Kevin Cawley (Sufjan Stevens' Aficionado) has found a nice list (from Tony Morgan) on leadership that rings true to me.
1. You're waiting on a bigger staff and more money to accomplish your vision.
2. You think you need to be in charge to have influence.
3. You're content.
4. You tend to foster division instead of generating a helpful dialogue.
5. You think you need to say something to be heard.
6. You find it easier to blame others for your circumstances than to take responsibility for solutions.
7. It's been some time since you said, "I messed up."
8. You're driven by the task instead of the relationships and the vision.
9. Your dreams are so small, people think they can be achieved.
10. No one is following you.
I find it interesting that people write out lists like these. If all this list is good for is to remind leaders that they do all these things already, then it's wasted time. So that can't be the reason. If this list is simply to point out to non-leaders that they really aren't leaders, then I don't really think we'd spend so much time making lists because leaders by nature want to develop more leaders, not usually stop non-leaders. I know these may be sub-strata goals, but not main ones.
I think these lists are to get true leaders out of the snares we get caught in where we lose track of vision, responsibility, risk, relationships, etc. I think they are the products of leaders who want to encourage other leaders to keep their eye on the prize through continual refocus. That's why #7, saying "I messed up," is in the list, because the list should produce redirected leaders, not just describe perfect ones.
What do you think?
