Thousands of articles and books have been written about Leadership. Here is another with a great list of important leadership responsibilities from a recent issue of Harvard Business Review:
1. Deliver Value. Your main responsibility is to deliver value for your organization, your team, and your customers-stakeholders.
2. Handle Conflict. Don’t procrastinate on decisions that will be unpopular with some people. Address the issue straight on. Tell the full truth and people will respect you in the end.
3. Build Resilience. Learn from setbacks. Take a positive attitude with an eye to the future. Make sure that you and your team build self-care habits that support a resilient lifestyle.
4. Work at the Right Level. Once you have been elevated to leadership, your job is mostly to orchestrate and support your team. While you may need to get in the trenches sometimes, you are mostly there to teach, direct and encourage.
5. Master Ambiguity. The world is complex. You need to sort through the complexity and give your team clear direction. Make sure that you understand how your team’s work connects to the organization’s longer-term goals.
6. Make Great Decisions. Gather input from others, but you can’t expect all decisions to be made by consensus. It takes too long and since the “buck” stops with you, you often need to make the final decision. Take responsibility if things don’t work out.
7. Drive Accountability. This starts with you. Accept accountability and responsibility as appropriate. Hold others accountable. Leaders who do not hold others accountable risk losing high performers who want to be part of a high performing team.
Being asked to serve in a leadership role requires a mindset that you are there to serve the organization, your team, and your stakeholders. Start with the intent to contribute value to others and you will be off to a strong start.
*Ideas for this blog taken from: Moore, M. “5 Things That Change When You Become a Leader,” Harvard Business Review online, January 18, 2022.
