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Soft Skill #1: Leadership

Lately, I’ve been thinking about why some leaders are more effective than others, in other words, what makes a leader great? I also wanted to learn how to become a great leader.

There are many books on leadership. Two of my favorites are Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani and Winning by Jack Welch.

So what makes a leader great? Here are my thoughts.

Character traits of a great leader

  • A great leader needs to be full of positive energy. We all worked with people who are full of positive energy, these are the folks that are optimistic and realistic at the same time, they know if they apply themselves, they can achieve the goals that they set out to achieve. On the contrary, working with people who are negative all the time can be a real energy drain.
  • A great leader needs to be able to energize and motivate. Just influencing others with his positive energy is not enough, he needs to be able to energize others, to drive the team to reach higher goals.
  • A great leader needs to be authentic. No one wants to follow a phony, being genuine in his interactions, and practice what one preaches is very important for a leader.
  • A great leader has humility. He is not arrogant or inflexible, he relies on the people who he chooses to give him honest feedback and recommendations. He respect other’s opinions and the differences in people, and seriously consider their opinions.
  • A great leader is persistent. He will not be easily discouraged.
  • A great leader needs to have the inner strength and self-confidence to make tough and/or unpopular decisions. He also need to make the right decisions to begin with, this is what Jack Welch calls having an “Edge”.
  • A great leader needs to have emotional competencies (EQ). He needs know his own emotions, manages them well, empathize with others, understand others’ emotions and manages them well as well.

Skills and competencies of a great leader

  • A great leader needs to be able to execute. Anyone can plan, however, what separate great leader from the rest is that a great leader delivers the result that continuously exceeds expectation.
  • A great leader needs to have foresight. A leader needs to lead, and know intuitively what’s around the corner. To know where one’s going is utmost important for leaders at the top of an organization.
  • A great leader does not expect his subordinates to work harder or work on things that he himself is not willing to take on. Leadership is not a privilege that allows one to delegate unpleasant tasks.
  • A great leader is always prepared. Giuliani was so effective right after the tragic events of 9/11 because he and his office spent so much preparing for just this kind of catastrophy.
  • A great leader holds his subordinate responsible yet gives them the creative freedom to come up with solutions on their own.
  • A great leader is outward focused, instead of himself, he focuses on building and mentoring his people, he’s a clock-builder instead of a time-teller (these concepts are from the excellent book Built to Last ). The greatest legacy of a great leader is not himself but the great organization and the people he leaves behind.

Here is what a great leader is NOT

  • A great leader does NOT have a big ego. Having a big ego can manifest itself in many different ways, and most of them will have a negative impact on the people he works with.
  • A great leader does NOT need to come from outside the company. Another excellent book by Jim Collins Good to Great made the argument quite convincingly based on research.
  • A great leader is NOT necessarily charismatic. It doesn’t mean a great leader can not be charismatic. There are quite a few great charismatic leaders like Jack Welch. However, there are just as many leaders who are not such as Abraham Lincoln. Built to Last contains many examples of leaders who are not charismatic.

Here are the steps I’ll take to become a better leader:

  1. Do a serious and realistic self accessment on all traits, skills and competencies I currently have.
  2. Set leadership goals for myself
  3. Identify paths to fill the gaps
  4. Identify mentors both from work and from life
  5. Continously improve and measure my own progress
  6. Explore opportunities from work and life to lead, to practice what I learned.
  7. Repeat until I reach my leadership goals.

As you can see, to be a great leader, one needs to become great in many areas. I myself have quite a long way to go, although the journey should be just as enjoyable as the end result.

More soft skills discussions to follow.

Any thoughts?

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Lauren’s second outing

The weather was surprisingly warm on Saturday. We originally planned to have lunch to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday, and since the weather was so nice, decided to check out Japanese Garden after lunch.

Lunch was excellent, Ray’s Sushi in Hayward is very dependable in their quality. Lauren cooperated by falling asleep the moment we entered the door.

After a nice lunch, we set out for Japanese Garden which was only around 2 miles away.

Again, it was quite sunny and warm, much different than the raining days during the week. After we got to Japanese Garden, we found there were a large wedding party taking photos in front of us, so we have to move around a bit. The garden was exactly what I remembered, I’ve been here couple of times before, and it sure brought back some memories.

This time the wind is not as strong as last time, and Lauren’s in a better mood. She’s wide awake, and even spent some time watching the koi fishes in the pond.

I took a few nice photos, however, I didn’t have time to charge the battery on the flash when we left, I had to make do with the built-in flash which surprised me with the good job it did.

You can judge by yourself. Here are couple of photos.

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Lauren in the park

So we finally brought Lauren outside.

It’s about time. We didn’t want to bring her out any earlier because there was really no need and the we’ve been pretty busy on the weekends.

On Saturday, the sun finally broke through, and we decided it was time for her to taste the outdoor life.

It was by no means a smooth ride. First of all, the place of choice, Japanese Garden in Hayward, closes at 4pm. We only found that out when we are ready to move out at 4pm, and I thought to check the park hours. So we switched to Plan B, which is Marina Park, kinda windy but will have to do.

The other hurdle was the Baby Trend Snap N Go stroller we have. It was given to us by my mom’s friend. She also gave us the infant car seat that we are supposed to use with the stroller frame. However, try as I did, I just couldn’t get the seat-belt on the stroller to hold the car seat properly. After consulting the manual, and tinkering with it for a good half hour, I finally found that the frame was actually set to the wrong setting, and I had to make some adjustments. I guess the family who gave us the car seat and stroller used another car seat with it.

So with Lauren fed and wide awake, we embarked on our first trip to the great outdoors as a family.

Marina Park was an absolutely beautiful place, however, because it’s next to the bay, it’s usually quite windy and chilly over there. When we arrived, things were looking up. The sun’s still up, the wind’s not too bad, and there are not too many people around.

We parked the car and put Lauren in the stroller and started strolling around.

Lauren was very interested in the change in scenery, she looked around and had this curious expression on her face, or maybe she was just feeling the wind on her face.

We decided to go to the playground because there is a building next to it to block the wind. There were quite a few kids playing in the area, so we found a bench, and settled down. There we were able to take a few photos. Lauren’s eyes were scanning the playground all the time, taking in all the sight and sound. Ten minutes into the photo taking, she got a bit tired and started to fuss. We knew it was time to go home, so we put her back into the stroller and strolled back to our car.

One unexpected find was a family of Canadian goose claimed the grassy area next to our car as their home turf. They briefly scattered when we arrived, but came back and stood their ground when we got in our car. Of course, by now, Lauren’s sleep so she didn’t see them. I’ll have to tell her when she grows up then.

Please keep our family in your prayers. Oh and don’t forget to adjust to Daytime Savings Time.

Photos from the trip.
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