What are Some of the Most Important Leadership Lessons?

The question I was asked by Derek Stark is, "What are some important leadership lessons?"

The top leadership lesson I’ve ever learned and seen in action is - it’s not about you, it’s about them. It’s very simple, and yet it’s hard to practice.

Why is it so hard to practice? Well, we often can’t see what we are closest to.

During the first summit I hosted, I had hired a group to help me get everything going. One of the members on my team was in charge of rounding up all of the speakers and making sure that they were ready to go, we’ll call her Sally-Sue.

As we started going, I started to get included in on a bunch of emails asking questions to me directly, which was my norm as I had made myself very available to my guests in the past for my podcast and everything else in my business.

I told Sally-Sue what I had planned to respond, so that she and I were on the same page, but then she replied very quickly not to, that she had this and wanted to make sure that the speakers understood to go through her, keeping everything professional and without confusing anyone on who to speak with.

It struck me in that moment, that I was caught up in myself in wanting to make myself “available”, but if I had then I would have inadvertently disempowered Sally-Sue as well as caused communication challenges for everyone involved. It wasn’t about me, it was about giving power to my team, letting them run with it, and allowing them to do better work than I could’ve done on my own!

This scenario, and many similar ones play out often in the world of leadership. Many leaders do things, create plans, push new ideas, all because of their own perception of things.

When we stop thinking only in our heads, and start diving into understanding those who are a part of our teams, and start looking to their insights, we dramatically increase the potential of our team, and we really start to become leaders.

This is key is to get outside insights, whether from your team, from a mentor, or from a Leadership Coach like myself. The more diversity of thought you obtain, the better your can formulate plans around reality, and the higher level of thoughts you are able to create!