Last week I talked about the first thing you need to know about leadership where we said that a leader is thinking about everybody rather than just themselves. The second thing you need to know about leadership is initiative.Leaders initiate. Leaders see what needs to be done and take initiative to get that done.
Followers vs Leaders
Followers see that something needs to be done and will either complain about it, or hope that someone else takes care of it. In reality though, many followers often aren’t even looking at what needs to be done. They’re too busy just taking care of themselves.
Initiating is the second thing, and not the first, because leaders need to be looking out for and initiating for the good of everyone. If a person is initiating only for their own benefit, they’re not leading. At best they’re self focused and at worst they’re manipulative.
Transitions
When becoming a leader, often people go through a series of transitions. A person can go through these transitions quickly or it may take a while. There’s no judgement in how long it takes – it depends a lot on the person and on how much support they get in making these transitions. The transitions are:
- Seeing
- Asking Permission
- Initiating
The first transition is in seeing what needs to be done (for everybody – not just for himself). Then they will think that other leaders see what they see and will wait to be asked to take care of the situation.
The second transition is to realize that perhaps they really do have a unique view of the situation, and then they will ask permission to take it on. This is a good step.
Finally the person steps into her leadership by initiating the solution without hesitation. The leader should coordinate and cooperate with existing leaders, of course. Yet there’s a big different between, “may I please …,” and “I noticed this, and if you don’t mind, I’m going to do …”
So after a leader is concerned with “we” rather than “me”, the second thing a leader does is initiate action.
