PMETH

1. Effective leadership is largely about the ability to work with others and get them to do what we want and need them to do.  In a word, leadership is influence and the ability to influence others is a skill and this skill must be learned. 

2. Some people believe that certain people are meant to be leaders while others are meant to be followers, and think that the “meant to be followers” don’t have to learn to lead.  But if you guide, direct, manage, supervise, influence, oversee or evaluate others in any way, you’ve already assumed a leadership position and it is your responsibility to learn to lead and demonstrate leadership characteristics on a daily basis.

3. Your leadership skills not only determine the level of your success—but also the success of those who work around you.  Ninety-nine percent of people want to do a good job, how people perform a lot of the time is simply a reflection of the one for whom they work.

4. Leadership ability is not a natural by-product of being on the job long enough.  You can have thirty years of “leadership experience” and still not be an effective leader.  To be effective, we need to have certain skills and these skills must be learned.

5. In college they give us hands-on training in every area except how to effectively lead people.  That is, most college curriculums provide us with the foundation to be technically proficient.  But upon graduation a primary activity that we do every day is deal with people and we receive little or no training on how to do that effectively and that is largely all leadership is, is the ability to deal effectively with people.

Leading and managing people is a gift, and a privilege, and we should treat it as such by taking the time to learn how to do it effectively!

People Make Extraordinary Things Happen! ^™