Thoughts on leadership behavior

I asked someone what behaviors they value in leaders they admire. The answer:

  1. Listening

  2. Enabling

  3. Humbling

Listening makes sense to me — it’s a behavior thought leaders in the Linkedinosphere write about all the time. Click baity articles that read “the #1 thing you need to do to win the C-Suite” all about being a better listener. I believe listening to be so simple yet so absent in our world — the people who do it well mastered an ancient art.

Enabling, as we discussed it, means to enable possibility. To make situations and events so much better that people are enabled to output their best work.

Humbling — admitting mistakes. Being confident enough in one’s self to admit errors, failures, and how they’ve learned from it.

Enabling and humbling are behaviors that I also admire in leaders. They are behaviors I wish I saw more of in people… generally speaking.

How do we obsess over craft?