Social Leaders [Infographic]

Matthew Gates http://notetoservices.com 2m 382 #socialleaders

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Most of us have seen, met, and been inspired by leaders. There are also plenty of people we have come across that thought they were leaders, but possessed none of the qualities, skills, or attributes of a leader. Leadership is always evolving and old methods that used to be thought of as leadership – such as one-man dominance, instilling fear, being authoritative, micromanaging, and sacrificing everyone if the action called for it – is no longer the best leadership style and hardly produces any great leaders.

New leadership inspires, encourages, and calls for the action of multiple people to step up and work as a team together collaboratively and collectively. New leadership seeks out the strengths of people to do specific jobs and puts them – not in positions of power, but in positions of leadership for the common efforts of the entire team. New leadership allows for individuality, ambition, and ideas to prosper. Rather than seeing one individual lead the entire team, everyone on the team leads each other and encourages each other to be the best they can be.

While there are many different types of leaders, this infographic serves as a guide to understanding yourself as a good social leader.

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Social Leaders are:

Pragmatic Optimist
Default to “yes”

Inspirational
Co-create value and develop excellence

Forward Looking
Embrace change by asking, “What if …?”

Open Minded
Solicit views from others

Proactive
The first to follow, the first to lead

Trusting
The only path to scale is empowerment

Accountable
I’ve got it

Generous
When celebrating, lead from the back

Authentic
Open and honest communication

Collaborative
No one of us is as smart as all of us

Social Leaders are not:

Chronic Pessimist
Default to “no”

Controlling
Demand excellence

Backwards Looking
This is how we’ve always done it

Close Minded
Decision making in a vacuum

Reactive
I’ll do it when I’m told

Insecure
Micro managing restricts growth

Unreliable
Not my fault

Selfish
All good ideas are mine

Phony
Misleading for self-interest

Sliced
I’m the smartest one in the room

For more insights, check out:

The Pursuit of Social Business Excellence
by @ValaAfshar @Brad_W_Martin

Matthew Gates is a freelance web designer and currently runs Confessions of the Professions.

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