SEEC Leadership Courses

Do You Have What It Takes to Lead?

Leaders bring about change. Unless they move people to new ideas, new methods, new goals or new visions you are not leading.  Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, John F Kennedy, Winston Churchill, they were all great leaders that were dissatisfied with the status quo and moved millions to a new vision. They did not learn this skill overnight or do it alone. They put in the 10,000 hours to hone their skills in enrolling  others.

“Leadership styles have change and in today’s knowledge economy the style of leadership is very different from what it was in the past. For the first time in recent history most large corporations have four very different generations within their ranks and each of them have widely varying motivators that drive them. The first requirement for leadership today is the desire to care about the feelings and motivations of others. You need to want to know how and why they think. You need empathy, vision, an ability to energize, and a desire lead. .” – Andrew Levison

Being an effective  leader takes a lot of hard work. If you're not prepared to do the work to hone  your leadership skills, or if, deep down, you're really not sure whether you want to lead or not, you'll  never be an effective leader.

Leaders thirst for change. They take many calculated risks and artfully challenge the status quo. They earn the trust of others and gain their cooperation even if they may not agree with the proposed changes by earning the persons trust. They do this by constantly looking out for others while still keeping their eye on the ball. Effective leaders focus on where the puck is going, not where it is. Effective change leaders know that resistance to change is a common reaction and just because people resist change it does not mean they will not change.

Rather than attempting to bully or overpower resistors, these leaders treat resistance to change as an opportunity to learn about bona fide fears, personal or structural obstacles, and sources of resistance they must address. They carefully listen for both valid and invalid obstacles so they intimately know the challenge they and their supporters will face.

Enrollment is particularly important and that means effectively inviting people to come along, asking them to suspend their objections and ‘try it on’, and answering what’s in it for me.  People fear the unknown, and fear is a powerful enemy of change.

Great leaders can initiate change by honest communication and a clear vision of a better end state. Leaders are gatherers of motivated, willing followers, who will help find the way, overcome objections, enrol others, and implement change. A great leader does not just lead himself. He gathers other leaders around him to create a groundswell, and gets others onside early.

“Visionary leaders establish a clear and compelling future state for their organization. The vision they craft is fuelled by; their customers, their employees, the market place, and the experience and skills of those they recruit and enrol. In addition it is also reflective of those that opposed. That is to say it addresses their criticisms wherever possible and answers real needs.” – Andrew Levison

Visionary leaders describe a future that everyone can embrace and translate into “SMARRT” goals. S-Specific, M- Measurable, R- Responsive and Responsible and T- Time-bound.

Top performing leaders do not run from debate and conflict and do not try to find the compromise. They instead use the conflict to find the better solution . Conflict is as important to innovation and constructive debate as internal combustion is to the engine of a car. “The internal combustion engine ignites the fuel and the air with a spark to create the energy for movement and acceleration. Similarly just as the fuel and the air are inert without the spark, so, ideas are inert without the spark of intellectual conflict. Intellectual conflict is the spark that energizes participants to seek out new information and think harder and longer” – Johnson and Johnson

For more information on how to be a great leader click here

To see Do Women Succeed Differently? click here

David W. and Roger T. Johnson are brothers and professors at the University of Minnesota that have undertaken 20 years of research and over 80 studies documenting the strengths and outcomes of working cooperatively for a common interest recognizing that in today’s education corporate and scientific environment most are still working individually or competitively focused on their own self generated outcomes even though research has clearly demonstrated working cooperatively is more effective..

They head the Cooperative Learning Center, have been published in the Notre Dame Journal of Education and contributed to In Context a non-profit research organization exploring and clarifying humane sustainable cultures.

Andrew Levison is a leadership and Change management expert  at the Schulich Executive Education Center and a respected contributor to its Leadership Development Program.

He is an experiential teacher with 17 years of practice since he began his career as a wilderness instructor at the Pecos River Learning Centers. He has consulted to some of the largest of America’s companies including American Express, Brinks Inc., Dofasco Steel, Microsoft Corporation, General Motors, and British Airways.


What do you think it takes to be a great leader ? What advice would you give your protoge?

Follow @SchulichExecEd or email your thoughts and questions to editor@community.seec.schulich.yorku.ca to continue the conversation!