Jeremy Boeh
Jul 24, 2017 · 4 min read

Leadership is a privilege not a right.

Leadership sucks. It’s hard, messy, often times unrewarding. Being a leader is a long road. However, if you do it right, to the best of your ability, regardless of your title it can change the life of someone you work with.

I have been pretty fortunate to work for some really great leaders and some really crappy leaders, yes, I consider both of those scenarios of fortune. In fact, if I am being honest, in both my military experience and civilian duties I myself have been both a good leader and a crappy leader. What I have learned is that YOU either are a leader or you aren’t. You either are willing to accept the responsibility that the blend of your personality and your role affords you the opportunity to mentor other people and steer something down a path of success or you don’t. You are either a leader or you are not and only you can decide that.

There are three things, in my opinion, that are key to leading both others and yourself. I am not claiming these are the only things. There are those that are already talked about, communication, transparency, authenticity etc. I want to talk about the three things that can teeter a fine line between beneficial or detrimental to your actions as a leader.Yet, these three things are the most vital to me.

Delegate with intent: I can’t tell you how many times I hear people start of any talk about being a leader with, make sure you delegate. I agree, absolutely delegate but delegate with intent. Far too often both with new military officers and professionals in leadership roles, I see delegation turn quickly away from intent and into micromanaging. The point when stress reaches to where you feel you have to do everything yourself. (This is a cancer to teams)Start trusting before doubting. Give those on your team the chance to accomplish the task. Micromanaging a group leads to turmoil, devaluation of your word and a sense negative superiority. Delegation with intent will result in a far better product than micromanaging.

Adapting to personalities: The idea that there is one leadership style is so ridiculous it drives me nuts. There was a time in Iraq when I was sat down and told “ Spc Boeh, if you want to lead a squad and one day be an officer you will only be successful if you are loud, stern and unforgiving.” So what did I do? I jumped and did just that. I was horrible. I assumed that I could lead every soldier in my squad the same way. I was wrong. Ask that group of soldiers how effective I was. I traded learning points for scremaing mathces. I rewarded their work with unacheivable expectations. I had a blanket leadership style and it failed. What I know now as Company Commander and a Start Up mentor is that to be effective you must adapt your leadership style to those you lead. Create a foundation for who you want to be as a leader. Take from others, emulate their characteristics but never subscrive to just one. Every person you are ever charged with leading in your life will only benefit from your leadership if you in fact understand and ADAPT to what they need from you as a leader. Do not waiver from your values but do be empathetic.

Listening more than commanding: Pretty simple. Open your ears. Learn to accept when you are wrong. There was a time when I assumed my way of mentoring Start Ups was the only way. At that point I was commanding more than listening. That the best way to your success was just to take my advice. Unless you were more successful than I was, I would not listen to a thing you said. Even more, if you didn’t operate in my tiny network of entrepreneurship I would discredit any advice that came out of your mouth. Thankfully, as I type this I have dropped that nonsense. In growing in my empathetic practices I have learned that I am far more effective to a team and much more impactful as a leader if I am willing to listen before giving task.

In short, there are a lot of best practices for leadership. At 33 there are infinite amount of ways to continue to grow as a leader. If you are striving to be a leader, placed in a leadership role or a member of a team, applying these principles will set you on a path of effectiveness.

Jeremy Boeh

Written by

President, NEXT School Foundation• Startup Starter • Brand Builder • Pirate • Army Officer Combat Vet

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