Leadership is a funny subject.
There is an entire industry devoted to it. Every CEO wants it. Everyone below the CEO wants it too. Most people think a few lucky ones actually get it.
Leadership – The Holy Grail
Everyone wants to be a leader. Everyone wants to control their destiny and have some small impact on the destiny of others. Most death-bed commentary isn’t about how well the individual followed – it’s more about wondering if they had some impact on the world. Most folks want to leave this 3-dimensional existence knowing their presence mattered. I would loosely define that as leadership.
Leadership isn’t Given
A good proportion of the world, IMHO, believes leadership is something that is given – assigned – bestowed – upon a chosen few. The reality is that leadership is something each individual decides to do. Leadership is the simple act of deciding on a direction, pursuing it and being passionate enough about it to move others to do similar things.
In other words leadership isn’t a gift.
But a leadership mindset is.
The Mindset
As a manager in your company you’ve received a smidgen of “assigned leadership” purely through your title. As a manager you have the responsibility for others. And as a manager you’re responsible for their performance. You have two choices – you can direct your staff – or you can create a leadership mindset that really ups the performance of your team.
Your job as a manager is to make sure all your people are leaders – to give them the gift of a leadership mindset.
First Steps
As many a 12-step program will tell you – the first step is admitting you have a problem. With leadership the first step is admitting you’re a leader. Until you make that decision you will always be a follower – missing your opportunity to do something great.
How to Take that First Step
A month or two ago we had Jon Wortmann on the blogtalkradio show we do every month (okay so we missed a couple recently.) Jon wrote a book called Mastering Communication at Work. If you haven’t listened to the show you should (here) – Jon was a great, engaging guest and his book is full of sound advice and thinking.
Jon is involved in a new project and one that I find fascinating. It’s called: “Why I Lead.”
Why I lead is an effort to put some sides on the box of leadership and to connect those that lead. A big task to say the least.
Why You Lead?
The big “Aha” that came to me as I visited the site was that Jon doesn’t ask “Do you Lead?” He doesn’t ask “How do you lead?” He asks you to consider “why you lead.”
It’s so assumptive. Jon assumes we all lead and we just need to understand why.
Try it… ask yourself – “why do I lead?” It’s a tougher question to ask than you think. In order to answer it you have to first decide that you do lead… then you have to analyze how you lead to come to the point that you understand “why” you lead.
Your Team
As a manager and leader your team is your world. Your performance is a reflection of their performance (too often we get that backward btw.)
Ask your team the same question. Ask them why they lead.
My guess is you’ll get a few blank stares. That’s not good. Every person on your team should see themselves as a leader – somewhere – somehow. Leaders have a passion, a vision, a direction. If your people aren’t leading in some fashion then they have none of those qualities.
You want to drive performance on your team – ask them why they lead. It will change the way they see themselves and the impact they have on the company and each other.
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