6 Ways to Make Leadership Meaningful
Dedicated leaders tend to lose themselves to work. They end up frustrated, drained, and burned out.
Take the helm of your leadership journey. Don’t let others drive your life.
Life is too precious to squander it on things that don’t matter to you.
#1. Align definitions:
Define how you make leadership meaningful for yourself. When your definition of meaningful leadership collides with your boss’s definition:
- Discuss and explore options.
- Redefine ‘meaningful leadership’.
- Find a job that brings fulfillment.
#2. Include how:
The deliverables of your job aren’t negotiable:
- Reach the numbers.
- Communicate vision.
- Recognize achievement.
- Provide feedback.
- Challenge apathy.
- Expose elephants.
- Move the agenda forward.
You make leadership meaningful when you control how you do your job.
#3. 6 ways to make leadership meaningful:
- Create growth opportunities. How will you deliver results and grow at the same time?
- Shift from commander to coach. How will you help others grow and achieve results?
- Open your door and your heart. How will you create and strengthen relationship?
- Clarify purpose. How will you bring your story to work?
- Maximize strengths. How will you spend most of your time doing what you do best?
- Express values. Work you don’t value leaves you drained. How will you clarify your values?
Added resource: It’s the Manager
#4. Results when you make leadership meaningful:
You know you’re doing something meaningful when:
- You want to do it again.
- The joy of improving outweighs dissatisfaction.
- People are drawn to you.
- Feeling tired at the end of the day is fulfilling. You’re glad you did what you did.
- People find focus when you show up. Meaningful leadership energizes you and others to do the ‘right’ things.
You’re engaged in meaningful leadership when life is more about get-to than have-to.
Meaningful leadership brings satisfaction – even when it’s difficult – to you and value to others.
How might leaders make leadership meaningful?
What drains leadership of meaning?
The Simplest Way to Have a Meaningful Day
3 Things that Make a MEANINGFUL Vision
What drains leadership of meaning?
Numbers/results
If you’re making the numbers, best you don’t try to change anything. If it ain’t broken, don’t you dare fix it!
If you’re NOT making the numbers, anything you do other than directly solving that will get you into more trouble. Nobody above you cares about meaning until you hit the targets.
When all that matters is numbers people are tools. Leaders need to appreciate the people component of reaching goals. Treating people like tools is a short-term strategy. If you really want to do well, take care of people. Thanks for jumping in today.
It is very meaningful and rewarding to:
–identify new and bigger possibilities
–help people clarify problems and options to pursue
–try new things to achieve bigger goals and higher ideals.
–be more of a servant and help others
–provide feedback that helps people gain new insights
–celebrate small wins and big accomplishments
–see people grow.
Thanks adding “rewarding” to meaningful, Paul. It’s encouraging to remember that meaningful work is rewarding work. One of my favorites on your list is, “try new things.”
Insightful comments, Dan. I found this post to be very helpful and pragmatic. Thank you.
Thanks Ian. I appreciate the encouraging. Doing something useful is part of meaningful.
i have been at my job for 27 years i am 76 and i love my job as a manager of ace hardware . i tell my staff all the time the day you get up and say to yourself oh shit i have to go to work today do not come in . i want you you to want to be here and to love your job as much as i do. i have a great staff and we all work to make this the best place to work. so i love all the things you put in # 4 . if we could all do that every day we would all be much better employees and be a lot happier
Thanks Shirley. Your love of life/work is no accident. There are choices and attitudes that produce the things you enjoy.
The first responsibility of management is to model the way. (See the book, The Leadership Challenge)
Your team is fortunate to have you.
What precisely do you mean by “Expose elephants”?