“A leader’s job is to provide hope and inspiration.” – Gretchen Pisano & Tom Hood
I saw this blog post on Friday, Four Essential Skills for Millennial Leaders by the Savvy Intern and thought it was a perfect fit as we prepare for our 4th class of Leadership Academy this week in Timonium.
The picture and quote by Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid) in the post sums up our leadership philosophy perfectly, “I cannot tell you what to do. I can only inspire you what to do.”
And the four essential skills are all part of our program as well:
1) Observe and respond – we call this being self-aware in the moment and understanding the context surrounding you as leader and the situations you find yourself in;
2) Know your stand – for us this is knowing your strengths and values and those of your organization. We agree that your “personal values are your anchor” and we help our young professionals connect to their values using the latest research form the growing field of “positive psychology”;
3) Leading Virtual Teams – we call this skill network leadership and revolves around both physical and virtual teams as well as up, down, inside and out;
4) Promote Collaboration – this is the core of our program, how to facilitate and promote collaborative work, build consensus and allow people to “weigh in in order to buy-in”. See our post The # 1 Skill You Need Today;
I agree with author Shawn Murphy that, “Millennial leaders are uniquely positioned to show us Gen Xers, Boomers, and even a smattering of employees from the Silent Generation how work gets done in the 21st century.”
In the end it is really all about ROP, Return on People…
“We often attribute success, or lack thereof to inanimate objects like systems, processes, infrastructure, and strategy. The reality, however, is that nothing NEW happens unless we set it in motion. We must put our shoulder to the flywheel of positive change and use our network to exponentially increase our impact. That is leadership in the new normal.”
– Gretchen Pisano & Tom Hood
Follow us on twitter #MACPALDR
Here is a white paper on leadership from our first class of our Leadership Academy titled, What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There!
Don’t miss an entire morning of Leadership sessions in a hard-hitting “BLI Live” format at our Innovation Summit next Friday (May 17th, 2013)!
What does leadership mean to you?