101: How leaders think
Being a leader of a company is more than just hiring, firing, phone calls and annual reports. It's not unusual for leaders to be narrowly stereotyped as control freaks or taskmasters. But great ones do none of that; there is much that goes on behind the scenes. Here are three ways leaders lead with success:
They are creative. As a dean of a business school and as a management consultant, Roger Martin interviewed more than 50 great leaders. In an online article for the Harvard Business Review, he writes that success isn't about superior strategy or flawless execution. “(Great leaders) have the predisposition and the capacity to hold in their heads two opposing ideas at once. And then, without panicking … they're able to creatively resolve the tension between those two ideas by generating a new one that contains elements of the others but is superior to both.”
They change their minds. With new information, great leaders change their opinions. Their goal is to find the best solution, not be the smartest person in the room, says G. Shawn Hunter in a Gwen Moran article at FastCompany.com. “Asking (open questions of key advisors or teammates) for which you do not know the answer … will make you, in their eyes, a stronger leader," Hunter says.
They challenge others to think. Great leaders understand team members' viewpoints, areas for improvement and capabilities. By keeping people on their toes, explains an article at Forbes.com, leaders are actually enabling colleagues with tools to grow. “If you're not thinking, you're not learning new things,” the article states. If you're not learning, you're not growing — and over time becoming irrelevant in your work.”
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