Leadership RDA for RDA

Two questions: How do I detect a potential leader? How do I know whether a leader is progressively growing?

These two questions concern two groups of people i.e. organizations that are looking for & developing leaders, and individuals who want to become leaders.

Now, to answer the first question:
A person can detect leadership potential through RDA. In the nutritional world, RDA stands for Recommended Daily Allowance, which in essence, stands for something that you have to intake on a daily basis if you want to remain healthy.

Well, in essence, to become a leader (or to detect a potential one), a person needs the Leadership RDA – which stands for Relationship, Discipline, and Attitude. These three characteristics will determine a person’s leadership level. In other words, the higher the basic RDA a person has, the higher the person will grow in leadership.

What then, are the components of Relationship, Discipline, and Attitude? Let me briefly explain:

A. Relationship

1. Why? Good performance & skill won't get you very far. You need others to succeed.
2. Five Rules for Successful Relationships:- Be Yourself, Be of Value, Be Consistent, Be Truthful, and Do What You Say
3. You cannot get people to listen to you if they don't like you. And if they don’t listen to you, you won’t accomplish anything!
4. Relationships = Expectations. You must know the expectations and manage those expectations.
5. People are interested in themselves, not in you
6. What is the most interesting subject in the world to them? THEMSELVES
7. Take four words out of your vocabulary: “I, me, my, mine” and substitute for the most powerful word: “YOU”
8. Remember that the more important you make people feel, the more they will respond to you.
9. Avoid arguing.
   

B. Discipline

1. Discipline consists of three areas:- Habits, Self Development, and Feelings
2. About Habits: Your success depends on what you do. What you do depends on who you are. Who you are depends on Habits. In summary, what we do, say and think is 90% controlled by habits.
3. About Self Development: It is an Investment. Investment = Time + Money. Nobody is going to invest in you. Start Early. Small Differences compound in the long-term.
4. About Feelings: “Anyone can become angry –that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not easy.” If you cannot control your feelings and emotions, forget about being a leader.

C. Attitude

1. List down Bad Attitudes – and reverse them
2. Be careful of ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ thinking
3. Serve before expecting to be served
4. Have high standards for yourself
5. Never complain about how hard you work
   

OK…now, for the second question: How do I know whether a leader is progressively growing?
The answer is very easy. Is the leader taking their RDA for their RDA? In more explicit terms, is the leader taking their Recommended Daily Allowance for their Relationship, Discipline, and Attitude. In even more explicit terms, is the leader, daily, progressively, improving on the three aspects?

This is where leadership development comes in. Forget about teaching delegation, empowerment, leadership styles, employee engagement and all those other hooplas that consultants try to sell to you. Get the basics right first. If your potential leader is not strong in the three basic areas of Relationship, Discipline, and Attitude and doesn’t have a daily regime to improve on them, you need help. Otherwise, find another leader.


What else do you need?

-TURD-