Here’s a great litmus test for your leadership. Real leaders, I’ve come to believe, focus beyond themselves and, instead, are laser like on their aim and the men and women around them. Leaders, remember, model the way, embrace pain and suffering, and embody truth in LOVE. Hard to do if you’re absorbed in your pain, misery, and self pity.
Model the way – don’t show the way, tell the way, or even teach the way. Model it. Leaders simply say, “follow me.”
Embrace pain and suffering – don’t take the easy way out, lead from the comfortable confines of corporate, or sit in the chronic stuff of someone else’s making. Leaders go for the acute stuff ’cause they know this is the recipe for eradicating the chronic. Leaders embrace acute pain and suffering because they understand it will only hurt for awhile. Good.
Embody truth in LOVE. Leaders, at least the way we define them at BTL, have lost the ability to bullshit. Leaders bathe in truth and develop an apetite for hearing and listening for it. Leaders hear, listen, and let hard truth in. These same leaders don’t have to think when the opportunity to speak it presents itself. Truth just oozes out of ’em. These few get our committed best because we trust them.
And, there aint anybody capable of mastering these three principles. All of us are gonna fall short. So, friend, don’t lower your aim. Aim at excellence. Attempt to model the way, embrace the acute stuff, and embody truth. When you miss the mark, don’t hide it, run from it, or try to cover it up. Instead, broadcast it and humbly repair. Remember, leaders keep the right secrets. According to Os Guinness, leaders broadcast their mistakes and hold tightly to themselves when they do something virtuous. This way the good deeds accumulate inside and the vices are vanquished.
Model the way. Embrace pain and suffering. Embody truth in LOVE. And, remember to repair. There’s your leadership litmus test. How did you do?
BUILT TO LEAD 