Be great in act, as you have been in thought.
William Shakespeare
As great as you are, man You’ll never be greater than yourself
Bob Dylan
What does it take to be a great leader?
Being a leader is not remarkable in itself. For one thing, leadership can be situational or even sporadic. The kid who stands up to the bully to protect her friend is a leader even if she sits back down quietly afterward. The teacher who guides students to understanding is a leader even if he never says anything at faculty meetings. The supervisor who finds it in herself to reach out compassionately to employees who may be troubled is a leader. The driver who refuses to go over the speed limit in a busy residential area even when there is an angry tailgater behind her is a leader.
So leading is widespread and even common. Leading is often reactive. We can all be and frequently are leaders in big and small ways. And while I have been known to draw a sharp distinction between being a boss and being a leader, pretty much every boss is a leader sometimes but a scant few are great leaders anytime.
Leadership is like the ocean surf. Waves lap the beach, sometimes gently and sometimes with fantastic force, enough to reshape the sand if not the shoreline. They come and they go.
Great leadership is something else. Great leaders are not waves, nor are they the tide. They are more akin to the moon, exerting an invisible and ineluctable influence on the ebb and flow of the oceans and therefore sculpting and defining the land. Great leaders are always there, always active, even when you don’t know it.
Notice in my examples of leadership how the leader is a force for good. Forgive me if I refuse to entertain the opposite for now. If leadership can be a force for good, it behooves us all to be leaders — to contribute to the good — as much as possible, which is part of the secret of becoming a great leader.
Great leadership is neither purely situational nor sporadic. Great leadership is never accidental or simply reactive. Great leadership is intentional, a conscious choice. Great leadership is founded, fostered, and grown with purpose. Great leadership persists because it is nurtured and valued.
Great leaders know this. No one can be unaware of being a great leader. Great leaders are habitually modest, though, and may not see themselves as great — after all there is so much more they could be doing to be even greater!
Great leadership is not a goal, an end in itself. Being a great leader means the opposite; it means never resting on your status or accomplishments. It’s like being an elite athlete. To become elite, you must increase your ability through constant and rigorous practice. You must optimize your body to perform at the highest level every time.
Imagine, though, an elite athlete who says, “well, I am already elite. I have achieved my goal,” and then stops practicing and working out. I will bet you know of someone like this, someone who once played a sport with great success who has now let themself go. They were once elite, but what are they now?
It is similar with the life of the mind. I have known individuals with the highest degrees from the most prestigious institutions. They may hold fancy titles like “professor” or “dean,” but now that they have achieved their intellectual goal, they no longer seek to know and understand broadly. Their willingness to learn has dissipated or their learning has become so narrow that they have little interest in any other topic but the minutest one they study. Or they have settled their focus on day-to-day drudgery, just pushing toward the weekend. Would you consider such a person an intellectual? Certainly in the past, but how about as they are now?
Great leadership is just the same. It is not a bar to be met, but like athleticism or intellectualism, it is an aspiration to continually pursue. You must constantly cultivate and maintain your great leadership. The simple fact is that every leader, no matter how accomplished or great, could be better, and the best leaders embrace this truth and are always up for the challenge. The best leaders, great as they are, are never good enough in their own minds.
Of course (need I say this?) great leaders do not beat themselves up in the face of their evident and myriad human inadequacies. The pursuit of great leadership is not related to the perpetual disappointment of perfectionism. It is instead the keen awareness that one can always improve.
Great leaders see virtue in the pursuit itself, and they are ready to adjust and adapt as needed. Therefore great leaders must develop, hone, and persistently apply skills such as open communication, empathy, self-assessment, and adjustment. Great leaders must master the skills — and they are skills — of change and human decency. Great leaders need to recognize and embrace the knowledge that great leadership is a lifelong process, one that can never be shirked even for a second. They know that the great leader who stops the pursuit, who retires from the quest, is no great leader at all and perhaps never was. Anything short of total pursuit is not so great.
You are a leader — whatever your path in life. Even if it is only occasional and temporary. Every time you pick your head up to take note and sound concern, you are leading. Leadership can and must be a force for good, and goodness demands the intentional pursuit of greatness. Everything else is just so-so.
Great leaders are great citizens of the world. They watch out for their own wellbeing so that they can better watch out for others — changing the tide with utter dependability. Great leaders move everything forward and hold everything together to the benefit of the many.
So be a great leader! There is nothing preventing you. The world needs you!
How conscious are you of your leadership role? Do you understand the distinction between being a boss and being a great leader?
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