Leadership Qualities

What is leadership?  Who defines it and by what standards to we compare our leaders?  Who do you think best exemplifies a leader in business or politics today?

One of our Partners is Benchmark Industries.  Their objective is to make affordable industrialized housing.  These are not trailers.  These are apartment or condominiums that can be as tall as three stories and are especially well suited for Seniors, migrant workers and lower income housing.  All these types of homes are needed and the need continues to grow in spite of or perhaps because of our current economy.  Although, the need for senior housing with memory care and onsite care management is expected to grow well past 2020.

The Chairman and CEO of Benchmark Industries is Dan Riedel an Alumni of Michigan State University (MSU).  Recently he was asked to speak to the subject of Leadership.  It occurred to us that many would benefit from Dan’s thoughts.  We’d love to have your input as well.  He has given us permission to share a small portion of the speech he recently gave at the MSU 2012 Leadership Awards.

Here are Dan’s thoughts on Leadership Qualities.

2012 Student Leadership Awards

Michigan State University

Remarks by: Dan Riedel

Leadership Qualities

This following list of leadership qualities is general, and in no particular order. However, each item is important, and lacking one or more of these can make the difference between a poor leader and a great one:

• Passion; love what you do, and never waver from its pursuit.
• Organization; no one will follow a disorganized leader
• Communication; communicate and sell your ideas to motivate
• Courage; willingness to try and fail
• Integrity; keep your word at all costs
• Ownership and Responsibility; freely admit when you are wrong
• Listen; listen, learn and always gain a consensus
• People Skills and Like-ability
• Be a Good Example
• Never, Never, Never, Never Give Up

Self Fulfilling

Wow!  How was 2011 for you?  On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best, I’d give this past year a 4.  Very disappointing year.

Most of us have no idea how our thoughts and then our words impact us on so many levels.  Few of us really examine their motives, their decisions or even their comments.  Here’s some thoughts that might help us all stay focused on accomplishing what we want in 2012.

1.  Recognize that your thoughts do become things. – Have you ever heard someone say, “I can’t do that?” You should know that he was right, he can’t.  However, the person that said, “Oh, I can do that!” That person is also right.  Often times we and no one else predict what we’ll accomplish without giving it a lot of thought.

2. Have you ever wanted something so bad that you just pursued it like a dog looking for a bone? – Most of us fail to even display passion for any of our ideas.  Merely saying, “I hope . . . ” and then moving on is not the answer.  Can you ever remember a time when no matter what, you were going to find out, get, achieve, accomplish or reach something?  A goal, objective, milestone or best personal achievement?  Your passion took over.  You did it.

3. 2012 will be, for most of us, what ever it is that we want it to be. – Will it still be tough to find jobs, keep our homes, make ends meet or on a larger scale, find someone that can actually lead (globally), the answer is YES.  Those things will still be tough, difficult and very hard (in some cases).  A coach I had once said, “It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, it only matters if you get back up.” A business friend once said, “When we lose everything, we find it all.” That one took me sometime to figure out until many, many years ago when our nation faced one of its many downturns in the oil business and I lost it all.

Make sure that you don’t fulfill your own negative attitude or opinion or goals.  Set your own limits if you will but make sure that you agree.  Don’t set unrealistic expectations.  Start small if you must but keep setting bigger and bigger goals for yourselves.  “Whatever the mind of man or woman can conceive, it can achieve!”

What do you think?

C4 Holiday Message for 2011

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