What’s So Good About Great?
“The zest for attaining something better and passing that on to others also fuels productivity and profitability.”
The LEADing Edge: 9 Strategies for Improving Internal and Intentional Leadership
What distinguishes a great leader from a good one? And is great really that important—after all, what’s wrong with good when bad might be the only alternative?
Bad. Good. Great. Three choices for you to ponder as we begin this mid-summer blog. Spend a few moments thinking about those three categories when it comes to leadership experiences you’ve had in the past. What did those seasons look like? Did you thrive, or maybe just barely survive, depending on the type of leaders you had in your life?
Let’s begin with the assumption that no one wants to endure bad leadership—personally or professionally. And, let’s assume no one ever thinks, “Wow, I really want to become a leader who impacts my company, colleagues, and clients in negative ways.” Yet at some point in our lives, many of us come in contact with an individual who doesn’t lead well, or worse, “leads” in the worst ways possible.
Unfortunately, bad leadership also has another unexpected consequence: it fuels the belief that “good leadership” is acceptable. After all, isn’t “good” a good alternative —especially if people have gone through tumultuous times or long stretches of stress under poor, ineffective or even insidious leadership?
In short, yes. Good leaders are always better than bad ones. But the goal shouldn’t be to remain “good” forever. Why? Well, as author Jim Collins points out in his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t (2001), being good is often a place some leaders seem to stay because it’s easy. It’s safe. But at LEADon®, we refer to this kind of leadership safe space as the “status quo zone” where comfort is quickly followed by complacency. And as we would probably all agree, complacency isn’t good for anyone very long. It will never create the fuel necessary for “productivity and profitability” (see the quote above)—nor will it produce long term success.
After decades of working with numerous individuals in multiple industries, the team at LEADon has discovered that most people prefer to be part of a great company, a great team, and a great family. And, not too surprisingly, many of our clients want exceptional individuals in their ranks who inspire similar aspirations in others.
This “good to great” mentality is essential because, as Howard Gardner contends, everyone who leads “significantly affects the thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors of a significant number of individuals”(from Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership, 1995, p. ix). In other words, whether we like it or not, those of us in leadership have a powerful impact on everyone in our personal and professional spheres of influence.
At LEADon, we believe that the quest for greatness involves three specific strategies that leaders must intentionally develop:
- Personal Strategies
- Professional Strategies
- Team Strategies
Improving your Personal Strategies begins with taking an assessment of twelve key leadership skills. In The LEADing Edge: 9 Strategies for Improving Internal and Intentional Leadership (Wilke & Wilke, 2019), we explain that everything from your Emotional Quotient (EQ) to technical and leadership skills must be evaluated and benchmarked to ensure “Hall of Fame” results. In addition, we ask leaders to incorporate our Leadership Six characteristics, including learning how to motivate and communicate with everyone from Corporate Family® members to clientele.
After working on those Personal Strategies, we encourage leaders to discover new techniques for fielding, developing, and maintaining high performance teams. While The LEADing Edge is a key resource for understanding these Professional Strategies, we also offer a variety of online courses that can help you field, develop, and maintain exceptional teams (see below for examples of LEADon’s SHRM-approved online courses).
Finally, LEADon believes in the importance of addressing the needs of the generations which comprise your current and future workforce. In The LEADing Edge and Corporate Family Matters: Creating and Developing Organizational Dynasties (Wilke & Wilke, 2010), there are several chapters devoted to this topic as well as practical action items leaders can readily implement in order to enhance group synergy. In addition, we dive deeply into corporate culture and succession planning to round out our recommended Team Strategies.
We realize that your time is limited—and there are lots of leadership lessons to digest even in a short blog like this one. If you’re looking for an easy way to develop your leadership skills while positively impacting team members, we suggest you click on one or more of the following LEADon online courses to see how they can help develop your Personal, Professional, and Team Strategies:
LEADing with Hall of Fame LEADership®
LEADing with the 6 Benchmarks for LEADers®
LEADing by Fielding, Developing, and Maintaining High Performance Teams®
Corporate Culture’s Bottom Line Impact on Your Corporate Family®
If the team at LEADon can answer any questions, please connect with us at 858.592.0700 or www.LEADonUniversity.com. We’re happy to share more about our strategic approaches for exceptional leadership that have proven successful in organizations just like yours.
