Winning - Why Good Leaders Win More than Others

What is winning?  Is it the same for you and me?

How is winning different for leaders and developing a leadership team?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary says “winning” is both a noun and an adjective…

Definition of winning

1: the act of one that wins: VICTORY

2: something won: such as

a: a captured territory: CONQUEST

b: money won by success in a game or competition — usually used in plural

 adjective

1a: of or relating to winning: that wins the winning ticket

b: successful especially in competition a winning team

2: tending to please or delight a winning personality

For leaders, winning or victory is a necessity.  It’s not just a noun or adjective.  Winning is a result.  The win comes in many forms.  But there’s no question good leaders plan to win at everything they do.

The Key to Leadership Winning

This leads to how do leaders plan to win.

They follow a key principle of Frank Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  That is, to know your outcome, or begin with the end in mind.

Leaders know what they want.  Knowing what you want or expect from the start enables good leaders to plan in a highly effective way.  They reduce risk and create a path with fewer obstacles because they know where they are going.

Creating a Leadership Roadmap to the Win

The biggest wins come from having viable options.

Your leadership team should create a minimum of three roadmaps to the outcome.  Often, when these roadmaps or courses of action get reviewed, they result in another course of action.  One that combines the best of the others and potentially leads to an even bigger win.

At the same time, the top leaders don’t get bogged down in planning courses of action.  Decisiveness results in confidence from the leadership team.

Over analyzing the courses of action tends to drag down confidence by the team in their ability to plan and achieve the desired end game.  What’s right and what’s not?  You’ll have to lead the way on this.  It’s always different and depends on how complicated the roadmap is.

Remember:  simple is always better.

Achieving the Win

Good leaders plan to win and their leadership development training for the team sets the winning mindset in place.  Knowing what you want and communicating it clearly always leads to the best course or courses of action.

When you trust your team, delegate planning based on your desired end game, you get results that are consistently great.  Winning is the only acceptable outcome for leaders.  It’s a victory for the team and sometimes means conquering your market.

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