Leadership Saturday: A Framework for Leadership
A sneak peek at the outlines of the leadership framework we will be presenting over the next few months
We hope you enjoyed a memorable and meaningful 4th of July with family and friends. It’s inspiring to reflect on the small group of courageous and dedicated leaders who risked their lives to defy the British Crown and start a new nation thousands of miles away. Look how far we’ve come.
Speaking of leadership . . . We all know leadership is the key discriminator among excellent, mediocre, and failing organizations . . . yet few professions spend much time training their people to understand it . . . until perhaps one day a specialist is thrust into a leadership position and is expected to excel.
There is no sound bite or self-help book that will turn someone into a superb leader. It is a lifelong journey of learning. Having a solid framework for leadership knowledge can help one maintain a handle on leadership’s astonishing complexity. To that end, late in July (candidly, as we grow our subscriber numbers – and thanks to you who are in at the beginning) we will be presenting a portion of our own framework every Saturday for the following twenty weeks. Its bare outlines, along with a favorite quote applicable to the “anchor” in the framework, are presented below as a teaser:
Lead Yourself: “It is absurd that a man should rule others who cannot rule himself.” Latin Proverb
Lead People: “You manage things. You lead people.” Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
Lead Organizations: “The culture of any organization is simply the collective behavior of its senior leaders.” Franklin Covey
Lead Execution: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but habit.” Aristotle
Lead Change: “The people who think they’re crazy enough to change the world are the ones who do.” Steve Jobs
These anchors are also presented in Sandy’s book Sailing Upwind: Leadership and Risk from Topgun to the Situation Room.
If you know someone in your organization who could use a weekly dose of grounded, thought-provoking leadership commentary, we’d love for you to send them our way.
And as always, we also welcome your comments.
Sandy and LJ
I look forward to the series. Really enjoyed your anchor quotes. Regarding Leading Change, I believe being “crazy enough” (perhaps “bold?”) is not enough. You need a system, a proven step-by-step methodology that builds on your other anchor quotes and also guides leaders past the shoal waters that cause so many change initiatives to run aground. In my 25 years coaching healthcare leaders, precious few understand this or have ever been taught it. I’m anxious to learn more from your Substack about this topic.