Leadership … Continued Discussions 11/11/09

In this post I want to quote Warren Bennis, a distinguished professor of business administration at the University of Southern California and a prolific author on the subject of leadership.  The quote I want to share is, “One reason that leaders are able to promulgate their vision is because they are exquisitely attuned to their followers and feel their pain, their wants, their needs.  Leaders , in every field, are richly endowed with empathy,” which was taken from his book On Becoming A Leader.  This quote fits hand-in-glove with an Oprah Winfrey quote that I shared in a previous post, “Leadership is about empathy.  It is about having the ability to relate and to connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.” Taken together, they underscore the critical importance of caring about those whom you lead to realizing success as a leader.

No single person can know all things, do all things, be all things … it takes more than an individual to achieve the greatest results.  Successful leaders know this and build on this reality.  They invest in others so that together they can move things forward.  And those who would follow a leader do so because they believe in that person’s ability to guide them down right roads, through the issues of the day, and to the desired outcomes.  And this relationship, between a leader and a follower, is built on mutual trust.  And this level of trust is built on a foundation of truly caring about one another.  Open and honest empathy between leaders and followers is the cornerstone of a successful staff.

Successful leaders consistently achieve intended results in part because of who they are … their character, commitment, drive, initiative and a host of other trademarks.  But more importantly, they succeed because of their ability to synergize a following toward accomplishing the task of the moment, or the mission of the year, or the vision of the decade.  They assemble a following that is willing to self sacrifice to ensure that the bigger picture is embraced.  And those individuals self sacrifice because they believe in the leader who believes in them … who understands them, and who truly cares about them.

Author Cross-reference:

Warren Bennis: Also see posts 1/14/09, 2/6/09, 5/1/09, 8/17/09, 12/5/09, 2/18/10, 2/24/10

Oprah Winfrey: Also see posts 1/16/09, 2/18/09

Key Word Cross-reference:

Benevolent/Caring/Compassionate/Empathetic: Also see posts 12/16/08, 1/16/09, 2/18/09, 12/5/09, 1/4/10

Inclusive/Open/Honest/Transparent: Also see posts 12/12/08, 4/20/09, 5/1/09, 7/7/09, 8/3/09, 10/26/09, 1/29/10, 2/24/10, 5/26/10

Tags: Leadership