How You Can Be A Better Leader | 120 Seconds to Better Leadership

The Humble Leader

I notice when I do 360 leadership assessments for executives, I see several patterns. But two of the patterns that I see quite often are folks that pour everything that they have into their direct reports, and they don’t do a good job of promoting themselves or the good work they are doing in the organization, so they’re managing down. I actually kind of appreciate that kind of leader. They tend to be pretty humble, and they’re good to their people. 

Managing Up

The inverse of that, is I see executives that spend all of their energy managing up – kissing up to the boss demonstrating what they’re doing, investing in people that they perceive as having more power that they do in the organization and investing almost nothing, literally, in their direct reports. And nothing bothers me worse than having to write a report where I have to highlight that.

Invest in Other People

If we are leaders, we should be providing insight, coaching, feedback, attention, compassion, concern for our direct reports. That’s why we’re there. We’re there to help them clear roadblocks, help them learn and develop.

So if you’re going to take a leadership position, be sure that you’re the sort of person that wants to invest in other people. If you’re just there for yourself, you’re not a leader. You’re self-centered. End of rant.

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