Leadership is like Blogging?

Huh? What the what?

How in the world is there any connection, you ask? Well, I like to Stumble, you know "StumbleUpon"? You click on a button in your browser and it takes you to a random web site. If you want you can choose just to "stumble" through Blogspot blog sites. There are tons of these sites out there. Some of them are similar and some of them are as different as can be. Some of them are pretty good and some of them just plain stink.

To me, that's how you can look at different types of leadership. There's no one specific way to lead because people are involved. In my last job, when patients would ask about their surgical outcomes, I would often say that if the laser was being used on a piece of plastic, we'd pretty much get the same result every time. But since we used the laser on people, while you could predict the outcome, it was never so certain because of the ways the patients responded to the treatment.

So are there any rules for good solid leadership? I think so:

1. Know your people.
2. Be respectful of everyone and treat each person as an individual.
3. Treat everyone fairly.
4. Look for ways to help others grow.
5. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
6. Work on an empathetic spirit.
7. Set reasonable expectations.

I think, -- me, my own opinion here -- if you work on the items above then your leadership will emerge...your own individual style of leadership that you hopefully tailor to the team or people you're responsible for.