Choices

Management guru Peter Drucker defined the difference between management and leadership. He noted: “Management is doing things right. Leading is doing the right things.”

Leadership is about choices.

It’s about what to do versus what not to do. Defining goals and priorities. Assembling and empowering teams. Intervening and adjusting as needed.

The first choice a leader should make is choosing to lead. The most effective leaders are able to subordinate personal goals to the broader organization’s and team’s goals. They recognize their individual success is a function of the team’s success.

Leaders who put themselves before the mission and team are likely to build any near term success on weak and shifting sands, imperiling longer term goals. To be an effective leader is to make that choice of prioritizing mission and team success over personal gain.

That choice comes at a price. The most effective leaders recognize that success begins with the team. Failures or setbacks begin with the person who leads the team. Share the success. Own the failure. It’s the price leaders pay.

So, before taking on the challenges of a leadership role, it’s worth doing a little self-reflection and articulation of your why and how.

Three questions can help frame your why:

1- What is my personal commitment to this organization and its mission?

2- Are my values and principles aligned with those of this organization?

3- Do I bring a mindset and capabilities to deal with the challenges of leading?

And three questions to ask about how you will lead:

1- Do I have clarity of the principles by which I will lead?

2- Am I committed to my continued development as a leader and willing to reflect and learn?

3- Do I understand and value the power that diversity of thought and ideas can bring to improve team performance?

The conflicts and obstacles in leading any team towards a goal are inevitable. Every leadership effort is subject to outside forces. Some controllable. Some not. In many cases the conflicts and obstacles are driven by changes in policy or priorities or team dynamics or individual behaviors.

Without commitment to the goal, clarity of principles, and a willingness to consider all views, these conflicts and obstacles become more challenging to confront and overcome.

Why?

Because the power that comes with an engaged and aligned team is lost. When a team doesn’t see a leader’s commitment to the goal, or behaviors consistent with defined values and principles, or an interest in other views and voices, the outcome is inertia not progress.

Ray Kroc, who turned a small California restaurant called McDonald’s into a global franchise, noted that, “The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”

Leadership is a choice.

Take the time to make it the right one.