Sailing the Cs of Leadership

Seven Leadership Cs





When you hear Christopher Cross sing, "Sailing takes me away," you can feel the relaxation he is singing about. Although I can not promise a constant sense of relaxation, I do promise that if you sail these Cs, your leadership duties will become easier and if we are lucky, they will become down right fun!







1. Coaching: Put me in Coach. Coaching means believing the people you lead have the wisdom and talent needed to be excellent at their jobs. Guide them in developing this wisdom and talent and growing beyond their potential. If you help them develop their talents and skills, the time will come when they will be ready for you to actually put them in the game. If you don't coach, get ready to be stuck in the player-coach role for years to come.







2. Commitment: Like a chicken or a pig. There is the old story about a chicken and a pig discussing what to eat for breakfast. The chicken says "let's have bacon and eggs." To which the pig replies, "what is a small commitment to you is a huge commitment for me!" I am not suggesting that you should be the pig that gives your life for the organization. You should however, give your all while you are there. Being committed to your position in all areas: supervising and coaching, etc. Remain committed even when times are difficult. Have a sense of duty about the results you and your team produce.









3. Communication: Say what? Seek first to understand, and then be understood. Take ownership for your part in communication gaps and continually seeking to improve communication with all co-workers. Just because you are the boss doesn't mean people will automatically understand what you are saying. Although they may smile and nod when you speak, doesn't mean they get it. Take the extra steps needed to deliver and receive clear communication. The less ambiguous the direction, the less chance of problems later.







4. Character: Not just in the movies. Character is doing the right thing even if no one will ever know - even if it makes you unpopular. It is easy to have character when the answer makes you a hero. When it makes you the bad guy, character is more difficult to find. Great leaders are forged through the tough times when they made the right decision and faced the consequences. Showing strong character is not always easy, but it is always worth it.









5. Choice: "Nobody can make you do anything" Joe Kearns. In almost all situations, we have a choice in how we react. We can be proactive and pursue a positive outcome from a negative situation, or we can be reactive and blame circumstances for our negative behavior. Henry Ford summed up the power of choice: "If you think you can, or think you can not, you are right." The CHOICE is yours.







6. Curious: What does this red button do? Be curious about your employees and the situations they face in your organization. Having an inner desire to learn about your team will pay off big time for you. We all like to talk about ourselves. Even on a professional level, we enjoy sharing our insights. A sense of value is felt when someone is curious about us. It has to be a genuine curiosity without malice or thoughts of using it against them. Don't confuse curiosity with interrogation. If you feel like you should be pointing a light in their face, you are not being curious.





7. Competent: Let the heater be the only source for hot air. There is nothing worse than a loud mouth leader telling people how things ought to run, when he really has no clue. The opposite is true for the leader that knows exactly what he is talking about. The leader that shows himself as competent develops a reputation as someone to listen to when he talks. Spend some time expanding your knowledge so that your team can depend on you for wisdom and not just hot air.









These C-words can be just like any other word if you let them. It is now up to you to think about how to incorporate them into your leadership style. If you are ambitious, you may even try to incorporate all seven C-words into one meeting.