Leadership in the RIM Profession
It is the time of year when our GNW chapters select and vote on their board for the 2007-2008 ARMA year. With thoughts of selecting leaders for your chapters, I think it is an excellent opportunity to think about the meaning of leadership in the RIM profession, both as a RIM professional and as a member of your local chapter. I encourage each of you to look at what you can do on an individual basis to further enhance your skills as a leader in RIM to move our profession to the next level.
There is a vast amount of material easily available that help us to understand both the context and meaning of leadership. One quote that helps me put leadership into perspective is:
“Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you with a job. That takes all the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure” by Admiral Arleigh A. Burke. Another quote more directly related to our own line of work, “One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency” by Arnold Glasgow. I would also like to share 21 qualities of a leader that came across in a leadership session. Think about how you could apply these principals either as a whole or individually to your own situations:
Ø BE A PIECE OF THE ROCK: Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character, which inspires confidence.
Ø CHARISMA: The first impression can seal the deal.
Ø COMMITMENT: It separates doers from dreamers.
Ø COMMUNICATION: Without it you travel alone.
Ø COMPETENCE: If you build it, they will come.
Ø COURAGE: One person with courage is a majority.
Ø DISCERNMENT: Put an end to unsolved mysteries. “Smart leaders believe only half of what they hear … discerning leaders know which half to believe.”
Ø FOCUS: The sharper it is, the sharper you are. Focus 70% on strengths, 25% on new things and 5% on areas of weakness – “growth equals change … to get better, you have to keep changing and improving.”
Ø INITIATIVE: You won’t leave home without it.
Ø LISTENING: To connect with their hearts, use your ears.
Ø PASSION: Take this life and love it. “You can never lead something you don’t care passionately about. You can’t start a fire in your organization unless one is first burning in you.”
Ø POSITIVE ATTITUDE: If you believe you can, you can.
Ø PROBLEM SOLVING: You can’t let your problems be a PROBLEM.
Ø RELATIONSHIPS: If you get along, they’ll go along.
Ø RESPONSIBILITY: If you won’t carry the ball, you can’t lead the team.
Ø SECURITY: Competence never compensates for insecurity.
To improve your security: know yourself, give away the credit, and get some help.
Ø SELF-DISCIPLINE: The first person you lead is you.
Ø SERVANTHOOD: To get ahead, put others first. “The leader serves people. Serves their best interests and in so doing will not always be popular, may not always impress. But because true leaders are motivated by loving concern rather than a desire for personal glory, they are willing to pay the price.”
Ø TEACHABILITY: To keep leading, keep learning.
Ø VISION: You can seize only what you can see.
I look to each of these as a personal challenge to improve my own position in RIM and more importantly to become a mentor and guiding force to our profession.
Leadership happens at so many levels and across every sector of our lives. I encourage each of you to consider what leadership means to you and use this as a guiding light as you move forward in your careers, as a vital member of your chapter and in your personal lives.
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