FORT MYERS, Fla. - Great leadership can be distilled down to seven key elements, and one leader implored credit unions never to settle for a leader with anything less than all seven.
Pat Williams, co-founder of NBA’s Orlando Magic and a former Major League baseball player, shared with attendees of the CUNA CFO Council’s Conference and Roundtable here what he believes to be the seven sides of a great leader. He came up with these characteristics after an extensive study that included some seriously heavy reading.
“There are a whole host of books on leadership,” Williams said, running down a long list that included everyone from Moses to Charles Deming. “I can save all of you a lot of time and money, because I bought them all. I have 408 books on leadership, and from that I have distilled the seven sides to leadership.”
Vision. “It’s the very essence of leadership because leadership is always about the future,” Williams said. “Vision keeps you focused. It keeps you fueled and it gets you to the finish line.” Williams noted that vision is the second habit listed in “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.” Noted management expert Peter Drucker said leadership is always about results, and to get results you have to have a vision of what it is you want, Williams added.
Communication. Once you’ve got a vision, you have to be able to communicate that vision, Williams said. That includes communicating “optimism.” Indeed, Williams quoted a number of noted leaders on the importance of optimism, including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said, “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”
People skills. “You have to love people,” Williams told the audience, regaling attendees with stories about famous coaches who clearly had this part down pat, such as “You’ve got to coach every player as if they’re going to marry your daughter.” But people skills include being visible and available (Williams said George Washington never left his troops during the eight years he led them), and listening instead of talking all the time. It also includes empowering people and delegating responsibility.
Character. “This country has been debating this for some time now, and let me be clear: character counts,” Williams said. He went on to quote Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who said you have to have a strategy and character and “if you have to do without one, do without strategy.” U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts famously asked wives if character was important in a husband and similarly asked husbands if it was important in wives, then asked why we should settle for leaders without character. Williams said character includes honesty, integrity, and humility.
Competence. Like the aspects of leadership, there are several components to competence, Williams said, including problem-solving. He pointed to Colin Powell’s observation that leadership is solving problems, “and when people stop bringing problems to you, you’re done.” The second component is team building, and rounding out competence is selling and teaching.
Boldness. Williams suggested boldness is what gives a leader the ability to make a decision, move on and not look back. You cannot tiptoe around the edges, Williams said, a leader must be willing to take charge and be the boss.
A Servant’s Heart. “There are many six-sided leaders who have been very successful, but the ones who go down in the annals of history always have the seventh side,” Williams said. “The days of Atilla the Hun, the Queen of Mean, Neutron Jack and Chainsaw Al are gone.” Instead, Williams exhorted credit unions to look to Jesus, Mother Theresa, Albert Schweitzer, and Robert F. Kennedy as examples of this all-important seventh side. He shared RFK’s final words to his wife after he was shot in 1968: “Is everybody else all right?”
