In coaching my twins who are pre-med freshmen at the University of Texas Austin about the importance of grades and academic excellence, I am quick to remind them that success in this world is predicated on variables well beyond good grades.  For the younger readers of this BLOG, it was President Harry S. Truman who coined the phrase “The “C” Students Run the World”.  After graduating high school, he worked as a timekeeper on the Santa Fe Railroad sleeping in hobo camps.

Truman never went to college, making him the only President to have served after 1897 who did not earn a college degree.  He later became the owner of a haberdashery and then a farmer.

Truman went on to become one of our most successful Presidents, serving two full terms, with no college education. This may be obvious, but success is seldom a measure of grades.  Leadership has many definitions.  Here are some ways in which you can be a leader without being a scholar:

• Make a difference in everything you touch. Regardless of your station in life, be a memorable and consistent contributor.  Leave a positive imprint in your groups, in your departments and with your boss, peers and direct reports.
• Master the art of influence. It’s not about how book smart you are; it’s about how you can influence people to accept your ideas.  Of all the traits that leaders have, the ability to persuade is the single most important trait.  It takes a lot of human interaction to understand human behavior and that it takes to shape opinion in a certain direction.
• Mind the gap. Being book smart is not enough.  Being multi-dimensional is.  Be competent in your subject matter, and then leap to the other side of the brain and flex it to deal with building relationships.  An average doctor with excellent beside manners has a better chance of running a major hospital than a brilliant one with no people skills.

President Truman had it right; the best and the brightest don’t always get the advancement opportunities.  Great leaders like President Truman take responsibility for their successes and failures.  I guess that’s why he was also the one who coined the phrase:  “The Buck Stops Here”.

It is tough being a great manager.  In some respects tougher than being at the head of the organization.  And at times, it feels like being on the dark side of the moon.  Being a successful manager is even more difficult when you take into account having the skill to withstand the pressure from the top and the angst of the people below.  Great managers shield their teams from the heat resonated at the top, while not flinching at the push back they get from their direct reports.  They serve selflessly and multi-task to bridge the gaps in skill sets among their teams.

The number one attribute of a great manager is described by a single word--consistency.

While listening to cable radio recently, I was reminded of the countless names of recording artists who never made it past a single hit.  The music scene is littered with sprinters instead of marathoners.  Very few have a lasting and consistent following.  British rock band, Pink Floyd has the record for the most number of weeks on the Billboard top 100 list for Dark Side of the Moon……741 weeks (http://tinyurl.com/5ql2f2). That calculates to over 14 years.

Here are some tips on how to be a consistent manager:

• Stay true to your style. A standard interview question is:  “Tell me about your management style?”  We should ask ourselves that question from time to time to ensure we are not wavering on how we approach the art of management.
• Practice your message. Sometimes managers have one approach to one-on-one communication, and a completely different one as to tone and pitch, when delivered to the masses.  This is especially critical when we are operating under pressure and have a difficult message to communicate.
• Be grounded. Don’t let others define who you are.  Managers who are consistent stay resilient to peer pressure or while simultaneously in the presence of their boss and their teams.  Management leadership means having the courage to be your own person.

Your organization will place a high value for your ability to be a consistent manager.And who knows…you may even become a rock star.