Podcast, Season 2, Episode 17: Be a Better Leader: The Be-Attitudes of Better Leadership (Part 1, Introduction)

In this “Be A Better Leader” series of website articles and podcasts, I am talking about a variety of attributes, characteristics, and skills that are essential to effective leadership, and discussing how they are reflected in practice. I have grouped these things into five categories of what a leader ought to be, which is why I am labeling them as the “Be-attitudes of Better Leadership.” These five categories are: “Be Genuine,” “Be Relational,” “Be Trustworthy,” Be Knowledgeable,” and “Be Excellent.” Today in part 1, we are kicking off the series with an introduction and broad overview of what’s to come. And because it is the introduction, the podcast script and the website article are almost exactly the same this week. Here is the transcript of the podcast.

Years ago, I taught a series of workshops at an educator’s convention, called “Be A Better Teacher.” The idea for these workshops started with a single workshop that I had originally prepared, called “The Be-Attitudes of Better Teaching,” in which I identified and explained some of the most important attributes and characteristics that should be reflected in who and what a teacher should be. Because it was a Christian School convention, it was a little bit of a play on words from the Beatitudes that Jesus shared in the Sermon on the Mount. This one workshop ended up growing into six workshops – Be Prepared, Be Good, Be Funny, Be Yourself, Be a Teacher, and Be an Influence – that focused on effective teaching techniques, methods and characteristics of good teachers.

At some point much further down the road in my leadership experience, something triggered my memory of these workshops, it dawned on me that the same kind of idea – a list of “Be” statements – was true in leadership as well. While there are many leadership styles and no single leadership type or personality, certain attitudes, skills, and characteristics are important in a leader for that leader to be effective, so I started thinking about what those things might be (pun intended). While not an all-inclusive list, I identified what I believe are a few of those “Be-Attitudes” in the context of leadership that are essential to leading well.

Before diving into these, though, we need a reminder of the basic context of leadership. In any leadership circumstance, there are three variables involved: the leader, the follower, and the situation. Each plays an important role, and each has an impact on the dynamic that is at work. Therefore, one of the primary responsibilities of a leader is to understand all three, so that he or she can know how best to operate within his or her gifts and abilities, know how best to lead followers, and know how best to lead in the situation at hand. In addition, there are two things that a leader is always managing: people and tasks. Therefore, almost everything that a leader does is done in order to effectively lead and manage people, and effectively manage and accomplish tasks.

With an understanding of this basic synopsis of leadership, there are some attributes and skills that I believe must be part of a leader’s makeup. It’s not an all-inclusive list, but it does include a variety of topics that I have sorted into five broad categories:

• Be Genuine – being real and sincere
• Be Relational – connecting with and caring for people
• Be Trustworthy – integrity that can be trusted
• Be Knowledgeable – demonstrating competence
• Be Excellent – being good at it

These are the five broader categories of the “Be-Attitudes of Better Leadership” that I will be spending time on throughout the rest of the series. Within each of these categories, there are three or four attributes that represent that category, Therefore, each week, in both a website article and a podcast episode, I intend to discuss one of the different ways each of those attributes is reflected in practice. By the time I get to the end, I may discover that there are some other categories that need to be added, and if that’s the case, then we’ll take more time. In the end, I hope that you will have gained a grasp on some of the most important characteristics and practices that need to be embedded into yourself and your leadership, for you to be the most effective leader you can be. My prayer is that you will learn things that will help you to “Be a Better Leader.”