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About
What Great Leaders Know by Griff Thomas
I grew up in Painted Post, New York and have lived and worked in a variety of leadership roles in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia and Virginia. I live in Northern Virginia today. Throughout my career, I have been recognized for my unique, creative and effective approach to leading teams and individuals to achieving high levels of performance and my ability to teach leadership. I have always paid attention to leaders I have served with and spend a great deal time pondering what makes them succeed or fail. There are many poor leaders in the world. There are few great leaders. I hope what I share will help you to improve as a leader. The world needs more great ones.
Every leader has their preferred style, from administrators to coaches. My style is teacher/mentor, which doesn’t come as a surprise since my wife is a teacher, my mom was a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher and my grandfather was a school principal. My purpose is to build healthy people, who understand the team’s mission and their role in achieving it.
What is Leadership?
Leadership is directing a group of people, for good or bad reasons. My focus on developing GREAT LEADERS is focused on Good reasons, though to explain the good, we will have to define the bad. Good actions benefit those we serve and those who serve them. While South Park’s character Eric Cartman displays leadership qualities, he isn’t focused on helping people (other than himself).
Being an Great Leader begins with a North Star, defining the mission and actions that navigate the team across the finish line.
Managers and Leaders
Some people use manager and leader interchangeably, but they are not the same. Managers are responsible for controlling part or all of a business process. Manager is a common job title and description. Leader is not. Being a manager does not make you a leader. I can hold the title of manager without being a leader.
Leadership is the internal scale we use to measure the effectiveness others have in knowing what to do and how effective they are at getting it done. You don’t need a title to be a leader. I have known many front line team members who are natural born leaders and ran the team from the first of the organizational chart and managers who recognized this and wisely, let them lead. The natural ability of a leader to understand the mission and motivate the team is not something they can turn off. When they leave work, they are still leaders, while managing begins and ends with the time clock. As a leader, when I am not actively leading, I am choosing not to lead, which is also… leading. Managing is following the playbook. Leading is writing a new chapter. Managing is directing the team to cut down the trees in a forest to make a new road. Leading is climbing to a high point and realizing the path needs to change and getting the team on track. Leaders can find their own new pathway, while managers look to leaders to point the way. Leaders are looking up for inspiration while managers are looking down at operations.
Greatness
Great leaders are what I call landmark leaders. Before GPS, people navigated by landmarks, turn left at the big, red barn. Because everyone knows the big red barn, can see it from a distance, it has stood the test of time, stands out in size, is well positioned and recognizable, we use it to find our bearings. Great leaders, are recognizable, consistent, memorable, well positioned and guide us. When we mention a Great Leader to a co-worker, their greatness is common knowledge.
Griff Thomas MBA