When To Lead
Posted on January 29th, 2010 by admin in Leadership
By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
There has been an interesting amount of chatter of late around the concept of “when to lead.” What puzzles me is this statement’s inference that there must be a good time to not lead. I couldn’t disagree more – Leadership is an always on, full-time endeavor. There’s an old joke that says leaders don’t have time off, they just have moments of down time. What real leaders know all too well is they’re evaluated every bit as harshly, and sometimes more harshly, on the choices made during their down time. When you’re in a leadership role everything you do is on the clock. In today’s post I’ll examine the fallacy of leading by not leading.
In thinking about the comments I’ve received from readers on the topic of leadership I noticed an interesting paradox…while many of you vehemently disagree on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of different leadership styles, most of you are in total agreement on the qualities and attributes possessed by great leaders regardless of style. In further pondering this dichotomy an interesting thought came to mind – If I could genetically engineer the perfect leadership gene what qualities and characteristics would constitute the architecture of leadership DNA? In today’s blog post I’ll attempt to paint the portrait of the perfect leader…
There is simply no substitute for the truth. That said, how do you measure a person’s positional conviction? How do you know if someone is sincere in their communication? How do you know if you’re being told the truth, or just being spoken to in a manner designed to elicit a desired response? Listen to what’s being said…When attempting to evaluate the shifting sands of fluid messaging, or what I like to refer to as spin, examine the choice of words used in the composition of said messaging.
I’ve written in the past about how important it is for the CEO not to sequester him or herself away in the corner office. Operating in a vacuum, and being out of touch is never a good position to find yourself in as the CEO. I have consistently espoused the value of walking the floor, dropping in on meetings on an impromptu basis, taking employees of all ranks to lunch, and any number of other items that focus on raising your internal awareness. In today’s post I’ll focus my comments on the value for CEOs of raising their external awareness…
The topic of “Employee Engagement” is something that many CEOs tend to struggle with. Long gone are the days where the executive leadership of a company can remain sequestered in their offices with an internal focus on hard metrics. Given the current economic climate, it takes far more than cost-cutting to survive. It is the CEO who understands the need for focus on the soft metrics of customer centricity and employee engagement that will create sustainable growth in revenue and brand equity. In today’s post I’ll examine the need to have a fully engaged work force… 
Emotional Control is a discipline that all top CEOs need to have a grasp of. There has been no shortage of information published on the topic of Emotional IQ or what’s referred to as EQ in recent years. After all, being in touch with your emotions, as well as being in tune with the emotions of others is an important trait for any leader to possess. However I believe the more important emotional trait for CEOs and entrepreneurs to gain mastery over is what I call EC or emotional control. In today’s post I’ll discuss the value of gaining control over your emotions… 
Since Organizational theory is a hot topic these days, I thought I’d poke a bit of fun at that old corporate tradition that is the Organization Chart. Over the years I’ve seen every type of org chart in existence. Some have come and gone only to come again. Every year or two the latest revolutionary thinking in corporate organizational theory spawns a new form of charting. The dynamics of corporate organization are so revered by B-school professors and management consultants that an entire generation of corporate management has drunk the org chart Kool-Aid. These managers often rush to adopt the latest thinking without any consideration for whether or not the new form of structure is even appropriate for their business. So powerful is this dynamic that entire companies and numerous products have been built to support these latest trends. In the time it has taken to author this musing it wouldn’t surprise me if Visio had a new product release.
News Flash – the phrase compassionate leadership is not an oxymoron. While many people immediately conjure-up an image of the ever so tough, bombastic extrovert without an ounce of compassion as the picture of what constitutes a real leader, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, some of the toughest leaders I know are the most compassionate leaders. If a leader’s primary obligation is for the care and well being of those under their charge, then I would suggest that you cannot be an effective leader over the long-term without compassion and empathy. So why then is it that so many leaders seem to struggle with seeing compassion as a strength and not a weakness? Read on and find out…
We found out today that the N2growth Blog was recognized as the 
Are you easy to help? Think about it…do you make it easy for others to want to help you, or is your demeanor such that most people won’t lift a finger to assist you in a time of need? How many times during the course of your career have you witnessed executives and entrepreneurs who desperately need help, but either don’t recognize it, or worse yet, make it virtually impossible for someone to help them? In today’s post I’ll address the importance of positioning yourself to be helped…