Leadership: Skill or Art?

We often hear about the “skill” of leadership, but it is often unclear if it is a skill or the conscious awareness of our actions.

A leadership role can take place in a variety of ways. It may happen during certain life events, whether it’s a business situation, a family issue or an accident on the highway. Many times, we’re called into action and have to take charge immediately.

It is those moments in time when we are tested — when we find out about the “stuff” we’re made of.

I’ll always remember the flight I lost all my instruments, communication and lights and had to search for a place to land. The problem was it was the middle of the night and all the airports between Tampa and Gainesville were closed. For two and a half hours (between 12:30 a.m. and 3 a.m.), I flew with a flashlight in my mouth. With the light shining on my compass, I zigzagged the state searching for a place to land. With less than an hour left of fuel, I finally found a place to land. It was pitch black, so I couldn’t tell whether it was a road or a runway, but it didn’t matter at that point. Fortunately, it turned out to be a runway at the Cross City Airport.

So, what does flying lost in the middle of the night have to do with leadership?

I believe we must first lead ourselves through a difficult challenge before we can become an effective leader of others.

There are some things we can’t practice for or take a course to understand how to react in certain situations. We just have to know the right thing to do, and it starts with being able to take charge of our own actions.

That night, I realized I needed to put into practice everything I had learned about leadership:

1.   Stay calm, knowing I had to face the situation for what it was.
2.   Determine a course of action.
3. Focus on what I wanted to accomplish, not what I was afraid of happening. If a negative thought flew into my mind, I had to kick it out as fast as it came in.
4. Constantly reassess my situation and set new short-term goals.
5. Make decisions rather than be immobilized by the fear of making the wrong decision.
6. Act.

Stay Calm

There are things that happen inside our businesses that can rattle us, like new competition, a situation with a customer or an issue with the government. Whatever it is, we have to stay calm and assess the situation. Panicking is not an option for the leader.

Set a Course

Tough situations require a decisive response. Not being able to make a difficult decision sends a message of weakness, and I don’t believe anyone wants to be led by a weak leader. It’s important to get all the critical information in order to know the facts. But, once the facts are presented, it’s time to put together the plan.

Stay Extremely Focused

Fear can be immobilizing, and that’s why we have to focus so hard on our ultimate goal. For a brief moment while flying completely blind in the night’s sky, I thought of the night John Kennedy Jr. crashed his plane. My immediate reaction was to kick that thought out of my head and instead focus on keeping the plane straight and level. I had to focus myself completely on finding a place to land — I had to concentrate on what I wanted to accomplish, not what I was afraid of happening.

Reassess Regularly

Even the best of plans have to be re-evaluated regularly to reveal a new opportunity or a quicker way to accomplish a goal. On my midnight flight, I flew in the direction of bright lights, believing there would be a city airport nearby. Once I evaluated the terrain, I would make a decision; multiple times, the decision was to fly to the next set of lights.

Don’t Let Fear Stop You

Decisions have to be made and, at certain times, made fast. Don’t let “perfect” get in the way of good enough. Regularly evaluating allows new decisions to be made along the way. Most decisions are not life or death, but either way, being immobilized by fear is not an option for leaders.

ACT

Lastly, once a decision is made, we have to act. When I realized there were no better choices, I had to go in for a landing.

Leadership is ultimately about action, and as leaders, we’re assessed by everything we do. It’s important to realize we’re always being watched. There is nothing more powerful to the people we lead than how we deal with both the smallest and largest challenges we face every day.

I remember being at work the morning of my flight and picking up a book on my desk. As I opened it, the first thing I saw was a quote, “Circumstance doesn’t make the man; it reveals him to himself.”

And I think that’s the way it is with leadership: We prove ourselves with every difficult situation we face.