In his talk with EML students, Mark Kroeker quoted former Dallas Cowboys football coach as saying, “Leadership is getting someone to do what they don’t want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.” Imagine the energy that could be released as leaders encourage the development of everyone’s potential!
Kroeker’s remarks are similar to what Dwight D. Eisenhower said…
Leadership is the art of getting someone to do something
It is said that there are only two kinds of people in this world…those who get it and those who don’t.” The former, for both leaders and followers, means that they have connected in a way so as to derive meaning, purpose, and congruence in their respective roles (a win-win). The latter, for both leaders and followers, means that they are still fighting the long fight because they are both mostly interested in only one solution, their own.
Additionally, the younger professional and the experienced professional learn differently and are motivated by different things. When a leader can get either one to internally be motivated, to be self-directed, to be goal driven, to bring their respective wealth of life experiences and share them in a practical, and thoughtful manner for the service others or the organization, is when the possibilities will be bountiful.
How can this be done you asked? It can be done through analysis, planning, implementation, testing, mitigation, measuring, reporting, and reassessing. This all takes time; time that now everyone is willing to invest in.
It took me several years and a few manager positions throughout my career to figure out that it was not “them” but “me” who needed to change. I was a great administrator but not a leader. I had no clue that what my team needed the most was for me to bring encouragement into the office each and every single day. Encouragement opens our creative minds, it connects people to people…this leads to understanding of self and others and more importantly it makes you believe that you can.
