What Harvard Taught Me About Leadership

Most Leaders Get This Wrong: Here’s How You Can Avoid It.

“Many leadership failures are the result of diagnostic failures, a misunderstanding of the work to be done.” — Ronald Heifetz, M.D. Founder, Center for Public Leadership, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

The mistake many people make is focusing on leadership abilities first. People tend to define leaders in terms of powers like influence, authority, persuasion, and charisma. But a person can possess those qualities and still not be a leader. Characteristics such as “good listener” or “courageous” might be useful to leaders in some types of work, but less relevant in others. To say that any list of characteristics defines a leader is misguided.

“The hands and tools don’t define the craft, the challenges do.” — Ronald Heifetz.

There are different types of work

You can’t treat all leadership challenges the same. If leadership should not be separated from the work to be done, then it becomes critical to figure out what type of work you are doing.