Can't Listen, Can't Lead

Anne Berkowitch is a co-founder and the chief executive of SelectMinds, a social networking company based in Manhattan. She has several truly insightful points regarding leadership:

It's really being able to listen to people. So much of leadership, I've come to learn, is about being able to bring together a group of people, get the best out of them and get them to work as a unit toward some goal post. I think the building blocks that go into that are listening to people, really understanding what motivates them and getting them to push themselves beyond their comfort zones.

I think if you come at leadership with an attitude of, "I'm going to do this, and these people are going to follow me and be my support team," you'll lose.

Once you get the listening part down, move on toward the question part - -

Ask a lot more questions and make a lot fewer statements. Leadership is really about asking questions and letting people answer them. I think it's the only way you get teams to think. If you're constantly talking at them, they don't have to think. And as important as it is to ask questions and not make statements, you've also got to make the decisions, and faster.