'But Dad, it was an accident!!' I said this hundreds of times as a child to my father, and many of those defenses were my rebuttal to being confronted about being a selfish sibling. And in almost every instance, it was NOT an accident. I was particularly skilled at convincing myself that all the forces of time, space, and nature were out to make my life miserable despite my poor intentions.
Reflecting on my declarations of innocence as a child under the cloak of 'accident' has uncovered a small truth that I think has big implications for leaders. The action that I took and the intentions that fueled it were not an accident. If I had thought through to the inevitable conclusion of my actions I would have made a different choice.
Savvy leaders are great at reverse engineering things. They see the outcomes desired down the road and are able to connect today's actions to those outcomes. Each interaction, each conversation, every email, and every report are done so through the lens of how they feed into the bigger picture. Everything is done on purpose. Small tasks matter when you have a big vision. Savvy leaders understand this. Savvy leaders make sure their leadership and its effects are not an accident. Here a few ways you can lead on purpose:
LEARN ON PURPOSE - Never stop learning on purpose. There are a lot of ways to go about this, but here is one specific suggestion. Pick a theme that you believe is relevant to you and hunt down every book, podcast, vlog, and article you can find on it. Do that for a set period of time like a month, a quarter, or a year. Learn on purpose.
APPLY ON PURPOSE - My younger brother, who is one of the most steady leaders I know, once told me, 'the difference between a good idea and a bad idea is feet'. An idea acted on determines its worth. After you have learned on purpose, commit yourself to one action you will take or change you will make to apply what you learned. Give your learning some feet.
SHARE ON PURPOSE - Leaders need a community of like-minded friends and a big benefit of that community is the chance to share your ideas. For me, I'll share what I'm learning with just about anyone that will tolerate me. I get fired up about it. For others, it's a little more personal to share but it's just as important. Sharing what you are learning is a big part of learning what you are learning. *That's a real mind-bender there!
TALK ABOUT PURPOSE - Savvy leaders rarely forget about their bigger purpose and strive to make sure their organizations, groups, and teams don't forget the bigger purpose. Leaders that lead on purpose share about purpose on purpose. *I'm on a real roll with the mind-benders.
OBSERVE FOR PURPOSE - The inevitable result of a savvy leader's impact is the people they are leading begin reflecting, demonstrating, and talking about the purpose. Leader, you are influencing your team. Observe them. If they are consistently doing and saying things that don't align with the purpose you may want to consider how well you are leading. But, if you are seeing and hearing about the purpose from your people, it is likely that you are leading on purpose.
Over the years, I have learned outcomes can be controlled by purpose. Don't let your leadership be an accident; lead on purpose.
Keep on, keepin' on, friends!
‘Bite Down and Don’t Let Go’ is a collection of writings on being intentional about life in a way that produces great persistence. Read about it more here.
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