OBSERVATION’S POWER
Leadership is one of the most interesting and powerful topics we can ever study. I continually search for leadership lessons because I am still learning. Brian Goldner (president and CEO of Hasbro) shares a life lesson about leadership that definitely caught my attention (Michelle Fay Cortez, “How Did I Get Here?: Brian Goldner” Bloomberg Businessweek , 3/9/15–3/15/15, p. 88):
“ Leadership evolves. You have to be flexible. ”
How good of an observer are you? Without observation, you give your leadership no chance to evolve. With observation, you create opportunities for your leadership to evolve. Allowing your leadership to evolve is the only way that it will become better.
If we are constantly observing people and situations, there is no limit to the valuable lessons we can learn. Here are just a few ways in which we can use our observational powers to look for ways to develop our leadership:
- Watch the way your boss conducts a meeting.
- Watch the customer service clerk handling the customer in front of you in line.
- Watch the customer in front of you in line negotiating with that customer service clerk.
- Watch how different organizations conduct business meetings.
- Watch how renowned experts speak to those outside their field.
- Watch how a father speaks to his daughter.
- Watch how a mother speaks to her son.
- Watch how a restaurant manager responds to a disgruntled customer.
- Watch how a politician behaves in different situations.
- Watch the judge in a court of law.
- Watch your best friend.
- Watch your worst enemy.
- Watch yourself.
That is just a short list. My point is that we all have an overflow of opportunities for observation. Those observations will reveal opportunities for us to enhance our own leadership.
Some of what we observe might be good and some of it might be bad. Remember that we can learn as much from a bad leader as a good one. What is important is that we do in fact, learn. That is how we will evolve in our own leadership.
