Leadership

It’s about noon when my boss walks over to my desk and asks me if I want to change my hours from 7:00am to 3:00pm to 3:00pm - 11:00pm. My response was a clear “no.” He retorted it would come with a title change and a pay raise, and I replied happily with a “YES!” He laughed and told me how he had finally gotten approval to promote me a promise he had made to me a little over a year ago when he first started. I had gotten the promotion and all the details of what I would be tasked with doing and all that was left was to figure out how I would lead and shape those who are to follow me. I sifted through my old sketchbooks and found my notes from my internship and reminded myself of what makes a great leader. I was glad I took great notes and now I can share those notes with you.

Principles: have principles that represent you.

• have MUTUAL RESPECT for others everyone has a job to do that affects the bottom line. Don’t disrespect what they do.
• Say hi to people you don’t know. A hi and a friendly smile can go a long way.
• Begin and end your emails with a salutation. I know email can sometimes make people feel like they’re shooting a quick text to a friend, but you are not, you are sending a formal letter electronically.
• Respect what others have accomplished. Do so, not because you don’t think you could have done it, but because they may not have thought they could do it.
• Never be afraid to say thank you and compliment others when they do a good job. Spread the love, don’t hog all the glory, it really is lonely at the top.
• Have pride in your work. I don’t like to brag but when I was promoted I had to change my mindset from thinking I was bragging to telling others I am now responsible for these duties, yes you can come to me for that.
• Do the best you can in everything you do. If you don’t someone else will and it’ll be too late to say “I could have done that too.”
• Have a strong work ethic. Take every opportunity to work more, eventually the company will value your work ethic and decide if it would be better to pay you more or have you go do what you do for another company.
• Have passion. Have passion for life, not just what you do.
• Believe in yourself, because if you don’t no one else will.

Leadership:

• A leader is only a leader if others will willing follow.
• Be accessible, accountable, and dependable. No one wants a boss who cuts tail and run when it hits the fan.
• Get up off your ass! Being the leader means working when people are and are not watching.
• Either you can lead life or life can lead you.
• To be a true leader you must be confident and honest, but also vulnerable and humble at times.
• Do your homework before the teacher assigns it. Try to predict your bosses next move and prepare for it.
• Observe everything around you. It all affects the bottom line. The employees shagging, the guy in the mailroom struggling to make ends meat it’s all cataclysmic so don’t get caught off guard.
• Obstacles present opportunities
• You don’t have to have the right answer, you just need to find the right answer. Google it!
• Seek council. We all need help from time to time.
• Build consensus. Getting people to agree with one another is an art in itself but once accomplished great things happen.
• Create pride.

Management:

• Culture is the most critical element of a company’s DNA
• If you’re going to be a leader, than lead! Leaders lead from the front not the back
• It’s not a party it’s teamwork!
• Give credit, don’t take credit. This isn’t college where you can get credit for letting the hard worker in your group do all the work. You are getting paid to contribute, don’t get fired for not doing so.
• Find the rhythm. Each culture shakes and moves to a beat find your company’s beat and dance to it.
• Break the rules and challenge those saying “we always do it this way.”
• No is a word for simple people. I prefer to think “how can I...?”

I hope these few bullet point ideas help a few people out there breaking into a new field or like myself starting the path of leadership in commanding others. I’d like to thank Mark Taylor, Josilin Torrano, and Ashley Morley my internship leaders at the time who gave me these tools that continue to help me move forward in my chosen career.

Live, Life, Lavishly
Dlothemartian

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