaders today” is complete BS. You’re either a leader or you aren’t. By simply asking how to be a leader you are demonstrating your lack of leadership. That’s not directed at you QuantJock, I’m just waxing philosophical. It’s like the movie Trading Places; the Nature vs. Nuture arguement. I fall into the Nature camp. You can train management, not leadership. And sell frozen concentrated orange juice futures.
I like Chad’s way of demonstrating leadership… Nuking Threads.
I don’t necessarily agree with Sweep the Leg. While there are certain inherent traits that improve someone’s likelihood to become a leader, there are a lot of things that you only learn through experience or education. I’ve always considered myself to be a leader, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t improved my leadership skills through my job, non-profit work, and reading books and articles on leadership.
You either lead, follow or get out of the way. Which are you doing?
“There’s the right way, the wrong way, and the Max Power way!” “Isn’t that the same as the wrong way?” “Yeah, but faster!”
^ Simpsons?
nuppal Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ^ > > Simpsons? Yeppers
numi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I don’t necessarily agree with Sweep the Leg. > While there are certain inherent traits that > improve someone’s likelihood to become a leader, > there are a lot of things that you only learn > through experience or education. I’ve always > considered myself to be a leader, but that doesn’t > mean that I haven’t improved my leadership skills > through my job, non-profit work, and reading books > and articles on leadership. You’re not really disagreeing with me either though. Sure, you can hone any skill you already posses, but I don’t think you can make a leader out of someone that lacks the natural traits just by doing community service and reading self-help books. “Max Power? Great name.” “Thanks, I got it off a hair dryer.”
Do you see the origins of “Captain Awesome”, numi? Since you have natural leadership skills, it’s easy for you to become a better leader by honing them, but that doesn’t necessarily applies to people who hasn’t the same natural leadership talent, therefore your advice is applicable only to those who are similar to you. A few days ago you also said something equivalent about job opportunities and that it really your background doesn’t really matter if you have good attitude and a good story to tell, with the same bias. Maybe you could better illustrate your points by talking about someone else who had limited abilities and overcame them by doing XYZ since using your own example doesn’t help.
What I like to see in mine bosses… 1) Must be hard working and passioniate about thwe work. I had a boss who was lazy and pushed the work to me and other people. I had absolutely no respect for him. If I knew that he would go the extra mile to help me or the group out then I would absolutely work harder. 2) Show respect. The boss would have to show respect to everybody and from everybody to clients and the exec assistants. 3) Not be hot headed, so you can talk to him and her about what went wrong and feel like you can move on. 4) Somebody who you think will stand behind you if anything happens. Once again the respect thing.
I remember a boss in my first job out of college when I was in strategy consulting who used to say: “OK, listen PTCrook, we (he and other big boys) are building this model which is expected to save a gazillion dollars over the next five years because of [very extensive explanation]. Now, what I need you to do is really pay attention and make sure this Power Point presentation you’re doing is flawless, because that’s what we’re going to show to the CEO of The Kingdom of Heaven. I’m counting on you”. Somehow the guy made me feel part of that team which was going to save the world and create boatloads of money, but I wasn’t. I was more just like a secretary at the time of that entry-level job. He obviously reviewed the entire content many times and didn’t let the success of that sales pitch depend on my Power Point skills, but he knew how to make people put their best effort when he needed it. When he came back just said: “See PTCrook? you did it terrific”, and invite me and others out. The guy at the time was 35, has a PhD and an MBA, and was a chick and money magnet, yet he was extremely accessible, never thinking he was the real thing.
Nowdays, it seems forwarding or CC everybody email is leadership skill
^no homo right? not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Part-time Crook Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Do you see the origins of “Captain Awesome”, numi? > Since you have natural leadership skills, it’s > easy for you to become a better leader by honing > them, but that doesn’t necessarily applies to > people who hasn’t the same natural leadership > talent, therefore your advice is applicable only > to those who are similar to you. A few days ago > you also said something equivalent about job > opportunities and that it really your background > doesn’t really matter if you have good attitude > and a good story to tell, with the same bias. > > Maybe you could better illustrate your points by > talking about someone else who had limited > abilities and overcame them by doing XYZ since > using your own example doesn’t help. Actually, you know, I think the comment about “Captain Awesome” probably has more to do with the belief I have in myself and my ability to execute. It was also a rather hilarious name that IHIHM came up with, though regrettable that he had such a huge chip on his shoulder. Hopefully his time away from AF enables him to focus on being a more constructive contributor elsewhere. You’re probably correct in that my personal anecdotes are somehow biased by my background, but that’s inevitable. We’re all biased by the experiences that we’ve had in some fashion, right? The truth is that I’ve had some pretty monumental failures both personally and professionally – it comes with the territory of taking risks in your life – but what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Anyway, I recognize that I’ve been fortunate because my academic and work experience have probably paved the way to some interesting leadership opportunities for me. With that said, I think everyone has leadership examples in their life – as long as they look at their situations in the correct light. What I realized when I was going through my business school applications was that you didn’t need to find the cure for cancer or fly a spaceship to Mars to show that you’re a leader. I think what matters more is HOW and WHY you demonstrate leadership. Results are great, but the process of developing leadership is something that can take place over a lifetime, and I think it’s that process that’s a lot more monumental. Here’s an example – on one business school essay, one of my friends wrote about how he demonstrated leadership by starting his own hedge fund. One of my leadership stories was about how I helped a local non-profit organization grow its revenues by 10-15%. On the basis of results, background, and other stuff that you mentioned, it would seem like my achievement was a lot less consequential. I’d agree that my result was less consequential on an objective basis, but PERSONALLY, it was important to me and that’s why I wrote about it. And it was important because it taught me things like determination, perseverance, how to influence and inspire people whose backgrounds were different from my own, and stuff like that. I was able to apply what I read in literature into practice. We both got accepted by this school. So, while I appreciate that some people might think that I have good work experience that has enabled me to achieve some other stuff in life, I truly believe that anybody, with great self-awareness and vision, can find ways to demonstrate leadership in all aspects of their life. I think leadership in its broadest sense refers to the ability to inspire others to achieve a desirable goal or vision. Most people, however, don’t stop and think about what it is they’re doing, what makes them talented, and what they’re passionate about; it’s just easier for people to go with the daily rhythm rather than break from the status quo. In contrast, I think if everyone looked harder at their own lives and how they contribute to their communities, they’d probably find they had more leadership potential than they realized.
Also, some books that I’ve read recently that I thought were interesting: “Influence: Science and Practice” by Robert Cialdini “Total Leadership” by Stew Friedman “Managing the Nonprofit Organization” by Peter Drucker The Cialdini book is pretty self-explanatory and a lot of the learnings can be applied to any setting of life. The Friedman book takes an interesting approach and argues that work-life balance is irrelevant if you’re able to successfully integrate your professional, personal, family, and community duties, and discusses ways on how to best accomplish that. The Drucker book is excellent in terms of the information it provides regarding managing nonprofits, though a lot of the softer skills can be applied in for-profit settings as well.
I understand your idea about the potential, and not only about leadership but also extending the same principle to many other positive individual characteristics, but the reality is like one dude used to say on AF some time ago, “Let’s face it son, some people just don’t belong”. I don’t know if the idea of unused potential waiting to be exploited is meaningful to somebody. Hope it is.