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10 Things You Do Not Know About Leadership #7

Welcome to the seventh installment of the 10 Things You Do Not Know About Leadership. In this weekly, series I cover topics that tend to be overlooked, forgotten, or completely misunderstood. By sharing with you, it is my hope and belief that I help in eradicating many of the misconceptions that come with leadership.

LEADERSHIP INVOLVES GETTING OUT THERE

In case no one ever told you or no one before you ever knew, trust me when I say: No Leader ever became a GREAT LEADER by sitting behind a desk.

Also, no Great Leader ever became great by dictating from behind their desk in the comfort of their office.
Well, I am lying, a bit. In the case of Napoleon Bonaparte, General George Patton, and other such Great Leaders of that caliber did become great by leading from behind their desk and in the comfort of their office. Their desk happened to be atop a horse, a tank, in a foxhole and their office was the battlefield, with a business address that’s on a street called, “THE FRONT LINES”. These leaders were fortunate enough to be out there where the bullets were flying. They were the ones that were leading others not only into battle but onto victory and ultimately into the history books.

While the goal of any leader is not to make history the goal is to make more leaders. The primary goal of any leader is to make more leaders, make better leaders. Making more leaders is ONLY done not by dictating but by leading by example.

How does one make leaders by leading by example? What is the example to lead by? The example is simple: Get out there and be visible. Be highly visible. Get into the trenches, the foxholes, troop the line and everything else that comes with getting out there and being visible.

However, standing around, taking up space and breathing everyone else’s oxygen is NOT what getting out there and being visible is all about. It is about ensuring the people not only see you out there but know that you are out there with them and among them. Be visible constantly, consistently and most of all, be approachable.

Get out from behind your desk, out of your office and get into the thick of it. Help out when you can, do more than is expected and always find ways to do more for those that are out on the frontlines, fighting the good fight. It is your job to do more than just shake hands, kiss babies and smile.

It is your job to get to know the people that you are there to support. Remember, it is your job to ensure that they can do their job effectively and efficiently. You are there to support them in every way possible. It is not and never will be the other way around. You hired them to do a job, then let them do that job by you going out there and ensuring they know how to do the job, have the right tools to do it and know that they have your support in doing that job.

Do not for one second, let it enter your mind that they are there for you. That is not an automatic. What is automatic is that you know as a leader you are there to support those you lead. Remember, your followers made you the leader, they can take that away. Also never forget those that hired you, those that brought in, did so with the understanding, you may the title of manager but you were never given the title of leader. That title you have to earn and you have to earn it each and every day.

You earn it, by taking care of those that made you the leader. You earn it, every day that you are present, available, and out on the front lines. There is no short cut, there is no cutting corners. What there is, is you being visible, present, and with them with the sole purpose to support and lead them.

That being said, please know that those you lead, those that follow you will be there for you only after you have shown them that you are there for them, first and foremost. Never ever forget that. If you do forget that, you do so at your own peril.

Now, get out, shake hands, kiss babies, smile, say hello. I do hope you know what I mean. Get out there every day that you can. Be out there in the muck and the mud. Be there with them and for them. When you cannot be out there, make absolutely certain they know where you are, how they can get ahold of you, and most of all, when you will be back.

Yes, they do deserve that much and so much more.

-Dave

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Guide To Leadership During A Pandemic: Welcome To The New Norm by David Guerra, MBA

planning development, creating, implementationThe Pandemic Guide To Leadership

Welcome To The New Norm

The new normal, the new norm and other references to this new way of living and being. In case, you have not caught on because things continue to evolve then let me share this with you. All this talk of the new norm is a new way of saying CHANGE.

Yes, change. We have all been warned that change is coming and to be ready for change. I know I have shared that with you throughout the history of my podcasts, videos, blogs and articles. As a former Active Duty US Army Infantryman, change was what my active duty life was all about and thus difficult to shake the specter of change looming just one step behind. That is why I am such a proponent to be ready for change when it arrives.

As a Leader, it is up to you to be an engaged pupil in the art of managing change. Managing change? Yes, I believe when it comes to change all we can do is to manage it as we can NEVER master change. As change is always a dynamic, fluid situation which is susceptible to way too many external factors which influence just about all aspects of the evolving situation.

Having a firm grasp and understanding that while we would like to control change, it is not going to happen. While I am not advocating riding the wave of change, I am saying think of change as a white-water rafting. You are on the raft and you have some semblance of control with the paddle. Sure, you can guide your raft to the shore or down the river but where you actually end up will most certainly not be exactly where you wanted/planned to be. Sound familiar?

Sounds a lot like real, true blue leadership. While leaders have a plan and ready to put in place that plan and like all other plans before that plan things do not always go as planned. Just like most of the battle plans in the history of battle plans, they go into the trash can the moment the bullets start flying.

However, do not for one second believe that you should abandon hope when you develop, create and implement a plan. While it may be difficult kick off that plan during a time of crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, it should not stop you from doing so. Any and every Leaders worth his or her weight in salt are on the lookout for staying the course of the plan once executed. Yet, when things do not go as planned, leaders are ready to adapt, improvise and overcome as leaders are expected to do so.

Folks, change will continue to surround us for the far foreseeable future. Change is the new norm. Change is what we as human have always been exposed to, but it was so low level that now with the Pandemic it has risen to the top, which means that as Leaders you have to rise above that. That is non-negotiable because that is the new norm.

Thank you,
David G. Guerra, MBA
email: [email protected]
twitter: @daveguerra
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Weekend Challenge #10 (03/28-29/2020): Revisit & Revise Your Goals

HERE IS YOUR WEEKEND CHALLENGE: REVISIT & REVISE YOUR GOALS

you weekend challenge has arrived

Listen to this weekend’s Weekend Challenge

Welcome To The Weekend. It is time for another challenge.

This weekend your challenge is to go back to the beginning. Basically, is to go back and review your goals for this past month.

I know things have changed our priorities, changed the situation of our lives, and change in general in that we are more at home; hunkered down.
Go back and pull out the file that has all your goals, vision, and mission written down. Remember, writing it all down is how we achieve those goals because they become real the moment you write them down. Once real, they are achievable.

However, now in this time of a new normal, we have to adapt, change, and overcome this new life we have been given. This new opportunity. In doing that we must work to reshape and refocus our priorities and our global view.

So as our main goals, the core of our goals will not change it is how we achieve it that will change. Our timelines and our schedules now have to change. We have to adjust to this new way of the New Normal and this New Normal is everybody’s New Normal.

This is happening to all of us. To all of us on the planet. Every citizen on this planet, all seven plus billion of us. It’s happening to us; it’s happening to all of us! You are NOT exempt and you’re not special, you’re not unique in that senses because you are a human being.

This is affecting the entire species. This is affecting the entire human race. All this is the great equalizer!

COVID-19 does not know who’s who. Who are the haves and have nots? Who has a TV show and who doesn’t have a TV show? Who is in politics and who is not in politics? Who is a parent and who is a child? Who is a boss and who is an employee? It doesn’t separate, it equals everyone, all together.

So please understand, this is happening to everybody but as individuals we still have to go on our lives. We still have to continue and we still have to set ourselves some goals and we still have to set ourselves a mission and vision and we have to see the future!

Folks, this is going to come to an end and this will stop. Then we will return to some kind of normalcy, that we once knew. I guarantee you this much, we have to be prepared to come out of this as better people, better human beings. We have to come out of this with a much greater sense of purpose than all just “about me poor me”.

The old “normal” days are over. Those days were over the moment that virus started spreading. That’s when the writing was on the wall. A lot of us chose not to see it and still so many continue to choose not to see it. Understand that we are forced to face it and one way or another that being said I offer you this week’s challenge: Sit down pull out your goals and to adjust your goal to reflect the new normal.

Get To Work!

Thanks for your time,
David