Читать книгу The Together Leader - Heyck-Merlin Maia - Страница 9

What does a Together Leader look like anyway? What is my definition of Togetherness? I'm deliberately not using the term organized because, well, just being organized is simply not enough for a busy leader with an important mission at stake. I see Togetherness as a combination of prioritized, planned, efficient, organized, flexible, predictable, intentional, and reliable.

In the painful personal example that opened this book, a more Together Leader may have thought, “Maia knew the training for the veteran teachers was incredibly high stakes. Because she regularly reviewed her calendar three months in advance, she knew it was coming down the pike. Because it was a new training, she proactively scheduled a series of meetings with her deputy director to outline the objectives, create the activities, and design the practice in the month leading up to the training. Because Maia realized that the materials aspect of the workshop would be a huge crunch, she carefully delegated production to a summer intern and set several meetings to check on progress. The day before the training, she ran one more dress rehearsal; invited her deputy director to ask her the tough questions she anticipated would come up in the trainings; packed the materials in her car; printed out directions, a premade pacing guide, and a sheet to take questions and contact info; laid out her outfit; and got a good night's sleep.” That leader would have been much more Together – and clearly would get to a better outcome, via planning, prioritizing, delegating, anticipating challenges, and operating efficiently.

Togetherness means being

• Prioritized

• Planned

• Efficient

• Organized

• Flexible

• Predictable

• Intentional

• Reliable

Of course, Togetherness is just one aspect of effective leadership. There are so many more facets of people management, such as setting vision, investing in others, leading with heart, designing strategy, marketing and selling ideas, and so on. There are tons of books, executive courses, and grad school syllabi that cover this stuff. This book, however, focuses on just one aspect of leadership, one I believe is often neglected or discounted. There are very few classes in high school, college, or graduate school that really teach you how to design and execute personal, team, and organization-wide systems to reach your goals. As you head deeper into the following chapter, you will find several self-assessments about your tools, routines, and mind-sets to help you determine your Togetherness strengths as well as where you may have some gaps.