How Are You Doing?
David Freund, Chief Leadership Officer
As a leader, it’s important to assess how you’re doing. Are you really leading? The lowest level of leadership is positional leadership. You’ve been given a position with a title and have been invited to the leadership table. That’s great news. The not-so-great news is that leadership has very little to do with position, and if you stay at this level, you won’t succeed in leadership.
So, how are you doing? The answer to this question is actually quite simple. Are you making a difference in the lives of people? Leadership isn’t about position; it’s about influence, and a leader who doesn’t have influence isn’t a leader at all. They are just a boss. The answer to my question can be found in the following four areas.
- Equipping – Leaders equip others. They look for giftedness in their team members and find the resources, tools, and training to celebrate and expand the giftedness. If you are helping people discover their giftedness and helping them grow in that giftedness, you are on the right track.
- Empowering – Leaders let go and empower others. The best leaders look for areas where their team members can exercise their giftedness. They set the team members up for success and let them shine. Most importantly, they get out of the way and pass on all the credit to the team members.
- Navigating – Leaders know the way and show the way for others. Because leaders see more than others see, and they see before others see, they are great navigators for their teams. Based on their experience, great leaders are intuitive in navigating through challenges and toward opportunities. They help their team see the opportunity that may be obscured by the challenge. They also help their teams find the path to personal and professional growth.
- Reproducing – The best leaders reproduce other leaders. For an organization to grow and thrive, more leaders will always be needed. The best leaders find other leaders within the organization. Once they are found, the leader invites them to the table and begins to mentor and coach the future leader to even higher levels of leadership.
If you are doing these four things, you are a leader. The key is to get feedback from your team regarding how your doing. They are the ones who determine if you really are a leader. Last but not least, are you growing? You can’t give what you don’t have, and if you aren’t growing daily, the best on your team will find another leader to follow.
While it’s incredibly exciting and rewarding, leadership is serious business. If you want to hear more on how you can succeed in these four areas, please join Marisa Norcross and me for episode 246 of The Next Page podcast.
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