What does George Washington have in common with Aretha Franklin? Read and find out.
There are many keys to becoming great leaders. I will just focus on 5 of them.
1.R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Aretha said it best when she sang this great song. If you want people to say your name in the same sentence as Great Leader, than you have to learn to give respect, to everyone. It doesn't matter if the person in your office is just a janitor you have to show the same respect to them as you would the head of a major account you are trying to land. Everyone wants to be valued and everyone loves to be respected if you give it, you will receive it.
2. Keep Good Company
Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.
George Washington
If you want to establish great leadership skills and become a person whom others look to for guidance, you have to keep similar company. Whatever type of person you spend your professional and leisure time with slowly but surely you will adopt some of their principals and thoughts so be sure it is someone you admire.
3. Make Hard Decisions
The following is a brief recount of George Washington and Valley Forge he made the hard decision to not raid nearby houses to get the supplies that his men so desperately needed.
Washington might have been excused, in such a situation, for wondering whether to use his military power to silence his civilian critics. More bedeviling still, Washington mulled the possibility of permitting his soldiers to seize the supplies they desperately needed and Congress lacked the power to purchase. But it is a remarkable fact of American history that Washington turned away from the temptation to overpower or maneuver around the weakness of American civilian government. He resisted so scrupulously, in fact, that thousands of his men starved or froze to death that second winter of the war. While they're suffering and loyalty is justly recognized as the great legacy of Valley Forge to the nation, it is only part of the story.
It is clear that Washington did not want to act like the very force he was trying to overthrow. What an terrible position he was put in by Congress and his own sensibilities. How do you stay true to your principles and yet watch men die because of it?
Now your decisions as a business owner probably will not result in life or death. However, how many times have we kept the wrong employee or wrong partner because they were a friend and found them to be were the wrong fit? You have to make hard decisions to be a great leader.
4. Filled with integrity.
I am studying George Washington currently and I am amazed by so many traits that he possessed. At the end of the war his men were exhausted, ill fed, and broke. They became increasingly angry and they wanted to make George Washington King and overthrow the new government they worked so hard to create and defend. A man with poor character would have easily said yes. But this is how George Washington answered those men:
Washington entered and approached Gates and asked to speak.
Washington, looking for the right words, urged patience, and characterized the first address as a document appealing to "passions" rather than "reason and good sense." He quickly found that he was not making progress in reaching his officers. It is at this time that Washington stated that he wanted to read them a letter. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his glasses.
Many were surprised that Washington wore glasses, for they had never before seen him wear them. It was this act, and the statement "Gentlemen, you must pardon me. I have grown gray in your service and now find myself growing blind." This caught the officers of guard, and his statement had verbalized for them their sense of personal sacrifice, of thwarted dignity and honor. Many officers upon seeing this act, wept. All thoughts of internal rebellion and conspiracy, ceased to exist.
My final Key is what I believe all of the other keys in leadership rest upon, humility. In order to be a great leader you must be humble.
5. Humility
When Washington was given command of the Army this is the statement he made:
But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.
Washington's formal acceptance of command of the Army (16 June 1775), quoted in The Writings of George Washington : Life of Washington (1837) edited by Jared Sparks, p. 141
Aretha and Washington both had respect in common. Aretha sang a great song regarding the subject and George Washington lived it.
Follow these simple principals and you too can become a great leader!
Lisa Cash Hanson is an entrepreneur and President of Blueberry Baboon a business consulting firm based in Las Vegas Nevada.
www.blueberrybaboon.com
