Colin Luther Powell was an American politician, political leader, diplomat, and US Army officer who served as the Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He also served as the National Security Advisor and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Powell was answering interview questions where he summarized what the key characteristics were of an effective leader. Interestingly Powell never hesitated when providing an answer. Neither did Powell give an exhaustive list of characteristics. Powell said “Trust” …period!
He did go on to explain the simple answer. To paraphrase the essence of what he said…
- Leadership comes down to creating conditions of trust within an organization…
- Leaders are people who are trusted by followers…
- Good leaders take the organization past the level that the science and the management says is possible…
- You will know when you are good leader when people follow you just out of curiosity…
Whether it is leadership, performance management, or any other myriad of concepts involved in keeping any organization effective and efficient we often over complicate the solutions. Any solution that cannot be recited quickly and remembered by those implementing the concepts is not set up for success.
General Powell had it right. If you can conceptualize a complicated concept like leadership in one word you are more likely to achieve success. Let us be more like Powell in our communications and how we engage each other.
Think About It!