Shawnee Love   •  
August 25, 2017

When interviewing candidates for leadership positions, I regularly ask them to describe their leadership style.  Once they answer, I will often ask how they learned to lead that way and what types of people or situations their leadership style works best for.

Usually, candidates tell me they learned leadership from the bosses they worked for.  Then, after a pause, they often clarify that they learned more about what not to do and how not to lead than how to be a good leader.

Given that, it seems to me that leadership is not really a strong point of many people.  And good leaders are fairly rare (so when you find one, learn like a sponge).  But clearly, it is possible to learn from what not to do with attention, hard work, and sincere commitment to changing your behaviours, attitudes, as well as beliefs and values.

One great thing about the leadership of the US right now, is that it is becoming vividly clear to people how important good leadership is.  Unfortunately, we are also witnessing the hard and soft costs of poor leadership.  Is it just me or is this is a great time to be a leadership coach?

A few of the leadership lessons I am reminded of by observing the events unfold in the south are:

• It’s all talk until you do it.
• It’s easier to criticize than to create.
• Twitter is not a viable communication tool with staff.
• It’s hard to get stuff done when turnover is high.
• Like attracts like.

I’d love to hear what leadership lessons you have learned.  Please comment below.