Learning To Lead Yourself
As I sat day after day in Mobley’s oak paneled study, with the cattle farm surrounding his house framed by the window behind his chair, it gradually sunk in that everything I was learning about leadership, management, and organizational development applied to the individual as well. In fact, management is nothing more than individual psychology applied collectively.
For example, a corporation is a collection of human beings; employees, stockholders, customers, and stakeholders. While the interests of these constituencies may at times be identical, all too often they are not. Mobley insisted that the task of authentic leadership is not getting things done, but creating a mission worth doing in the first place. This mission must be so magnetic that everyone pulls in the same direction despite conflicting interests.
Pulling together doesn’t mean conformity and a lack of diversity; after all, differences of opinion are the building blocks of that synergistic edifice we call creativity. Instead, a worthwhile mission transcends individual differences in the service of a higher collective goal. According to Mobley, creating magnetic missions, articulating them, and convincing everyone from the board room to the mail room to go along, is the mission critical task of leadership.
So how do we apply this collective model to individuals? The pronoun “I” covers a multitude of sins. When I look closely at myself I don’t see a sole proprietorship with one employee called “me.” Instead, like a harried Fortune 500 executive, I experience a cacophony of competing constituencies demanding to be heard. Every night a constituency of vanity and common sense insists with an air of “enough is enough” that tomorrow we diet and hit the gym. The next day another constituency of hunger, laziness, and procrastination argues persuasively that a box of doughnuts and an easy chair hold the secret to a meaningful life.
Around and around these various voices swirl creating a din of conflicting directions. Trying to satisfy these voices in turn is perhaps the single biggest reason why most of us never realize our potential. Like a two year-old, we never remain “on task” for long before an even “better idea” sends us off in a different direction altogether.
To become a great leader of others we must first take charge of ourselves. We need a mission for our lives that gets all of our conflicting instincts, habits, predilections, and appetites pulling in the same direction. And as Mobley taught his great corporate leaders: this mission must be worth doing in the first place.
A great leader leads from the front and never asks others to do what he is not willing to do himself. Yet all too often we expect determination, reliability, focus, accountability, integrity and a host of other qualities in others without first making sure we have these traits in ourselves. The best leaders do not lead by coercion or persuasion. They lead by example.
Mobley also believed that keeping promises was essential to all cooperative effort. And the most important promises we must keep are the ones we make to ourselves. Trust is the most valuable asset that any brand, company, or individual can possess and it starts with being able to trust ourselves.
Whether you are already a leader or would like to be one, take an inventory today: Are you successfully leading yourself? When the various constituencies inside your head collide, which ones usually win? Are you leading or only being led by habit? Do you keep the promises you make to yourself? Do you avoid making promises because you know you don’t keep them? Do you have a plan for personal development beyond what life throws your way?
Mobley said, “The best corporate missions arise out of ruthlessly and continuously asking: What is the business of the business?” This exercise is just the age old question, “Who am I?” applied collectively. So most importantly, what is your personal mission, your life purpose? Is it worthwhile or is leadership just a way to make more money, impress your peers, and flatter your ego?
For more great leadership strategies read my book: Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks: One CEO’s Quest for Meaning and Authenticity (Columbia Business School Publishing; July 2013). Follow me on Twitter @augustturak, Facebook http://facebook.com/aturak, or check out my website http://www.augustturak.com/
