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The One Thing a Leader Can't Do By: Tony Pantello | May 10, 2010 After listening to the stories and advice of the recent leadership panel in LEAD Session 5, I think it's pretty clear that there is no one right way to lead others. We all have different strengths, different talents, and different passions that influence our leadership style. Conversely however, I also learned that there is one thing that all leaders, regardless of personality or industry, simply cannot do if they want to effectively lead others. In other words, while the reasons and methods that make leaders successful are very different, the reasons why ineffective leaders fail to gain a following are very much the same. Think about the most influential leaders you know or have read about. Think about what we recently heard from a few of East Central Indiana's most respected leaders. In my opinion, the one thing that they've all refused to do, more so than anything else, was to consider themselves more important than the shared vision and those they were leading. They sought to be humble rather than prideful. They sought to serve rather than to be served. And they sought the attainment of a shared vision rather than selfish accomplishments or recognition. Can you recall an anecdote from last week's session that indicates otherwise? I can't. Not once did Andrew, Monique, Jimmy, or Todd indicate that their roles in their organizations were more critical than any of their colleagues'. And not once did they place selfish desires above the shared organizational cause. This isn't to say that they were without faults and didn't make their share of mistakes. They were the first to admit that they have. I'm just arguing that they refused to adopt an attitude of arrogance because they knew it was the one mistake that is most difficult for a leader to recover from. Does refusing to adopt this arrogance attitude guarantee that one will be an effective leader? Not entirely. But does elevating yourself, your position, your authority, and your needs above the vision and above those that you work with guarantee that you'll have difficulty inspiring, empowering, and gaining the trust of others? Almost certainly.
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