Hung Vo, Director of Policy of the International Youth Council, has posted on his Blog on The Huffington Post some tips for anyone aspiring to become a young leader or just a more effective one.
1. Be confident, but be careful to not confuse confidence with arrogance.
2. Leadership is about vision.
3. Inspire others to take action by showing your own action, commitment and good work for a better world. Make it easy for people to step in and join forces if they want to help.
4. Be ambitious and do not be afraid to take risks.
5. Never let someone tell you that you cannot do something.
6. Be organized.
7. Be able to articulate your thoughts and speech thoroughly and efficiently (a.k.a. communication skills).
8. Be able to establish your goals and commit to your plan.
9. Make sure your project, campaign or endeavor solves a problem and you that have clearly defined what the problem is and how you are going to solve it.
10. Know the strengths and weaknesses of yourself and your team.
11. Be fair.
12. Be clever.
13. Be optimistic.
14. Remember that you are young.
15. Connect! Strive to make a vast and diverse network of friends and colleagues.
16. Know when to give “the talk,” and do give it when it is necessary.
17. Have a right-hand man (or woman).
18. Know when to listen to others, and when to listen only to yourself.
Read the full article: The Huffington Post
Image source: Flickr – Ian (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Many, if not most) lists on how to be a great leader forget one thing: everything in them is necessary but not sufficient. Without CREDIBILITY (in the perception of others) you are nothing, even when you have those wonderful features and an impressive title. Being trustworthy is just as important.
Having worked 50 years plus and met some great managers and leaders (and quite a few that were not), I can assure you that not all of them have all of these charactersitics. Some I would have even described as near-psychopaths. However, they were inspirational and knew how to recognise good performance. Life is too complicated to be summarised in little lists!
I do agree that CREDIBILITY is an essential, often underestimated, element for success (whatever success means for anyone of us)!