I’ve found there are 9 questions every leader needs to take seriously if they are going to well steward the influence they have been trusted with.
What follows are those questions, which I’ve trialled with different audiences and tweaked along the way. I trust they are helpful to you as you conclude this year and look to the next.
The greatest leaders point to something greater than themselves, and encourage others to chase after it. How do you answer the following 9 questions.
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What does it mean for me as a leader to become a signpost?
Said another way, what is your leadership pointing others toward? It’s important that a leader points others to a greater cause and not to themselves and consequently their limitations. A leader needs to offer those who follow them a grander vision, which can bring much to their lives and doesn’t rest on that leader’s ability to deliver it.
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Who am I calling leadership out of?
Answering this question from day one, causes a leader to never be completely absorbed by themselves. Every leader has the resposniblity to name and coax the leadership potential out of others. When this starts to happen, so will healthy changes in one’s approach to leadership.
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Why do I want to be remembered?
When a leader leads in order to be remembered, they are operating out of insecurity. Insecure leaders create insecurity in their followers. It’s more important we contribute well now, to what may be a wonderful legacy, but leave the appraisal of that to others.
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What does leadership success look like for me?
A leader’s success needs to be attached to our character not what we need. Character is what you give to others, while your needs are what you take from others. Confusing the two leaves a leader with an ambition to become great, while not focussing on being a great person of integrity now.
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Why do I do what I do?
Knowing your ‘why’ is extremely important when it comes to self-leadership. Leading yourself first is more important than leading others. A leader leads others based on how they have already led themselves. Knowing your ‘why’ is critical, and orientating that ‘why’ to something other than and greater than yourself is essential. Knowing your why can bring you as much freedom as not knowing your why can imprison you.
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Why do people follow me?
This question is about platform. People don’t follow you because of you, they follow you because of the platform you stand on. This means leadership is not about being liked by more people, so they follow you. Leadership is about a leader stewarding the platform they’ve been entrusted with to benefit others the most. Understanding why people are following will help you lead more responsibly.
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Is impressing people more important to me than inspiring them?
To impress someone is to act in a way that says, ‘Look at me!’ To inspire someone is to act in a way that says ‘Look what you can do!’ What impresses us, is what the platform gives a leader, but what inspires us, is what the platform costs a leader. Impressing people places a leader’s importance above that of the platform and undermines their influence. Inspiring people places a leader’s importance below that of the platform and increases their influence. People need their leaders to inspire them to become better, not impress them.
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How do I enable my fruit to grow on other people’s trees?
Bob Buford recently passed away after devoting his life to the development of other leaders. He was known for saying, ‘My fruit grows on other people’s trees.’ This is about how and what we impart to those we lead. Who are you enabling to step onto the platform you currently have?
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Which of these questions requires my immediate attention?
This question is the one that compels us to focus and then intentionally act. What leapt out at you as you went through these questions? Whatever did, is what you need to pay close attention to if you desire your followers to have the best leader they can have.
I explore the concepts these questions raise more deeply in my book The Anonymous Leader, which is available for purchase, if you think it would help.
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