Leadership

Being a leader is someone who can drive performance without the employees feeling like they are being driven.  A leader models the behavior they are expecting from the ones they lead.  I would never ask of someone something that I would not first do myself.  A leader is only as good as their employees.  You can be a 4 Star General leading your troops in to battle, but if they can't shoot and hit the target, that reflects upon your leadership.  I believe leaders make the mistake of believing everyone who does the job has been properly trained for the job.  I find that in most cases, that is not true. A leader is constantly evaluating the talent entrusted to them.  It is our job to ensure our "troops" have all the tools necessary to do the job we are asking them to perform.  In the cases where they are not, it is our job to provide them with a P.I.P. (performance improvement plan) to get them where we need them to be.  Having said that, more importantly than getting them to where WE need them to be, it our job to get them where they are trying be professionally.  The signs of a great leader is how the team performs when the leader is not present.  If everything falls apart when you are not around, then what kind of leader are you? In my opinion not a good leader at all.  In a nutshell, leadership is having exacting standards, as the great former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin would often say, the standard is the standard.  We coach, we teach, we demand excellence knowing we will fall short sometimes, but we still demand it.