Ignoring Proven Leadership Techniques

Last week we received an email from a reader of our book, “6 Secrets of Successful Leadership” and we thought she brought up a point worth noting to the rest or our reader community. She wrote:

“When I reached Chapter 5 of your book, Facilitate the Success of Others, I thought this would describe me exactly. In this area I’ve always felt that I am an excellent leader. I do my best to make sure that those who report to me get praised, have plenty of opportunity to grow and use their skills to the fullest. Then I got to the part in the chapter about keeping your ego in check with your fellow leaders and helping them to succeed as well. That brought me to a grinding halt. This is not how my organization is structured. I work in a place where everyone is fighting for recognition and superiority. When I first came to work here it took some adjusting because I know that is not how leadership is proven to work. I tend to look at the whole organization as one big team, but my colleagues felt very differently about it. So I changed. I became just like them in order to play the game that I thought was required. Since reading your book I have made several small changes to follow the rules about leadership that I know have been proven to work rather than the standards that have been set here by the people that have created this environment. I’ve been available to those outside my department and have approached collaboration opportunities with a whole new attitude. My boss visited my office this morning to let me know that my efforts have not gone unnoticed. Thank you.”

Obviously we were extremely happy to receive this email from one if the readers of our book, but not at all surprised by the circumstances in this person’s organization. What we thought was most interesting about this email was that she described going against the leadership skills that she knows have been proven to work to fit in with the others she works with.

This story reinforces our belief that while you should have an ambitious nature and a strong drive to succeed to be a great leader, you should not do it at the expense of the proven approaches to leadership.