Thoughts on Leadership

Why would anyone execute your direction? Why would anyone tell you what you need to hear vs. what you want to hear? Why would anyone improve their own performance and / or the performance of others while reporting to you? To understand the essence of leadership, ask: Who would I take a bullet for? Who would I follow blindly and why? In most cases if you figured the answer for yourself, it may help you understand others and the essence of leadership.

To me, it is simple: It is about trust. It is about sincerity. It is also about the mind and the heart! You will not be trusted if you can’t trust others. They’ll not work sincerely for you if you don’t work sincerely for them. They will not strive for excellence if you don’t act with excellence.

The essence of leadership is sincerely serving the people that you lead in a meaningful way for them! It is about emotionally connecting with people in a sincere way! It is about intellectually relating to people in a humble way! It is about being thoughtful and mindful of the needs and wants of people that you lead; let alone your customers!

A true leader owns the problem and the solution, and works side by side with the team in different roles to support their efforts to win. The “win” always belongs to the team! If efforts fell short of delivering expected results, and they rarely do for “true” leaders, the leader owns the defeat and protects the team!