project leadership skills

Leadership – Effective or Defective

by Travis K. Anderson, MBA, PMP

anonymous-leadership-5000373

Leadership

Leadership in an organization and on a project is one of those absolutes that make a difference in the ambiance of which we work. Each person will have a different definition for leadership. During my undergrad studies,*Professor Peter Correa taught me that leadership is comprised of the following attributes:

  1. Competence
  2. Confidence
  3. Character
  4. Commitment
  5. Think
  6. Act
  7. Influence

I invite the readers to try writing in one sentence their definition of leadership.

“A leader is someone that is competent and confident, has character and commitment, can think through decisions, and takes action through influencing  others to achieve results .”

Effective Leadership

Now add an adjective and derive the meaning of effective leadership.

For some of us the best way to describe an effective leader is to describe a defective leader and then invert the meaning. Everybody has an experience of a defective leader that made a task or initiative difficult or even impossible. Some people cope, some people quit to pursue other interests, but at any rate defective leaders can make for a destructive work environment.

After thinking about what makes for a defective leader, describe what makes for an effective leader. Personally, I borrowed eight points from **What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker as a guide to effectiveness.

Substitute executive with leader and presto. An effective leader is someone who thinks of the following points:

  1. What needs to be done?
  2. What is right for the enterprise?
  3. Develop action plans
  4. Take responsibility for decisions
  5. Take responsibility for communications
  6. Focus on opportunities and not problems or would be failures
  7. Run productive meetings
  8. Use “we” and not “I”

Please leave your definition of leadership and experiences regarding effective or defective leadership.

References

*About Peter Correa click link:

http://atlanta.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=178200&type_news=latest

**What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker:

http://ai.arizona.edu/hchen/chencourse/Peter%20Drucker%20-%20Harvard%20Business%202004.pdf

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