The Leadership Alphabet - B

I sincerely hope that my previous article “The Leadership Alphabet – A” was somewhat thought provoking. As mentioned, the aim is to stir up some thoughts and stimulate your mind to think of the qualities of inspiring leaders. Just to recap, the attributes we explored in the last article were: Authentic, Accountable, Appreciative, Assertive and Ambitious. If you missed it, it’s still on Linked In.

My dear readers, who kindly interacted and provided some valuable feedback, added some more. There was Altruistic, unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others, which I have to say is a very interesting, powerful and noble characteristic. There was Active – “A doer, less talk, more action”, and you can’t argue with that one. Attitude was also stated, can you imagine … a great and inspiring leader with no (or the wrong) attitude? … I can’t. Thank you for your feedback and for the opportunity to learn from you. Please keep your comments coming.

In the second of the series, we explore the characteristics of great leaders that begin with the letter B. 

So what’s B for?

B is for Bold. What exactly does bold mean? According to dictionary.com a bold person does not hesitate or is not fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff; courageous and daring. Great leaders take their time (the right amount of time) to gather facts, understand the landscape, the issues, the risks, how things work, the dynamics and the desired outcomes. Some will take other people’s opinion, some will research and some will make their own decisions in isolation (not recommended). When it’s time to make a choice, great leaders, with no hesitation make that bold decision, to go down this path or that journey with no regrets. Being bold is an interesting one and requires a delicate balance.

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” — Emanuel James "Jim" Rohn, American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker.

B is for Brave. But what’s the difference between brave and bold? They are actually synonyms. A brave leader is not afraid of the consequences. Sometimes, initiatives fail, they may not have the desired business outcomes, but a strong leader has to be brave, failure is an option and is a fact of life – not everything succeeds. It’s ok to fail (once) and if you’re going to fail, you might as well fail quickly, if you can. A brave leader will do just that, pick themselves (and their team) up, recover and move on to the next challenge. They are also not afraid of taking the blame for that which did not achieve what it was meant to achieve (because they are accountable). Failure and mistakes are inevitable, but what differentiates a brilliant leader is how they recover and how quickly they are able to do it. Someone close to my heart recently reminded me that failure is the unsung hero of success! Very true.

Arnold H Glasow (American Entrepreneur) said, “A good leader takes little more than his share of the blame and little less than his share of the credit.”

B is for Box, and great, inspirational leaders think outside it. This is really crucial. Challenging the norm, doing things differently, sometimes in a nonconventional way is something these leaders do often. Teams sometimes will fall into habit, as some say “if it ain’t broke, why fix it” … if it works, then why change it. Top leaders want things done differently to achieve better results, whether it is more revenue, less cost, higher customer satisfaction, more efficient process, higher productivity, better user experience and you have to challenge the norm. You have to think outside that box to further achieve, grow and improve. I feel I need to mention the Japanese “philosophy” of kaizen (改善), which simply means "change for better", with inherent meaning of either "continuous" or "philosophy". It's made up of two characters in Japanese: kai, which means 'change,' and zen, which means 'good.' The concept is that small steps on a regular basis will lead to large improvements over time. To explore more about kaizen start your search here. Think outside the box and try something different and new.

Can you think of any attributes have I missed (beginning with the letter B)?

As always, comments, suggestions, recommendations are always welcome.

Watch out for “The Leadership Alphabet – C” coming your way anytime soon.