Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. - Colin Powell
I've been a leader of people for many years across various roles; I believe some are built for it, have natural attributes that lean them towards leadership, and others are followers. All good leaders will be able to learn from others, evaluate good and bad examples, and apply that knowledge to becoming a better leader. This new series is designed to expose great quotes by various leaders and to investigate how they may relate or apply to myself or others. original im src
This week's leadership quote
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
I've known people to confuse confidence with arrogance despite them being two totally different things. I can see how it happens though, as those with less confidence often see those with it as arrogant; a foolish misjudgement of course.
During the many years I've spent in a leadership role, and operating within a chain of command, I've come to understand the importance of confidence in respect of the leaders themselves and those being led. Leadership isn't simply issuing orders and directives for underlings to follow, it's so much more than that, and one element is problem-solving. A leader is responsible for reaching an objective, and understanding and overcoming obstacles in the path towards it, so solving problems is a critical step towards gaining success.
Similarly, the leader faces obstacles, (and opportunities), within the team and the individual members of it and solving problems that may arise there are equally important to mission-success as is solving external problems.
I've always maintained an open door policy with my teams and encouraged the team members to bring me their concerns that I may assist them, offer direction and expertise or simply support them. It's brought an increased work-rate, more effort, passion, accountability, team-spirit and has inspired the team to support and empower each other - an all-over good result.
A word on accountability though...In having an open door policy and being accepting of the team bringing me problems, I've always asked that a solution comes with it, or several.
I give them ownership of the solutions and hold them accountable for the process and results; sometimes they take charge of the decisions also, that can be a very advantageous thing to promote.
I call it, providing support without removing responsibility, which ultimately empowers the team and allows me the scope to reward them for their efforts, processes, thoughts, attitudes, actions and outcomes. It also, over time, brings them a degree of confidence in themselves, and a whole lot of confidence in me as they know they're supported, and that their achievements will be recognised.
Not every workplace or team is a democracy; few really are I think. That means orders, directives and instructions will come down the chain, and there's situations in which they must be followed whether the team agree or not; a great deal relies upon it sometimes, in battle or in business.
It's at those times the team must feel confident in the leadership team and that is not something a leader can order the team into, it's built over time and with a lot of consistent, effort. Discussion on the path forward isn't always collective, it doesn't always involve the entire team, but supporting and empowering the team should be widespread and being a problem-solver and empowering the team to do the same, is one way to empower a team. The result of not doing so will result in a lack of confidence, bad attitudes, counter-productivity and often insubordination...so failure...of the leader.
If you have any thoughts on this leadership quote, experiences of your own, or questions please feel free to comment below.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
That quote describes my work place and not tin a good way.
Yes, I think yours and many others. It's a sad really.
Great post!
I agree that supporting and empowering your team is super important for productivity and morale.
I believe constant feedback is also important.
I've been dealing with a new hire that is not performing as expected and I'm giving myself 4 more weeks to see if I can coach him or If I'm going to have to ask him to be happy elsewhere.
I think it's also important for leaders to identify underperformers and find a way to bring them up to speed through coaching and feedback, or let them go before their mediocrity starts bringing down the rest of the team.
It can be tough sometimes.
Hi Alex, thanks for your comment and kind words.
I agree that feedback is vital, both ways and for the team and leader as well.
Coaching or mentoring a team member can be such a rewarding (and frustrating) process however it's a leaders responsibility to get the best from the team; we can't always fire them and move on. Of course, we need to have a point of no return also, which you have clearly set. There's always going to fliers and crash-and-burners and the latter need to be addressed as sometimes they can be lifted and sometimes they will simply weigh down the team, as you say above. The team will perform at the level of the weakest link and whist there's times and situations that's possibly acceptable, I've preferred to have the less-capable operators rise to the others rather than the other way around.
I get the feeling you're well-equipped and up to the task and I wish you all the best...If you like, drop me a line to let me know if you achieved mission success.
I was lucky to have a boss once who was a great leader and just like you said in your post, whenever I had a problem at work he was expecting me to come up with a solution (or at least an idea of how I could solve it). He never said that his door was open, but he didn't need to, which it's strange now that I think about it. How could he make us feel that without saying it. It was the first time I had a boss making me feel that I had a saying in how I should solve certain situations and at first I remember it felt a bit overwhelming, but I grew as a professional and as a person. I remember him with great affection❤️.
He sounds like a good leader, although I think it's important that the words, my door is always open, are important however if his actions indicate that then maybe it doesn't need saying. I'd always say it to the new team members though, it starts the relationship off well.
I like that you remember this chap which means he had a positive influence on you.
Leadership knowledge is often obtained from a leader who is successful and has even failed to lead. Leadership knowledge is also obtained because it has been led by a good leader and has become a role model for the people he leads.
Recognition and appreciation for all the involvement and contribution of all team members is what builds the confidence of a team the most. Everyone wants to be respected, it's a law of nature.
For me, the success of a team is due to the role of everyone, the leader and the people being led. Everyone knows their role and is able to carry out their respective roles to achieve goals.
Finally, a successful leader is a leader who is able to give birth to new leaders from the people he leads.
You seem to have grasped the concept of my post quite well as you paraphrase it here in your comment.
I disagree with this as people who may be new to a role do not always know their role. It's in cases like this where the leader, and the team around the leader, need to be strong, helpful and understanding. It builds a platform from which a new member may begin to learn his or her role.
I agree with this in principle, however not everyone can be leaders and leaders need followers. Everyone needs to be empowered though and I think maybe this is what you mean? I believe followers, those who operate under direction of a leader need to understand how they fit into the whole picture, how valuable their input is to the team, and it's the leaders responsibility to make that happen.
I completely agree with what you said, it's true that new team members need adjustment to take on the responsibilities of their roles.
I was reminded how hard it is to lead people. From the quote, I managed to conclude that when your members don't trust you anymore, they will choose to shut up and don't bring their problems to you. It is painful for a leader to feel and experience it because he's not an effective leader anymore.
I agree that when you let your members to speak up for themselves, then they have to be accountable for whatever the consequences are. It means you let your people discover, maneuver, and improve through their efforts. I believe they will learn from it, and trust you more.
Such a good blog and topic should be discussed.
If the team do not believe in the leader they will not perform at their best which may mean not coming to him/her with problems, doing substandard work, being lazy or even undermining the leader. Whatever it is, it's counterproductive.
This is the case, certainly, although performance is required still, expected. In a military situation for instance, the learning needs to be done in training and that's why military units train so hard, why it can be so challenging. In combat things are learned, but it usually comes through the unit taking casualties, so it's best to learn ahead of time if possible.
Sorry for my late reply, I've had a busy day at work.
Leader is a good follower. Leader is
a good model. Leader should work hand in hand with his members. Leader is not there to be served but to serve. Leadership is a success when the members is always there to ask your guidance, to share their problems because still they have the confidence to share it with you because they know you are always there to help them.
Me, myself can't say that I am a leader but I can say, I am a good follower.
Thanks for sharing this sir @galenkp.
A leader needs to be many things indeed, it's a lonely existence at times, but can be rewarding too.
Yes it is rewarding that a success of your members seems to be your success too.
I’ve seen and heard a few quotes about leadership but something about this one by Colin Powell is so powerful.
I completely agree with you on a good leader willing to learn from others and applying that extra knowledge into being a better leader. Leadership doesn’t have to be focused on superiority as that could be where arrogance comes in.
I really admire your strategies on leadership as well, I’ll be sure to use this when necessary.
I’m glad you shared this amazing piece.
I'm not sure why, by so many equate leadership to superiority; I suppose because people allow their ego to get the better of them and that blossoms into hubris. Leadership is many things, a difficult role mostly as there's so many different elements and situations but the core elements of leadership are the same.
A leader in a military situation is different to a leader on a humanitarian mission for instance. There are different requirements, but the basic elements of leadership need to be present in both.
Well laid out. In my profession where I do mostly tech repairs of phones and computers, I've been open to many people to bring their gadgets to me; both customers and technicians in my field. Even when there is nothing much to earn on a particular task. This has helped me develop the confidence to overcome any obstacle in this field, and in some cases the gadgets I work on I've never held them before. But people have had a way of believing am the best person to work on their issues. That to me is leadership.
An interesting interpretation of leadership, thanks for sharing. I wish you all the best moving forward and I hope you work on consistent improvement so you can provide an increasingly good service to your customers.
To think like a leader is not an easy task, leadership is power. We all need to go a long miles to gather wisdom about leadership thanks for the quote
I don't see it that way to be honest. Leaders have a great responsibility to deliver results and that comes through the effective management of the processes and complexities involved with moving towards that objective. Those who see it as power (over others) tend not to be good leaders; this is just my opinion though, built over many years.
I think that quote by Collin Powel might just be my new favorite quote. I love it! It explains how team members are able to “follow orders” even if it goes against their judgement because of their trust in their leader.
I think there is a very thin line between confidence and arrogance though. And I’d say that it is people with a lot of confidence that tend to get arrogant. Too much confidence inflates people’s egos sometimes and they end up developing a god complex.
A doctor performing brain surgery, operating on a young girl to save her life, needs to be incredibly confident in what he's doing. Is he arrogant?
A fireman entering a burning building to save a trapped family from burning to death needs to be confident in his ability and training. Is he arrogant?
Just a few examples.
I totally disagree with you, there isn't a thin line between incidence and arrogance at all, they're two different things entirely.
Haha you’re right.
I just realized now that I wasn’t looking at it from the leadership angle when I wrote that part of the comment. I was looking at it from a general POV.
The A student, top of his class for example, feels too confident to be corrected, maybe even by his teacher. (Not a leader, like I said, general POV)
Great power comes with great responsibility so being a leader not a easy work
Indeed.