Have you ever had the opportunity to work for a leader who you absolutely loved?
What was it about that leader that had such a profound impact on you?
For me, the leader made me feel “more” in so many ways:
- More confident
- More successful
- More accepted
- More understood
- More challenged
- More engaged
- More whole
He was really tuned in to who I was and what made me tick. He understood me, good and bad, and embraced it all. He seemed as focused on me and my career as he was on company success.
And, he challenged me to grow. He challenged me to play big.
I couldn’t imagine letting him down. And, I worked my tail off to make sure I didn’t.
He was exceptional. And also, it seems, fairly rare.
I’ve only had one leader like this in my career. And, my experience suggests that perhaps that makes me one of the lucky ones.
I’ve had lots of managers (good and bad), but none who came close to the impact of this leader. Why is that?
Foundationally, it’s because we don’t train or equip or managers to have this kind of impact. Great leaders, like the one I described, often happen by accident. Perhaps they were lucky enough to work for a great leader in the past or maybe they were just naturally wired to be good with people. But, it’s almost never due to the formal management training they’ve received about how to do their job.
Most management training is designed to teach how to effectively perform a set of prescribed management tasks to get a group of employees to perform in a prescribed way that maximizes performance and efficiency. That’s management in a nutshell. Said another way, management is about getting employees to do what the company needs them to do as efficiently as possible.
Leadership is different. To follow a leader is an individual choice. Leaders embrace this. Great leaders know what motivates humans and our most important needs. And, they use this awareness to understand each individual and what most motivates them. Then, they help people shape the journey ahead as a path to getting what they need and want.
That’s the magic. When we can fulfill our individual needs and desires through our work, we invest our passion, creativity, and effort into our work at a whole new level. We become loyal and committed. We don’t want the journey to end.
More people deserve to have an experience of leadership like this…an experience of work like this. But, for that to happen, we need to begin to shape and equip a new generation of leaders with different mindsets and tools.
This is why I partnered with Christina Boyd-Smith to create Leading Humans.
One June 27-28 in Atlanta, we start unleashing a new generation of leaders. We have created a two-day immersive leadership experience designed to transform 
managers into human-centric leaders.
We are offering a great early-bird pricing discount through April 15. Check it out.
Join us. Send us your managers.
Let’s make some magic.