A couple of years ago I wrote the Simple Note “Who Leads the Leaders” exploring the force that resides beyond every successful leader giving them their leadership magnetism. That note has returned to my thinking and observations recently in meeting leaders experiencing challenge and corporate or personal uncertainty. I am driven to return you to the topic again in this Simple Note.
Then and now, I believe the deepest truth of great leadership is to be a follower. The world’s most successful leaders and the leaders for whom you may have worked and experienced the strongest urge to follow, will be followers of something greater than them – bigger and outside the plane in which they and you operate. Their attraction and leadership are rarely, if ever, solely based on their character and magnetic personality.
As Oprah Winfrey brilliantly extolled: “There is no greater gift you can give or receive than to honour your calling. It’s why you were born. And how you become most truly alive.” Or as Gary Vaynerchuck more bluntly provokes “What do you really give a shit about!”
You cannot simply be a leader and expect followers or even constantly upgrade your own behaviour and leadership attributes to boost and quicken your followers. Without something in your mind, your heart and your values that you too are following, your team will only ever be compliant in their role as followers, for now – a deeper well of self-fuelled drive will remain untapped.
Evidence and observations in all my coaching and facilitation work is that people do not just follow a leader and you cannot just expect followers, ever.
The potential of your leadership power exists whether you work alone or managing a team of hundreds. Your leadership impact relies almost entirely on whatever it is that is more important, bigger and more inspirational to you. Without it you will constantly depend on your abilities and capacity to urge, encourage, motivate and convince – all excellent skills but require immense and continual energy.
It is your passion, your compelling intention, hope or dream that may, right now, be sitting quietly, unexplored, unarticulated inside you. Only when you find it, nurture it, talk about it, finesse it, rave about it, will others be able to make that incredible and inspired decision to follow you and go beyond the norm of expectations to head there with you.
For me, and for your leadership journey, nothing is more important than investigating this. The more people in your company, in your team, in your country and in the world that invest in this existential exploration the faster positive change will occur.
The year is still new, there seems no better moment than now, this week, for you to carve out time and space to get into this. Especially if you feel or have felt drained, tired, lost, uncertain on your journey.
· What drives you? – even on your most overwhelmed days, or when you have felt on a personal or commercial autopilot, in a quiet corner of your psyche are the elements of your passionate drive. Start the conversation with a colleague or coach, journal your thoughts.
· What would you really like to see happen? – in your business, with your team, what changes would you love to come into effect?
· What consistently grabs (and holds) your attention and interest? – the topics, the impacts, the frustrations.
Explore these questions (and add your own), in dialogue or in journal. Return to them often over a few weeks, make your time a three-line appointment (protected from everyday urgent diary attacks). Avoid conclusion for longer than you might normally, stay in exploration.
In simplifying and capturing the essence of your greater purpose, that lies beyond this year, and this place, you will begin to succinctly describe what it is that you are following (even, and especially, if it feels slightly unrealistic and out of reach today).
Now you have something to talk to others about, to build your personal brand around, to plot your career path toward. This is why you are here!
And as a Simple Note within a Simple Note, perhaps entitled “Surviving Leadership Challenges”, when you have that clearly and frequently articulated greater purpose you are less likely to lose your way; be more resistant to challenges and obstacles; quicker to access your deepest reserves of energy, inspiration and resilience; and those that follow you will experience the same.
Working on, developing, refining your inner drive will become your guiding principle and Intention-compass. It will influence and inform your attitude and those in your team and wider populous, they will decide and act if they too share that purpose. It’s a no brainer.
Let it become complex or complicated, then keep it simple!
Simon