One recent day I was a guest speaker to one of our middle school exploratory classes on leadership. As startling as this was for me, I was struggling to concisely describe leadership to the class. How could this be? Leadership really defines my life. It is my passion, vocation, and avocation all in a singular concept. Leadership has become infused in every part of my soul both professionally and personally. Yet here I stood in front of the class with so much to say and speechless because I didn't know where to start. Leadership has become so much a part of my life, it isn't something that I always consciously think about articulating. I mean, how often do fish try to describe water?
After some meditation, I kept coming back
to two pieces of literature and specifically two driving quotes that empower
everything I do as a leader. They have framed what has become my vision for what leadership is defined as and the characteristics of highly effective leaders.
"We put the lives
of our children before our own. We want them to grow up, become confident and
go on and achieve more than we could ourselves. Leadership is exactly, exactly
the same. Leaders are the ones who are willing to risk, when it matters, their
own interests, so that others may advance.” - Simon Sinek and "Leaders Eat Last"
“Leadership is communicating others' worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.” – Stephen Covey and "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"
Sinek is explaining how great leaders are like exceptional parents. They love, nurture, and bless. These types of parents also set boundaries, vision, and give what is needed when often this isn't what is desired. How often do parents WANT to say no to their children? How often do great leaders WANT to sit down and share difficult news? However, great parents and leaders know that sometimes what people need is hard. This leads to Covey's dream. If we are able to be courageous and do the hard work through service and love, we will help people to realize their own worth and potential. The brutal reality is if we want to achieve this, hard is often the path we must travel.
This thinking from two great thought leaders helped shape my vision of what leadership means to me. However, without core values, vision is never visible or able to be realized in a practical manner. This led to discovering what are my core values in my vision of leadership. In other words, what is the blood and DNA that flows through my vision?
Bless (Selfless sacrifice; giving up so others may gain)
Include (Nobody you lead gets left
behind)
Serve (Lessen others' suffering; help
them become empowered so they may serve others)
Love (We show love to those we lead; everything is done with love, especially when its hard)
I sat with a Hoover family member once (this is Hoover parlance for employee) and
explained how their performance had to improve in the next 6 months or it would likely be the end of their career at our school. I also explained how I would do
everything in my ability and power to help them get better. I reminded them
they were loved and this would be demonstrated in my own actions and most importantly, I told them that while this journey would be hard, we would travel it together no matter where it
might lead. They would never be alone.
Easy? Not at all.You know what is easy?
Power based leadership. Do as I say or perish! Really, power and fear is easy for the leader because there is no personal connection and people degenerate into transactions. Yet this is never an organization that is healthy let alone something I would ever want to be associated with.
Hard? Leadership with a servant's heart.
Hard? Leading like a parent. Hard? Helping people find the power and potential in themselves.
Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) summed it up pretty well
in A League of Their Own:
"If it wasn't hard, everyone would do
it. It's the hard that makes it great."
No comments