I think I can distill all of what I’ve learned about being a great leader into just one sentence. Yep, one sentence can tell whether you are a leader someone would want to follow.
You ready for it? Here it is:
A true leader is someone who wants something for their team, not from their team.
It’s that simple. When we are for our team and not for ourselves great things can happen.
I think this is the toughest lesson we can learn as leaders. We often think of ourselves as people who get things done and the only way to get stuff done is to get things from our team. But when we phrase it this way, and we think of our team in this context, then we have the relationship all wrong.
By getting things from people it puts the spotlight in the wrong place. It puts it on ourselves. When we are in the spotlight it doesn’t allow our team to shine.
Great leaders know and understand this. The more they let their team shine, the more the team will trust and perform for the leader.
We’ve all had a leader who thought they were the hero of the story. That you were there to make them look good. When they were successful, they took all the credit. How did that make you feel? Did you want to do more, or did you just want to find a new leader?
Leadership is not about being the hero. Leadership is about making your team the hero. When you start to think about what you can do for the team instead of what you can get from the team, you will be amazed at how far you can go.
Until next time…I’m Marty, make every minute count.
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