March 5, 2010

Twenty Attributes of a BE DiFFERENT Leader

There are always conversations going on about what a leader is and what attributes they possess. I have participated in these on an opportunistic basis; here is a taste of my consolidated view.

Stay tuned for the complete version in my soon-to-be-published book ‘BE DiFFERENT YOU: Winning on the Inside’

A BE DiFFERENT Leader:
1. creates discontinuity in their organization to expose opportunity for competitive advantage and growth.
2. makes people feel uncomfortable with their love of change.
3. is intolerant of sameness.
4. is at ease with uncertainty.
5. inspires people to get out of their comfort zone.
6. learns voraciously and contunuously
7. practices the art of Constructive Emulation: go find someone else’s good idea and make it GREAT for you.
8.always push the evelope wanting to extend the degree of change required.
9. create followers. Followers find leaders.

10. is a customer addict and models this behavior to the rest of the organization.
11. serves people not commands them to action.
12. is the consumate story-teller, breathing lfe into the organization’s strategy by providing examples of successful execution.
13. bashes barriers to progess on the inside to make it easier for people to get their job done.
14. constantly and passionately communicates the organization’s vision and strategy to capture the hearts as well as the minds of people.
15. asks ‘how can I help’ rather than commands ‘do this’.
16. gives hope to people in times of chaotic change.
17. turns Brave Ideas into Crude Deeds.
18. is Anal about execution.
19. makes decisions with incomplete and imperfect information.
20. is good at anticipating future trends and events, but is GREAT at responding to the random and the unexpected.

If you can check-off all twenty, consider yourself a perfect BE DiFFERENT Leader (but remember there’s no such thing as perfect in anything - assess yourself again!).

If you can honestly say that you exhibit half of these leadership dimensions you are well ahead of 99% of other ‘leaders’ in business. Well done and now focus your work on the remaining 50%.

Cheers, Roy

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Leadership | Permalink
Posted 3.5.10 at 07:14 am by Roy Osing | Read Comments (2) | Leave a Comment