One of the misconceptions about leadership is that you can just pick up a book and read and memorize the steps necessary to becoming a successful manager or leader. This is not the case.  There is no such thing as 10 steps to a successful management or leadership career.  It is more like collecting skills and learning how to use them. 

Let’s consider an analogy.  Learning management and leadership skills is like adding “clubs to a bag” and then learning how to swing the clubs. I am not particularly happy with the word “club”, but the analogy works!  How is your set of clubs? Professional golfers are allowed to carry 14 clubs on a PGA tour event.  Each one is different.  The golfer examines the situation he or she has and then chooses the best club for the moment.  The playing conditions are different at every hole, so there is no perfect pattern of club choice.  Fortunately for us, as we develop our never-ending journey of adding clubs to our bag, there is no limit on the number of clubs we are allowed to carry.  The process is not an instant event.  We learn as we journey. 

The learning-as-we-go part is one of the reasons it is important to be open to the experience around you.  One can get more from experience than reading a book.  While on the journey, this is one of the times “stealing” is beneficial.  I had an incident about 10 years into my management career.  One of my peers asked me a question.  If you saw someone do something better than you, what would you do? I am not sure what answer he was expecting me to give, but my answer was, “Change immediately.”  We cannot afford to trip over the idea that we have the perfect answer to every question.  President Reagan had a saying, “Surround yourself with good people and let them do their work.”  As much as I have found that to be true for over 40 years, I like to apply a modification to this.  “Surround yourself with good people and steal what they do better than you.”  Humility is king!

One of the misconceptions about leadership is that you can just pick up a book and read and memorize the steps necessary to becoming a successful manager or leader. This is not the case.  There is no such thing as 10 steps to a successful management or leadership career.  It is more like collecting skills and learning how to use them. 

Let’s consider an analogy.  Learning management and leadership skills is like adding “clubs to a bag” and then learning how to swing the clubs. I am not particularly happy with the word “club”, but the analogy works!  How is your set of clubs? Professional golfers are allowed to carry 14 clubs on a PGA tour event.  Each one is different.  The golfer examines the situation he or she has and then chooses the best club for the moment.  The playing conditions are different at every hole, so there is no perfect pattern of club choice.  Fortunately for us, as we develop our never-ending journey of adding clubs to our bag, there is no limit on the number of clubs we are allowed to carry.  The process is not an instant event.  We learn as we journey. 

The learning-as-we-go part is one of the reasons it is important to be open to the experience around you.  One can get more from experience than reading a book.  While on the journey, this is one of the times “stealing” is beneficial.  I had an incident about 10 years into my management career.  One of my peers asked me a question.  If you saw someone do something better than you, what would you do? I am not sure what answer he was expecting me to give, but my answer was, “Change immediately.”  We cannot afford to trip over the idea that we have the perfect answer to every question.  President Reagan had a saying, “Surround yourself with good people and let them do their work.”  As much as I have found that to be true for over 40 years, I like to apply a modification to this.  “Surround yourself with good people and steal what they do better than you.”  Humility is king!