What Leadership Isn’t:
A Partial List
First Written June 2007
You might not be a leader if:
- You think you’re the Lone Ranger
- You’re always looking over your shoulder
- You need someone else to set you in motion
- You’re afraid to ruffle feathers
- You avoid work that denies you attention/credit/compliments
- Everyone has to like you
- You’d rather work on things than with people
- You hoard credit and find it painful to pay compliments
- You think people should “get it” the first time
- You “treat everyone the same”
- You devalue people based on “ism’s”
- You regularly keep score on what the company “owes you”
- You pay more attention to relationships above you than below
- You think recognition is a zero-sum game
- You prefer to be the source rather than a resource
- You let emotion and mood drive your reactions and interaction
- You’d rather be right than in relationship
- You think developing your people is restricted to their technical skills
- You think position means power
- You “wing it” when running a meeting
- You think employees are there for you to use as needed
- You really wish you could just close the door and get to work
- You think a good presentation consists of accurately delivered data
- You wait for problems to solve themselves and blow up when they don’t
- You let others take the risk of proposing ideas while you criticize them
- You reject others’ observations about your ideas rather than considering them
- You sneered at most of this list
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