Leadership Made Simple
One of the most important things I have learned in my years of both serving as a leader and learning from the leaders and managers placed above me, is that leadership is about making things simple.
A leader's job is to empower those that work under him or her with the tools and knowledge to make their jobs easier so that they can grow and develop. A leader sets the example. As motivational speaker John Maxwell says, " Leaders become great not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others." It's not about a title. A good leader is someone that inspires others to rise above their current abilities and to grow.
As a team leader and a non-commissioned officer in the Marine Corps, I often advised my junior Marines not to try to emulate any one person. Create your own style. Take one positive thing and one negative thing from each leader/manager you've worked for or with and use that as a catalyst for growth. Take the things they do well, learn from it and enhance it to make it your own. Take the things that they don't do well, and learn from it and avoid those mistakes.
I once read that your brand is what people say about you when you aren't around. I thought about that and wondered. What is your leadership brand? If you were to step out of your role, would those you led continue to follow the example you set or would it descend into chaos until someone else created order? With nearly 7 years in the car business, I have seen a lot of managers come and go. One of the many invaluable lessons that I have learned in this industry is that no one is irreplaceable. At any given point, any of us can be plucked from the position we are in and placed somewhere else or eliminated all together and the industry would not collapse. But if you were to be pulled from your position (whether it be for promotion, retirement, etc.) or had to take some time away from your duties, have you enabled others to be able to step up and take over the void you fill?
The surest sign of an organization with effective leadership is promotion from within. When employees are able to grow from their current positions and are equipped and prepared to take on greater roles of responsibility, then the leadership has done it's job. If others have to be brought in to assume leadership roles, that means that the existing leadership has failed in it's number 1 responsibility of empowering others to grow, develop, and ultimately succeed.
