Follow Your Leaders

Follow Your Leaders

Recall your mentors. Ask yourself what traits they demonstrated to get you to listen, and use those.Anchor all learning to a mission, vision or purpose. Break it down to a specific goal or job to be achieved. People learn faster if they have a why behind the what.

Demonstrate confident humility. Walk the thin line between self confidence and arrogance. Confidence breeds confidence. But the authenticity is bred from the roots of being humble.

Ask permission to give advice. The crux of mentoring is giving advice. The challenge of advice-giving is the resistance to it. Remember your reaction to the last time someone said, Let me give you some advice, instead of saying, I have some ideas that might be useful, if you think they might be helpful. The latter keeps control where it belongs with the learner while eliminating resistance and creating an atmosphere of acceptance.

Be a learning role model. Let people follow your learning lead. If you want people to demonstrate curiosity, demonstrate yours. Do the same with creativity. If you want people to take risks, they must see your mistakes as well as your triumphs.

Celebrate the excellent effort, not the victory or defeat. If you only reward results, youll never get the learning, risk-taking or growth necessary to emerge as a leader.

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