Carl Hutzler's Blog

Oh, god. Here goes another idiot’s view on leadership. He probably just read some management book like the 7 habits and thinks he has seen a vision or something. Well, actually no. He has just been thinking about what makes a good leader, people he thinks of and looks-up to as strong leaders, and what traits people desire in their leaders. Below is a short (compared to my other blog posts) list:

1) Leaders should care about what their team is doing. When their team is finished doing it, the leader should be able to appreciate that work in a personal way for each individual who contributed. Otherwise, why bother doing the work if no one cares about the result?
2) Leaders don’t need to be the expert on everything. In fact you could argue that the less they know, typically, the better chance micro-management is not an issue. And the better chance the leaders will be effective delegators of responsibility, thus empowering the larger team. Does this mean leaders should not do anything or not be involved at all? Heck no. Leaders must be involved and they must have a solid understanding of the mission of the team and systems the team works with. Without this base knowledge, leaders can not add value, such as, asking smart questions, vetting designs, removing obstacles for success, and ensuring projects are moving ahead. The leader is, after all, responsible for the outcome just as all the team members are responsible for their pieces.

3) Leaders take initiative and have Passion. And they provide an atmosphere where others can innovate and take initiative. They value new ideas. They encourage people to bring new concepts to light. Leaders help take these new ideas and help form a campaign around the idea (hopefully with the help of the original idea person). They may take the idea to stake holders in other teams and help get buy-in from these teams. Leaders do not wait for their managers or manager’s manager to take the initiative or direct what they need to work on. Leaders should have a sense of what is important from knowledge of their system, its capabilities, and the marketplace they operate in. And everyone on the team seek to have this knowledge as well.

That’s it. Maybe there is more, but these are what I consider important today at 12:01pm EST.