The First Questions: Coaching Your Way to Leadership Success by Ron Hurst

Author:Ron Hurst
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

Action Mastery

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. —Jim Rohn, motivational speaker and noted author

I n considering this chapter, I was seriously tempted to simply borrow Nike’s motto and tell you to “just do it.” This certainly would have encapsulated my thoughts on the topic in an elegantly simple three words. Yes I was seriously tem pted.

Then I realized there was more to say …

What are the your most important leadership priori ties?

What needs to be done?

These two questions begin our exploration of “action mastery.” In leadership, we want to be certain we are scanning the horizon and choosing our next priority. These two questions must be asked together so that we maintain perspective on both the present and the future. These questions and many that follow are questions that management scholar Peter Drucker asks in his iconic book T he Effective Execu tive .

Dr. Drucker is so highly revered as a management scholar that he is often called the father of modern management. He found that the vast majority of successful executives had several things in common, all of which relate to their effectiveness. One thing I know of Dr. Drucker’s writings is that he was one of the clearest of thinkers on what leadership truly is. Not a single training course goes by where I do not quote him. He has been credited by some as saying, “Managers do things right while leaders do the right things.” What caught my attention in The Effective Executive was Drucker’s reference to the fact that successful executives (read: high-level leaders) do the right things, a clear link back to leader ship.

So what questions need we consider in action mastery? Glad you a sked!

Which of these is the “right” prio rity?

What is right for the enterp rise?

Earlier in chapter 2, I railed against taking the “perfect” next step. I stand by that perspective despite the possible conflict in the question above. Deciding on the “right” priority is an important step in the leadership decision-making process. A leader must be able to establish clear priorities and choose between several seemingly good alternatives, choosing the best for their leadership. Despite this, we work with incomplete and imperfect information. For this reason we need a clear decision-making process that allows us to confidently choose and explain our ratio nale.

The remaining questions in this chapter were inspired by Peter Drucker although they are paraphr ased.

What action must you take in support of the right prio rity?

What is at stake here is the understanding that it is not what you want to do that matters most but what has to be done. Followers will always look to you for direction, for guidance, for the sense that you know where you are going. Lead down the wrong path by giving in to a desire rather than a responsibility and you will see consequences. We see it all the

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