The Washington Post has an excellent regular feature as part of its business coverage called “On Leadership.” It should be bookmarked by every manager. Recently, the Post talked with Biz Stone, the co-creator of Twitter.
Asked for his definition of leadership in 140 characters, Stone replied, “Leadership can be defined as good communication plus confidence without ego.”
And his longer version?
“I’m being nerdy now. One of my favorite episodes of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ is when the captain and the doctor are stranded alone on this planet, and their brains are linked by some kind of alien device so they can read each other’s thoughts. They’re trying to get somewhere and the captain says, ‘We’re going this way.’ And the doctor says, ‘You don’t know which way to go, do you?’ Because she can read his thoughts.
“He explains to her that sometimes part of being a leader is just picking a way and being confident about it and going, because people want to be led. I remember that episode, because it rang really true to me. Sometimes you just have to lead, even if you don’t have all the answers. In fact, you shouldn’t have all the answers. If you think you have all the answers, then you’re probably doing something wrong. Good leadership means being willing to have the confidence to move forward, even if you don’t have all the answers.”
The Washington Post’s “On Leadership” feature is at WashingtonPost.com/business/on-leadership. You can follow it on Twitter at @post_lead. More “On Leadership” insights can be found in this issue on pages 52-57.
