The Qualities of Skillful
Leadership
by Jim Rohn
If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key
is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the
ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills, and opportunities
you offer as an owner, as a manger, as a parent. I call leadership
the great challenge of life.
What's important in leadership is refining your skills. All great
leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective.
Here are some specifics:
1) Learn to be strong but not rude. It is an extra step you must
take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of
reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It's not even
a good substitute.
2) Learn to be kind but not weak. We must not mistake kindness
for weakness. Kindness isn't weak. Kindness is a certain type of
strength. We must be kind enough to tell somebody the truth. We
must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line.
We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.
3) Learn to be bold but not a bully. It takes boldness to win
the day. To build your influence, you've got to walk in front of
your group. You've got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle
the first problem, discover the first sign of trouble.
4) You've got to learn to be humble, but not timid. You can't
get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity
for humility. Humility is almost a Godlike word. A sense of awe.
A sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and spirit. An
understanding that there is something unique about the human drama
versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between
us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we're part of the
stars. So humility is a virtue; but timidity is a disease. Timidity
is an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem.
5) Be proud but not arrogant. It takes pride to win the day. It
takes pride to build your ambition. It takes pride in community.
It takes pride in cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming
a good leader is being proud without being arrogant. In fact I
believe the worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance.
It's when you don't know that you don't know. Now that kind of
arrogance is intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we
can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that's
just too much to take.
6) Develop humor without folly. That's important for a leader.
In leadership, we learn that it's okay to be witty, but not silly.
It's okay to be fun, but not foolish.
Lastly, deal in realities. Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony.
Just accept life like it is. Life is unique. Some people call it
tragic, but I'd like to think it's unique. The whole drama of life
is unique. It's fascinating. And I've found that the skills that
work well for one leader may not work at all for another. But the
fundamental skills of leadership can be adapted to work well for
just about everyone: at work, in the community, and at home.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
This article was submitted by Jim Rohn, America's Foremost Business
Philosopher. To subscribe to the Free Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine go to www.jimrohn.com or
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Copyright © 2000 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved
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