brian-ralph - Tumblr blog

[brian-ralph]

Be Present

[brian-ralph]

Invest in others by asking the tough questions

If you want to be a leader who is a catalyst for growth in others…ask, don’t tell.  Asking the hard questions about a situation pushes your colleague to grapple with the truth, the context and the people.  It also paves a way for future critical thought by your team member…without you around…thereby extending your leadership reach and impact while simultaneously improving their leadership potential and autonomy.

[brian-ralph]

View from my office window @QueensUniv.  Can. Not. Be. Beat.

[brian-ralph]

Leaders Are Almost Blind Without Great Teams

One of the fun things a leader gets to do is to be visionary. Dictionary.com defines visionary as: given to or characterized by fanciful, not presently workable, or unpractical ideas, views, or schemes.  The beauty of being visionary is that you provide inspiration and direction.  The downside of course is that you can become virtually blind to the rest of the world around you if you are not careful.  The best way a visionary can be successful is to have a great team to translate those "fanciful, not presently workable" ideas into strategy and action. 

Images often reinforce concepts in my own mind and drive home an important lesson.  Take the photo above - looking into the distance - an absolute requirement for a visionary leader - means NOT seeing a lot of what is closer and more immediate - especially in the periphery.  That's where great teams come in --connecting the present to the future.  A great leader must listen to the team while challenging and pushing them.

I love the tension that evolves when this is occurring - it is a tension that is critical to success - but only if it is in an environment of trust and respect.  Tension often gets a bad rap because it is usually considered negative.  It actually creates opportunity for greatness to appear when managed well.  I have had the opportunity to learn this lesson a lot lately.  I have an awesome team who sees so much of what I don't.  It makes us a better team, it makes me a better leader and it brings about great work.

[brian-ralph]

Sunset

[brian-ralph]

My Office.