We’ve all been put into situations where we need to take control of a situation early on. Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves constantly looking up at a perch of credibility and respect we’ll have to work hard to climb up to, if we can even get there at all. With that in mind, I came across a post that offered some advice for getting hold of a group right at the start, and establishing the necessary sense of authority without turning yourself into a dictator.
The author offered the following 10 steps that I thought seemed to encapsulate the principles of Leadership while still respecting people:
- “It’s Easier to Get Easier” – People are looking to see what they can get away with when there’s a new leader. Don’t be nasty, but be firm. If you start out firm in your stance, you can gradually back off as you all learn to work together.
- Fairness is Key
- Deal with Disruptions with as Little Interruption as Possible
- Avoid Confrontations in front of others
- Stop Disruptions with a Little Humor
- Keep High Expectations
- Overplan
- Be Consistent
- Make Rules Understandable
- Start Fresh Everyday
The author clearly has a keen sense of how to manage others and keep order while still helping others to achieve. In fact, most of the advice is what we see from management experts who are coaching CEOs and others throughout the management chain in a large organization. The advice is clearly sound.
The author of the piece is Melissa Kelly, a Social Studies teacher. Her 10 points are from an article on about.com entitled “Top 10 Tips for Successful Classroom Discipline and Management.”
I point this out not to praise the teaching profession, but to point out that where we need to look for answers might not always be where we expect to find them. Also, I want to point out that people are still people. At some point, you can only analyze things so far before you realize that people are people – for all our faults and idiosyncrasies, we are all still made out of the same stuff.
I often wonder if what we spend so much time as adults trying to learn about how to lead or at least work with others isn’t really learning. It’s more about remembering some simple lessons from childhood – lessons that, in our naivete we weren’t able to appreciate fully, but that in our adulthood we’ve forgotten or cast aside.
As the article demonstrates, the principles of leadership are very simple. Perhaps it is not knowing them that is hard, but finding the wherewithal inside ourselves to actually practice them. If only they had taught us how to do that in school.
Copyright © 2011 David Kasprzak
