Leaders are believers. This seminal BTL thought came to me in the car while talking with Larry Allen back in 2005. We were debating the melody line of The Eight Essentials of Leading Teams at the time and I blurted this out. Leaders are believers – they believe in themselves (CORE), something bigger than self (CORE), their mission (OPUS), their team (OPUS), and their ability to bring it to life (PoP). LA’s reply?
Genius. The dude was always building me. Mostly up too.
Leaders are connectors came a few years later. Leaders are believers and connectors too. Leaders connect their belief to their teams and vice versa. FM, baby.
Leader initiate came just a few years back. After many years of doing this work, it hit me that the best leaders don’t wait. Normal ones do. The best run into stuff with 70% data. 100% conviction. They initiate. When whatever they initiated does not get the result they were after? They see it as a fail, nothing more. They learn. Initiate again. Eventually this truth lands.
Fail. Learn. Levelthehellup.
This past year we added a fourth. This one came, at least to me, courtesy of JimmyTHEgant. He’ll let us know if Gu, Slips, or another source brought it to him. It’s brilliant.
Leaders are repeaters.
Leaders tell the team the same damn thing, over and freakin’ over. Remember, the greatest moral teachers (someone said this long ago) do little instructing, they mostly remind us. Leaders put it on repeat. Leaders find new ways to nuance a thousand times and then another thousand. Leaders are repeaters and, funny enough, miles from repetitive. Damn.
Leaders are believers.
Leaders are connectors.
Leaders initiate.
Leaders are repeaters.
What, leader, do you think? We’re all ears if you’re sitting on a sticky “and.” I mean, c’mon man, we listened to Shannon from NB many moons ago and it’s been OPUS (the acrostic) ever since.
Live hard. Love ❤️ harder…
BUILT TO LEAD 