Hope you’re excellent.
Leadership. Love that word.
Makes me think of Mandela and Gandhi. Gates and Edison. Mozart and Beckham. Bono and Bieber 😉
It’s a word I’ve passionately built the past 20 years of my life around–reminding so-called ordinary people that they are called to lead. And create. And contribute. And win.
These are strange and gorgeous times. Tons of challenges. Dazzling possibilities.
And I viscerally want you to leverage these times to fly. To express your talent. To do your dreams. To make the world better.
To help you Lead within your field, I’ve distilled 10 of the most valuable and practical insights on leadership that I’ve taught to our global corporate clients like Starbucks, IBM, Nike, GE and FedEx. These ideas have helped them do some great things. My deep wish is that they deliver the same results for you.
#1. The Job of a Leader Is to Grow More Leaders.
I’ll be blunt: if you’re not building more leaders, then you’re not leading, you’re following. Your job (regardless of whether or not you have a title) is to help people do work they never dreamed they could do. Your job is to inspire people to own their talents, express their gifts and do the best work of their lives. That’s part of what it truly means to lead.
#2. Nothing Happens Until You Move.
Start small, dream huge but begin today. Nothing happens until you take massive action. The sad reality is that procrastination is nothing more than the defense mechanism of choice used by scared people. Here’s what I mean: if we actually did our goals and acted on our visions, we’d become ultra-successful. And spectacular success brings responsibility. That frightens most among us. And so we put off getting great things done. And blame the world for any mediocrity that infuses our lives.
#3. Your Behavior Reveals Your Beliefs.
You tell the world what you believe via how you behave. Complain all day long and you reveal a deeply ingrained set of beliefs that you are powerless and apathetic. Present work that has typos and poor wording and you express a belief that average is cool with you. Mistreat others and you reveal that you’re selfish–and disconnected from the beautiful humanity that surrounds you. The good news is that as you wire in the beliefs of leadership (versus victimhood), your behavior changes automatically.
#4. Ideas Are Worthless Without Execution.
I’d rather have an average idea that my team and I flawlessly execute on than a genius-level idea with poor execution. The best Leaders Without Titles and the organizations that win big are all about “less talk and more do”. Fewer meetings and more delivery. Less analysis and more rolling up of sleeves and getting amazing projects done.
As you know: volatile times are ahead. I truly believe that an organization’s primary advantage is an acute focus on building the leadership capacities of every employee at every level [faster than your industry peers].
Do this and your shop becomes undefeatable.
Every great wish for your highest success,
Christian