In honor of Women’s History Month, it seems only fitting to talk about women in leadership.

There have been times in my life when, much to my surprise, I have been chosen for a leadership role. I’m strolling along, locating my path and I turn around only to find people are following me. It’s at that moment that I am sure they didn’t see the bumper sticker stuck to my butt that reads, “Don’t follow me. I’m lost too!”

Then there have been times when I have been asked to take on a leadership role and, after a certain amount of arm twisting and cajoling, I agree only to fail somewhat or miserably. I did it for their reasons, not mine.

And then there was this time when I accepted what I considered to be an honor and an extraordinary opportunity of a brand new women’s professional organization. It was my job as president to lead by gaining commitment from and building teams achieving results with women whom I barely knew to offer resources and services to women I probably won’t ever meet.

Our organization’s board was made up of members who were volunteering and giving of their time, money and energy. They didn’t have to. They chose to. It was my goal to provide them with support and guidance on their path to leadership success. The following methods are ones that I used in leading our board and ones that can be implemented in any situation whether it’s in your workplace or on a volunteer committee:

• Evaluate your team: Recognize your team’s skills, expertise, abilities and capabilities.

• Be mindful of human behavior: Some need to know ‘why’ something is done, while others need to know ‘how’. It’s important to keep pace for those who are faster thinkers and decision makers while allowing time for those who require it to contemplate and think through the options and outcomes.

• Assess job preferences: Build teams based on different motivations of the individual team members and the job they each prefer to do. There are those who prefer the creative process while others just want to execute or get the job done. Still others are able to advance the project by bringing together all the components. And then there are the refiners. They ask the questions and point out why this may not work and send the creators back to the drawing board to ensure a positive result.

Understand communication and behavioral styles: Consider what each person’s communication and behavioral style is, and look for their reasons ‘WHY?’ their motivation. People are motivated for their reasons, not my reasons or sometimes even the organization’s reasons. It is extremely important to understand that one person’s motivation may be very different from another’s, and yet everyone needs to work together to accomplish our goals – the ones agreed upon as a board and as an organization.

Before a partnership can truly be finalized, it is important for the partners involved to ask themselves a series of questions. First, ask yourselves how you want to be together. That is, what roles does each member feel that they would be best in? What roles do your partners think you should play? When you interact with each other, how would you like those interactions to go? Most people, of course, want smooth and respectful partnership overall, but fail to define their expectations for individual interactions. If a more dominant personality (D’s, in DiSC speak) is used to brief, clipped conversations In which one person delegates duties, an S – or steadiness – person might react well, while an I – or influencing – partner might be highly unresponsive. Some people may like long interactions that involve casual conversation about the weekend, the family, or the game; these types of conversations may seem a waste of time and even a sign of disrespect by other behavioral types.

Second, ask yourself what you’ll do if things don’t go along smoothly? When interactions and business dealings don’t go the way we planned, we truly see whether we have a strong team or simply a group of people with a mutual goal. Successful teams are able to stay in a mutually healthy relationship, giving each other support through setbacks and outright failures. Partnerships fall apart when frustration and annoyance result from business hurdles. Nitpicky stuff becomes grounds for large-scale disagreements. Typos become excuses for dragging old luggage out of the closet.

Thirdly, ensure that you’ve chosen the proper business partners. Can you count on your teammates? What can you count on them for? That is, in what areas do you take your partners’ performances for granted, knowing that they’ll do their part? Conversely, what can you be counted on for? Make sure that you are a good partner by holding yourself accountable and holding up your end of the bargain in any partnership.

It is believed that these Amazon Indians are from one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes.  These striking images, made public recently by News.com, show the Indians painted bright red or black, hurling bows and arrows at the photographer’s helicopter.

Can you put yourself in their place?  Are you already there?  How do you measure whether something new is a threat or a brave new world?

What do you think?  Are there opportunities in your life you attacked, out of fear?  Was that instinct a good one?  What will you do differently next time?  I’d like to hear your story.