What Defines Your Leadership?

In the April 9, 2012 issue of Fortune magazine, an article on The 12 Greatest Entrepreneurs of Our Time – and What You Can Learn From Them by John A. Byrne provides a brief but insightful look at what makes these successful men tick (three women received honorable mention but didn’t make it to the top 12).I’d like to provoke your thoughts by sharing the critical success factors about the top four.

Steve Jobs – Apple– Didn’t rely on consumer research, but instead “connected the dots” about relationships between technology and life experiences.  He believed that it wasn’t consumers’ responsibility to know what they wanted, especially if they haven’t seen anything like it before.  In essence consumers are often limited by their own experiences and imagination.

Bill Gates – Microsoft– Picked smart people and put them to work on important things. Both his business partner (Paul Allen) and his successor as CEO (Steve Ballmer) fall into that category.  These are people who he bounced ideas off, and who in turn would come up with even better ideas.  Gates believes that brilliant people should work on the best and most important projects.

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Fred Smith – Fedex– Learned about logistics from his experience serving in Vietnam where he saw the importance of integrating ground and air operations to move material and equipment, and to support the troops.He also learned the importance of investing in the right first line managers to make good decisions, and to praise them publicly for their work.

Jeff Bezos – Amazon– Takes a mini-retreat every quarter. This is time for him to reflect on the past, and plan for the future.His time alone with no phones is spent web-surfing for new trends and ideas that he then writes in a memo to himself and other members of his executive team for follow-up and action. These ideas typically take on a life of their own as others add to them until something develops.

So by now you get the picture.Each of these individuals changed the way we communicate or connect by introducing a new operating concept. They also spend a lot of time on continuous improvement of current ideas, and innovating with new ideas, even before customers can imagine what they want.They had to first envision a future very different from the present; a breakthrough idea.Then they had to believe that it was possible for such an idea to come to fruition. This required several leadership characteristics, which are critical for all of us.

Perseverance – Most people fail many times on the way to success.Success is often about finding out what doesn’t work until you narrow it down to what does work. Many scientists like Alexander Graham Bell, George Washington Carver, and Thomas Edison discovered and invented many things because they were always trying new ideas, and thus discovering other things in the process. This means a “never quit” attitude, turning each failure into a stepping stone to the next opportunity.

Focus – There will be plenty of people along the way who will offer their ideas on what you’re doing, whether it will be successful or not, and what you should be doing instead. If you really believe in what you’re doing, you must tune out any words that take you away from your goal. Often, those people have a limited perspective either based on lack of knowledge or lack of commitment. Instead find those who are supportive and encouraging, and allow their energy to spur you on.

Passion – The question here is how much you believe in what you’re doing. If the object of your passion is merely to make money, then you’ll probably cast around from one idea to the next in search of what’s working, and very few will succeed this way. (With Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are giving most of their money away, they must have discovered that there’s more to life than just money.)Instead, your passion must be about your mission or purpose in life. For Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook that’s helping people to connect and share information across the world. For Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines that’s providing low cost airfares with great customer service.

Capability – All of the above means nothing if you don’t have the intelligence to bring your ideas to market. This is the difference between a great idea left on paper, and a good idea brought to market. Maybe someone else had a Facebook or Apple – like idea, but if you can’t experiment with it, develop it, fund it, market it, and sell it, then it’s of no value.Clearly understand your capabilities, find others who possess the skills you need but don’t have, research and understand your market, gain insight into the areas that are saturated vs. where the opportunities lie, build a solid business plan, find funding sources.Remember, if it’s easy, anyone can do it and it’s no longer a game changing idea.

Wild Card – This final characteristic is what makes you who you are.It’s the strongest characteristic about each man listed above that made them successful.It’s different for each person, based on their personality, their business strategy, and their product or service.What works for one may not work for another.It’s like the secret ingredient to a recipe that everyone loves but can’t quite figure out how to imitate. It’s like a chemical reaction that occurs when your passion mixes with your capability.

So my question to you is, what’s your defining leadership characteristic? What attribute or insight do you possess that is the primary key to your success? What will others remember you for? Think about how and where you’re most creative.What do you do that most often yields results or engages others? This is your God-given gift. Simply embrace it and leverage it to your success.

Click here to read the Fortune article.