A Few Thoughts on Leadership

Greetings from Boston!  I'm midway through a weeklong exec-ed program on leadership at Harvard Business School; I'm one of 96 participants from 33 countries, all of us in business or nonprofit management.  The faculty (Linda Hill, John Kotter, et al) are masterful, and I'm delighted by the ideas we're discussing.  Here's a top 10 list:

1. Democratize leadership:  the leader's job is to develop leadership in as many people as possible, because the world's in desperate need of them.
2. Great leaders sway hearts, then minds; they lead with authenticity, humility, deep humanity and transparent values.
3. Visionary leaders create vision and strategy; communicate it and gain buy-in; motivate action; create the systems that managers manage; and transform systems when needed for growth, evolution, new opportunities and hazards.
4. Have big, idealistic ideas:  big enough to overcome the world's challenges, and idealistic enough to stir the heart.
5. The need for power can be egocentric or socialized; socialized power is, at core, the need to have impact.
6. Challenges help you identify your learning frontier and grow.
7. Lifelong learning ensures youthful vigor; be open minded, humble, curious and ambitious.
8. Be present in the moment:  change is accelerating exponentially, and new challenges will force you to respond with creativity and innovation.
9. "Do the right thing, don't seek to do all things right." (Jack Welch)
10. Failure is invaluable experience, so take risks; the liability of (too much) success is real.