The concept of leading implies motion, direction, and change. A person cannot lead others through a forest by standing still. People will not follow for long while seeing no change in the scenery and experiencing no movement. As each of us works to develop our own ability to lead, we need to keep checking to see if things are changing and getting any better in our organization, community, culture, etc. If they are not, then we need to go back to the drawing board. If they are not, it means that regardless of our intentions, our title, or our skills, we are standing still while people stand behind us waiting to be led or to lead with us. It is too easy to get caught up in the activities of what we think leadership is, and what we think leaders do. But what leaders do is work with people to bring about change and progress. Focus on the desired change itself.
Imagine yourself facing a large fenced-in field covered with fresh snow. You stand at a gate, and across the huge open space is another gate. Your task is to walk directly to the far gate, making the straightest and most efficient line possible with your footprints in the snow. There are 2 main approaches you can take. First you could watch your feet to make sure every step is taken with care to ensure it is going in the right direction. Alternatively you could stare at the gate on the other side of the field while you walk toward it. If we flew over that field, we would find that the latter approach makes a straighter line going directly to the gate. In the first case, people are caught up in the activities they think they need to focus on in order to create the path. In the second, people are focused on the goal and constantly ensuring movement directly toward it. We sometimes see people in leadership roles get so caught up in what they believe are the steps that leaders should take, that they fail to ever get to a place of real change and improvement.
Leadership is about results, outcomes...change. Focus on the change and the vision of something better, never take your eyes off it, and never stop moving toward it. Then, as time passes, when you look back and see how different things are, how much the organization's productivity has increased, or how much better are the lives of the people in the community or society you are working to improve, you will know that you have led.
Interested in developing your ability, or your team's ability, to move beyond the day-to-day feeling of being on a treadmill? Working hard as leaders, but looking back and not seeing the kind of change you know you are capable of? Wondering how to break free from the many societal, organizational, or even political barriers that are constantly getting in the way of reaching your potential as truly effective change leaders? Contact me. Let's have a chat about how to change all that. I speak from experience when I say it is absolutely possible.
