So when Chris Shaw posted SQL Quiz 4 to his blog and I saw my name I knew that I was once again being asked to participate in the Web 2.0 version of a chain letter, which I simply call Chainposting. Do I dare to break the chain? Well, Chris never says that something bad will happen if I do not participate, so I guess it is not technically a chain. But it scares me anyway, so here we go.
The question this time around is:
Who has been a great leader in your career and what made them a great leader?
Chris usually has very good questions, and so is this one. It really made me stop and think about all the people in my life, not just as a professional but personal as well. I tried to think about all the qualities that I would attribute to a great leader and realized that my answer is not going to revolve around specific people as it will specific traits.
“To lead is to serve”
I went to a Catholic college. I didn’t know it was a Catholic school until I took a drive to visit after having made my decision and I saw the huge church on the corner. I figured I could suck it up for four years anyway, after all what is the worst that can happen? Well, one of the benefits of that education happened to be the people that surrounded me. One of which was Bob. Bob worked the front desk in the residence hall my sophomore year, the first year I became a Resident Assistant. Bob was also a Deacon, I believe, and he offered various insights to a lot of different things in this world. One of which was the above quote.
At this point in my life I was taking on various roles that required me to be a leader. I was an RA, I was starting to coach basketball, I was tutoring other students in math, and Bob was there to help me when I needed it most. He had a way of making certain I would keep things simple. “To lead is to serve” he would tell me. He also told me how my degree is only a measurement of work, nothing more. He just had a way of keeping everything simple, which then allowed me to focus on the basics, which has helped me during all these years in between.
Along the way I have come across more than a handful of people that follow what Bob preached to me. They do not use his exact words, but I see it in their actions. They serve others.
Leaders Should Inspire Others
They need to have the ability to motivate, to get other people to do things, sometimes things they do not want to do. For different people this will mean different things. When I was coaching basketball I quickly saw how I would have a dozen different people with very different motivations. When I was teaching Math 101 to seventy college freshman, it was the same thing, just on a different scale. The best leaders I have had in my life are able to recognize this and overcome this. They have the ability to motivate groups of people at a time, regardless of their motivations. How? Quite often it is a simple as leading by example.
I hate being on call. I would prefer to leave my work at work and not be answering emails, especially complaints, on nights and weekends. There is no worse feeling to me than to be with my family and have my blackberry full of emails on a Saturday afternoon about some deployment that has gone horribly wrong. However, what would my team think of me if I just took my name out of the rotation?
To lead is to serve.
If I had to think about some of the people in my life that have been able to inspire or motivate me, it would actually be more about the people before I became a professional. My father, for one, and his father were quite inspirational for me. They set me on a path and others along the way kept me sailing, such as my manager Vinny, or the one I will always call “coach”, my good friend Chris.
Leaders Are Always Looking To Improve Something
No doubt, a leader is never satisfied with what they have, they are always looking to make improvements in whatever areas are necessary. Often times this is because they are listening to the people they lead, otherwise they would not be giving them much service if they did not. So, if the people are unhappy with something, say handing over billions of dollars in bailout funds for companies that pay their executives huge bonuses, their leaders will stand up and say “we need to fix this”. A simpler example would be working with a basketball team you always want your best five on the floor. If something is not working, you will find ways to improve individual skills so that you can put players in spots on the floor that allow for them to be successful not just for themselves but for the team.
Good leaders will be able to inspire you to improve yourself. Vinny certainly did that for me, but so does my wife and family.
Leaders Need Patience
I was always short on patience until I had my children. Now I am only sometimes short on patience. Good leaders are always patient. They understand that motivating others, inspiring them to become better, serving them in various ways, are all things that take time. You plant seeds and wait for something to grow. Like Mr. Miyagi, you spend time trimming that Bonsai tree, or catching flies with chopsticks.
I am now tagging:
DO NOT BREAK THIS CHAIN
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