I’m Obsessed with Great Leadership

I'm 𝙤𝙗𝙨𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙙 with great leadership.

But it took me 8 years in an IT management position to finally get to the point where I felt I was doing it well.

Here's why it took me so long.

I thought leadership was a set of silver-bullet actions that I could take each day, so I believed that if I just learned what those actions were, I could implement them and be successful.

After reading tons of leadership books from successful leaders and trying out what worked for them, it became clear that many of their suggestions weren't working.

Were the great leaders somehow wrong?

No.

Years later I figured out what was going on.

There are 𝟯 𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀 that must be accounted for when developing a leadership strategy:
1. The people you're trying to lead
2. The environment in which you're trying to lead
3. The leader themself

What worked for Jack Welch (the leader) at GE (the environment) with GE's global management team (the people) isn't necessarily going to be effective for Tim Goree at Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District with a team of 42 IT people.

So, how did I account for those variables and figure out what great leadership looked like for me?

1. I started with me, developing a vision and making sure I thoroughly understood my strengths and how to lean into them
2. I made sure I got to know the people on my team very well, both individually and corporately, understanding their strengths and goals for their own lives
3. I made connections with mentors who had been successful leaders in the same type of environment I worked in

The advice I got from many mentors who had been successful school district CTOs effectively helped me understand what worked in my specific environment.

Getting to know the people on my team very well allowed me to respond appropriately to each of them individually and helped me guide their careers and their assignments in the direction they wanted to go while also getting the necessary work done for our organization. By the way, when you pay close attention to this, you get their very best work.

Using the research from the book "Strengths Based Leadership" along with the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment helped me understand that spending too much time or effort on shoring up weaknesses is a fool's errand. Recognizing your strengths and working within them as much as possible is the way.

Oh, and if you're looking for a good resource for creating your vision, I have a book aptly called, "Start With You" that 𝘐'𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘀𝗸.

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