Yves Simon's List: Leadership

• What is needed in order to be a good leader? I think it begins with two macro concepts. First, a leader has to have the ability to visualize what success looks like; meaning that leaders must be able to define their organization's success destination, describe what the organization will look like when it gets there, and determine how long it will take to achieve those goals. Secondly, leaders have to have the ability to understand where their organization's weaknesses and strengths are, and then they must have the character and courage to move the organization from where it is today to where they want it to be tomorrow -- the destination.
• he keywords in this macro description are "visualization," "character," and "courage," because in my mind the key step in becoming a great leader is understanding where you're going. And then, you have to have the character and courage to inspire others to follow you down that path to success. 
  
• But in my mind, before you dive into the many nuances of leadership, the first step in becoming a good leader is taking the time to define what leadership means for you. But your definition has to be based on the two macro concepts of defining your success destination and developing the character qualities that encourage others to follow your lead

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• Now we’re going to look at factors involved in convincing someone, and this strategy has two parts. To figure out what consistently convinces someone, you must first find out what sensory building blocks he or she needs to become convinced, and then you must discover how often that person has to receive these stimuli before becoming convinced.

• It isn't about what you have, and how much — but what you do, and why — if you're to live a life that matters.
• Leaders lead us not to a place — but to a different kind of destination: to our better, truer selves. It is an act of love in the face of an uncertain world.
• Wannabes — who I'll contrast leaders with in this essay — are literally just that: wannabes. They want to be who leaders are, but cannot: they want the benefits of leadership, without the price; they want the respect, dignity, and title of leadership, without leading people to lives that matter; they want the love leaders earn, act by painful act, without, in return, having the courage, humility, and wisdom to love.
• When you think about chiefs, presidents, and prime ministers that way, I'd suggest that most of our so-called leaders are wannabes: those who want to be seen as leaders, without leading us anywhere but into stagnation, decline, fracture, fear, apathy, and comfortable, cheap pleasures that numb us to it all
• Leaders — true leaders, those worthy of the word — do the very opposite: they lead us to truth, worth, nobility, wonder, imagination, joy, heartbreak, challenge, rebellion, meaning. Through love, they lead us to lives that matter. Wannabes impoverish us. Leaders enrich us.
• Obey — or revolt?
• They have principles they hold dearer than next year's bonus — and so they think bigger and truer than merely about what they're "incentivized" to do
• Conform — or rebel?
• And so leaders must shatter the status quo by breaking the rules, leading by example,= so that followers know the rules not just can, but must be broken. If you're nail-bitingly following the rules, here's the score: you're not a true leader.
• Why do people follow true leaders? Because leaders promise to take them on worthwhile journeys. The wannabe creates "value" for shareholders, for clients, for "consumers". But the leader creates what's more true, more enduring, more resonant: lives of real human worth.
• Value — or values?
• Vision — or truth?
• If you really want to inspire people, tell them the truth: there's nothing that sets people free like the truth.
• he leader tells the truth because his fundamental task is that of elevation: to bring forth in people their better selves.
• Truth is what elevates us; what opens us up to possibility; what produces in us the sense that we must become who were meant to be if we are to live worthy lives — and one of the surest tests of whether you're a true leader is whether you're merely (yawn, shrug, eyeroll) slickly selling a Grand Vision, or, instead, helping bring people a little closer to the truth.
• Archery — or architecture?
• The leader knows their job is very different: not merely to maximize existing metrics, which are often part of the problem (hi, GDP, shareholder value), but to reimagine them. The leader's job is, fundamentally, not merely to "hit a target" — but to redesign the playing field. I
• ove — or Love.
• Love — true love, the real thing, big-L Love — is every bit as much painful as it is pleasant.

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• But reflection may very well be the single greatest attribute of a powerful leader, especially those destined for the business  world.  Peter Drucker knew this when he said: “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.