Vol 2: Capital MONEY! Leadership Series - #2 It's not about you

Leadership is not a vehicle to serve your self-interests, it's not about you. The purpose of leadership is to improve the outcomes of everything around you. A successful leader is a catalyst that maximizes the long-term outcomes for their people, teams, organizations, and customers. 

Leadership is about pouring gasoline on the fires of success for those around you. Leadership is not about making yourself more money or inflating your ego through power and status. Though we think good leaders should be compensated commensurately with the incremental value that they create, and that there is nothing wrong with a leader feeling proud of their contributions. But for a leader, money and pride should be a result of a job well done, not the reason for doing the job.  

In order to maximize the long-term outcomes for their people, teams, organizations, and customers a leader must..  

1. Understand and articulate optimal outcomes for each stakeholder.
2. Create a framework of shared objectives and clearly articulate to each stakeholder how collective success is aligned with and dependent on their individual success.
3. Continuously reiterate the shared objectives and support their people and teams by providing clarity on near-term and specific goals, context, encouragement, coaching, and removing barriers.     

 
Know your stakeholders 

• People
• As a leader, people are your most valuable asset. Without people a leader is just someone talking to themselves. Attracting, retaining, empowering, and supporting the success of their people should be the highest priority of a leader. 
• A leader should lead with empathy and develop genuine relationships with everyone they work with. A leader should learn and support what each person's professional and personal goals are.
• Few things are more powerful as a leader than showing your people that you value their opinions and perspectives. That doesn't mean that successful leaders ask for everyone's opinion on all topics and tries to please them all - that's impossible. Successful leaders create an environment where people feel safe to share their views, even dissenting ones. And more than just sharing views, it is incumbent upon leaders to praise people that share their views and act on their advice when it is the better path. 
• As an employee, the only thing worse than being ignored is being asked to share your opinion and then still being ignored. Successful leaders prevent such environments.         
  
  
• Team
• As a leader, your team is comprised of your direct reports, and anyone that reports up through them. It is a subcomponent of your organization that you have greater influence over. 
• A leader should be very aware and intentional of the type of team they create and culture within it. The culture of a team is not a random byproduct that the leader just observes and hopes turns out to their liking. 
• A leader should clearly articulate the identity they want their team to have, frequently reiterate it, and publicly praise actions that strengthen it.    
    
• Organization
• As a leader it is critical that you understand the objectives of your organization and how your team can support its success. A leader can't be successful if they don't know how their team can directly impact the success of their organization.  
• Your organization might be the entire company, a department, a non-profit, a military unit, a branch of government, or any other collective entity with a shared purpose. 
     
• Customer
• Successful organizations are fanatically focused on delivering differentiated value to their customers. 
• As a leader it is your responsibility to ensure that you create an environment that sustainably harnesses the talent and energy of your people towards delivering value to your customers.  
• Your primary customer may be an internal entity that consumes the output of your team, or it may be the external end consumer of the product or service that your organization exists to provide. It can also be a mix of both.        

 
A Tactical Note on Leadership

Leadership is not reserved for people with direct reports. Nor is leadership solely reserved for people who report directly to you. Whether you manage people or are an individual contributor, you can be a leader to all those around you. You can seek clarity on the shared objectives for each stakeholder and how you can better contribute to them. You can lead by example to create a thriving team culture. 

And no matter your situation you can always be thinking in a leadership mindset. Whether there is an abundance or void of great leadership in your organization, you have real world examples of how-to or how-not-to be a leader. If you observe good or bad leadership, stop and think about why it was good or bad and let it inform the type of leader you are.

The Boss Test

• The Bad Boss Test
• We've all had bad bosses. Think of the worst bosses you've had and document the top 5 reasons why they were bad. 
  
  
• The Good Boss Test
• We've all had good bosses (I hope). Think of the best bosses you've had and document the top 5 reasons why they were good.

What you will probably discover is that the attributes that make a terrible or great boss are entirely within control of the boss. Which means that being a terrible or great boss is a choice.

Armed with that encouraging bit of information you can go forth into the world and choose to be the type of boss, and leader, that you want.