by Bitner (bio)
Here is the core part of the column -- an 11-point list (and please forgive the professor's misuse of 'unchartered', he only teaches at Harvard):
- Understand the importance of nonconformity. Leadership is about change, hope, and the future. Leaders have to venture into unchartered territory, so they must be able to handle intellectual solitude and ambiguity.
- Display a commitment to learning and developing yourself. Leaders must invest in themselves. If you aren’t educated, you can’t help the uneducated; if you are sick, you can’t minister to the sick; if you are poor, you can’t help the poor.
- Develop the ability to put personal performance in perspective. Over a long career, you will experience both success and failure. Humility in success and courage in failure are hallmarks of a good leader.
- Be ready to invest in developing other people. Be unstinting in helping your colleagues realize their full potential.
- Learn to relate to those who are less fortunate. Good leaders are inclusive, even though that isn’t easy. Most societies have dealt with differences by avoiding or eliminating them; few assimilate those who aren’t like them.
- Be concerned about due process. People seek fairness-not favors. They want to be heard. They often don’t even mind if decisions don’t go their way as long as the process is fair and transparent.
- Realize the importance of loyalty to organization, profession, community, society, and, above all, family. Most of our achievements would be impossible without our families’ support.
- Assume responsibility for outcomes as well as for the processes and people you work with. How you achieve results will shape the kind of person you become.
- Remember that you are part of a very privileged few. That’s your strength, but it’s also a cross you carry. Balance achievement with compassion and learning with understanding.
- Expect to be judged by what you do and how well you do it – not by what you say you want to do. However, the bias toward action must be balanced by empathy and caring for other people.
- Be conscious of the part you play. Be concerned about the problems of the poor and disabled, accept human weaknesses, laugh at yourself – and avoid the temptation to play God. Leadership is about self-awareness, recognizing your failings, and developing modesty, humility, and humanity.
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