What a Leader means to me

A few months back Chris Armstrong posted an article on his site about what is means to be a leader titled Sometimes The Greatest Way to Say Something…(all his post titles are from different songs!). Many of his thoughts really resonated with me. I’ve taken his concept and some of his ideas around “LEAD” and updated the mnemonic to “LEADER”. Check it out below!

LEADER

• Learning
• Enriching
• Available
• Doing
• Empowering
• Respecting

Learning

• Always be learning!
• Don’t get lazy thinking you have all the answers.
• The learning you do can impact and help others.

Enriching

• Investing in the team making them better.
• Investing in improving processes leaning towards simplicity.

Available

• Team members should have access to you.
• Being present during 1:1s or group meetings.
• Giving your full attention while listening empathetically.

Doing

• Setting the right examples.
• Willing to do the hard/dirty jobs.
• Finishing the things you commit to.

Empowering

• Sharing information and context
• Giving freedom to the team to make decisions.
• Creating a team where you are not a blocker.

Respecting

• This is generally just being a good human.
• Recognizing team members are who they are.
• Treating them the way they want to be treated.