What is Leadership? - to me


The basics

We all view leadership differently and below is my simplified view that I formulated throughout the years. I think about this question often and my hope is for you to do the same after reading this post.

I’ve always enjoyed watching, observing, and internalizing things. Yes I use things because this applies to movies, people on street, animals, nature,….  I observe so I could learn the details of each item and how they connect to the rest of the world. I observe to learn the good and the bad, to model after what I believe is right or what could make me better.  A great example of how this applies to leadership is reading body language.  You could tell a lot about level of engagement, interest, confusion, anger,... from simply observing others around you.

These attributes are foundational to my leadership skills and potentials, but these are only part of the picture.  Here is how I complete the picture

Leadership requires 

Mirrors for self awareness- It is easy to see what others are doing, clap when they are successful and criticize when not, but can you really hold a mirror up 24/7?  Can you multi task where you act and talk while you watch and listen? This to me takes practice, takes time to practice slowing down and being in control so you are able to multitask.  Yes, I know multitasking isn’t recommended and many even believe it can’t be done, but no one said Leadership is easy or anyone is perfect.

Traffic Light for control- Next comes the important task of understanding triggers.  These triggers usually cause undesirable behavior in you or others around.  Triggers could be caused by your behaviors or others.  This is when you want to slow down or even fully stop to get back on track, the track of progress and improvement.

Without these mirrors and traffic lights we as human could be constantly in disarray and digging holes for ourselves.  BUT so far we are able to lead ourselves from causing damage or becoming damaged.  The above isn’t an easy takes years to master.   You could use MBTI, DiSC,…  to learn more about the different profiles and human behaviors.

Now you have to respond to your observations and you have tons of options in the toolset and it only gets complicated. 

Tools that I constantly use


Just Listen - Yes you might just want to stop and listen as it is the best way to connect with your environment.  We are not getting anywhere unless we all listen to each other and why not take the first towards listening.  To listen is done with the entire body not just the ears, yes presence is very equally important.  It is the way I frustrate people the most, at home, at work, at the coffee shop,…. And I am trying hard but yet sometimes I fail and I could really see the triggers around me.  Remember the mirror?  Yes you should listen to yourself - Do you hear yourself? Well you should listen to yourself!!

Growth mindset - It is a perfect listening world where we are all listening to each other, taking it all in but yet we aren’t able to move forward.  Let’s try a different want of presenting our thought or even solving the problem.  How do you get yourself and others into that state of mind?  How do you ask the right questions to make progress and improve yourself, team, organization, company, … world?

Responsibility - This is the fuel to Leadership.  You want to achieve success in the areas you feel responsible for,  it is easy to justify, blame,… or …. Any situation or behavior, but it takes leadership to take responsibility and lead yourself and your team to success.


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