Focus on continual learning and unlearning. There are almost no jobs left that will remain the same over time and the demands of leaders and managers are continuing to evolve. Pause and think about the changes in the past year alone. Leaders and managers that are successful today are constantly learning and developing themselves. The problem with successful adults is that our brains are constructed to help us prove ourselves right. And the more successful we are, the more energy we spend on doing this. But the things that served us well last year or even last week, might not be the best approach anymore based on all the change around us.
Really great leaders and managers today have the following characteristics in common. They:
- Like to master things
- They are motivated and driven to constantly get better, knowing full well that they will not, and should not, be perfect
- Are observant and flexible
- They can consider multiple perspectives to create general guidelines that help them make sense of what is around them
- Focus on problem solving
- They consider current issues from the perspective of making things better versus blaming or worrying
- Their thinking is characterized by a balance of the ability to visualize what might or could be, and an effective day to day approach to get the right things done
- They can distill complexity
- Are self aware…
