Real World Leadership from Real World Leaders

You can learn about authenticity from the leadership philosophies and lessons learned by real-world leaders at a rapidly growing company.

Real leadership is about real stories.  This isn't a study of real "world leaders" but instead a story about some "real world" leaders.

I recently had the opportunity to work with a great leadership team at a rapidly growing company.  We spent the day talking about leadership and having them write their own personal leadership philosophies (which is what One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership is all about). The stories they shared during the session were fantastic and I have no doubt you can learn a few things from them so I'd like to share a few.

As you read their stories, try to determine how you can create your own reminders for how you want to lead.  If you're rigorous about creating a compelling and personal leadership philosophy, I guarantee your team will trust you a lot more than if they're not sure who you really are.

The leaders' stories are about signatures, shaving heads, The Goose, and dinner with the kids.  They do a great job of illustrating how powerful, personal stories can bring a leader's beliefs to life.  So here goes...

Signatures

People look to you to set the standard.  To do that, you must first define the standard you're going to set before you can articulate what it is and then live by it.

Kevin, a participant in the session, said it's easy to articulate his standard.  When he was growing up, one of his relatives would always push him to do his best.  When Kevin showed them something he was working on, his relative asked "would you sign your name to it?"  When Kevin answered "no" his relative told him to go back and work on it until he was proud enough of his work to be willing to sign his name to it.  Now, Kevin uses that phrase both for himself as well as for members of his team to articulate his standards of performance.

If you worked for Kevin, would you quickly understand his standards and expectations?  Would you trust him to always give you his best efforts?  If you know his standard of signing his name to his work, you probably would.

Shaving Heads

Things get difficult for everyone but not all things are equally difficult.  One leader in the session confessed he occasionally gets overwhelmed with work or at times feels like things are difficult.  During those moments, he remembers three words that put everything back in perspective: "Shave my head."

It turns out his wife is a cancer survivor.  When she was first diagnosed, she told him she was determined not to let cancer win and every action of hers was an act of defiance of the odds she faced.  When she prepared to undergo chemo, she told her husband "Shave my head.  I'm dictating the terms of this - not cancer."

Her grit and determination got her and the rest of her family through the ordeal.  Now, every time he finds himself facing a challenge and getting overwhelmed, he remembers those three words and they instantly put things in perspective and give him the strength to push on through whatever the challenge is.

Do you have a personal rallying cry to get you through difficult times?  If you worked for this guy, would you understand his sources of strength and know what's important to him?  Likely so.

The Goose

Your people want to know you care about them as individuals.  One of the participants in the session - Bill - carries a great reminder of this with him every day.  He used to coach youth football.  One kid on his team was more of a Weeble than a football player.  His nickname was "The Goose."  Despite The Goose's physique and his mediocre skills as a player, Bill consistently invested time and energy into helping him get better.

At the end of the season, The Goose excitedly came up to Bill and told him "You're the best coach I've ever had!  You took the time to focus on me and tell me what to do to get better.  Thanks for all your help."  That conversation reminds Bill he consistently needs to invest in developing his people regardless of how talented they are (or aren't).

If you worked for Bill and he told you the story of The Goose, would you feel comfortable that Bill would invest in making you a better performer?  That's where the power of the story lies.  It conveys Bill's passion and dedication to people development.

Dinner with the Kids

Work can get hectic at times and it's easy to lose perspective and balance.  Erik keeps himself in balance with a simple rule: dinner with the kids.

Erik works long hours and is a key employee at the company.  He know he can get "too" dedicated at times so the way he ensures he maintains some balance in his life is he consistently reminds himself he should have dinner with his kids.  Every night (unless he's out of town).  That reminder helps him keep his priorities straight and when he finds himself making excuses to miss dinner to get some work done, the reminder of missing that meal with his children changes his behavior and puts him back in balance.

If you worked for Erik, would you feel comfortable setting and maintaining your own personal boundaries so you could have a work/life balance?  I'm pretty sure Erik would expect you to do just that.

There you have it - a few real-world stories from some real-world leaders.  When leaders share their personal stories and the philosophy that accompanies them, you get a much better sense of who that leader is and what's important to them.  I encourage you to be that leader as well.  Define your personal leadership philosophy and use your personal stories to explain it.  Your team will trust you a lot more if you do.

Grab your copy of One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful Personal Leadership. The book will guide you through generating your own set of powerful leadership stories.

Mike Figliuolo is the author of The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved and One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership. He's the co-author of Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results. He's also the managing director of thoughtLEADERS, LLC – a leadership development training firm. He regularly writes about leadership on the thoughtLEADERS Blog and he's authored many classes on lynda.com from LinkedIn (view his courses here).

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