Microsoft Canada has run a series of webcasts to Ignite Your Career. A different topic is covered in each one, but the one that caught my eye was How to Become a Great Leader. It was a panel that started off pretty good, but found my interest wandering off by the 2/3 mark; there are worse ways though to spend an hour.

  • Differences between managing and leading
    • Managers appear in the org chart by title, leaders can be anywhere
    • Ideally you want leaders to have titles to go with them
    • Managers are given a mandate, leaders help develop it
    • Leadership is a constant sales job
    • Canadian military has 10 identified steps of leadership it teaches its leaders
    • Leaders need to know which peg to push into which hole
    • Managers need to know how far to push the peg
    • Managers are day-to-day, leaders are far looking
    • Scale of responsibility: Do the job, know the jobs, know the battle plan
  • In Search of Leadership
    • Culture is formed by a leader’s ability to build trust
    • To be trustworthy, you have to behave ethically
    • The business isn’t just the CEO
    • Be willing to admit mistakes
  • Focus on refining strengths rather than improving weaknesses
  • Its really hard to execute the vision if the visionary is out of touch
  • In geographically / culturally diverse teams, the problems are never geographic, its always cultural
  • Feedback given in the spirit of helping is likely to be accepted better
  • Performance = Effort + Skills
  • Work on your business, not in it
  • If you’re ethical, you will never be in trouble
  • Built relationships
  • Be passionate
  • Some of the most respected leaders are not seen as such until they are tested