The Purpose of Leadership

This weekend for some reason, I kept thinking about purpose. Everyone has something that drives them either intrinsically or extrinsically. Neither is right or wrong; they are just different. When you are intrinsically motivated, you will do something for the sake of doing it, not for any reward. If you are extrinsically motivated, you do something to earn a reward or to avoid punishment. This made me think about leaders and how they lead.

Some researchers say that some people are born leaders. Based on personality traits, this does ring to be accurate; however, it does not mean that everyone is not a leader in some capacity. Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal. Understanding what motivates people, the common goal, and assisting everyone in reaching that goal is leadership.

I might be what people call a born leader; to be honest, I do not know how not to lead. It does not mean I have to have the title of leader. I am happy being a contributor; however, I strive to assist anyone I work with to meet either their goal or an organizational goal. I do this through understanding their unique motivations and values and collectively help them grow these together. This trait showed up at a very early age, in kindergarten, to be exact. I was terrific on the monkey bars. I noticed that some of my classmates were falling and getting hurt when they played on the monkey bars. I asked the teacher about it, and she responded that they should not play on the monkey bars then. This was not acceptable to me because I did not like to see people get hurt, and I knew they wanted to play on the monkey bars. I went into solution mode. I thought I had the skill to teach them, they will be safe, and everyone will meet their common goal. So with the help of another kindergartener, I gave them lessons while he diligently checked them off the safety checklist I created. Within a short amount of time, we were all playing on the monkey bars together. This leadership has continued throughout my life, looking for common goals, solutions and moving everyone towards it.

When you think about leadership, it is not about who holds the title. It is about how you can motivate everyone towards a common goal. My purpose and passion is to help individuals and organizations create leaders who do what I do. Great leaders can change the world and make it a better place for us all to live. Leadership is about creating organizations where everyone wants to come to work—a place where we collectively work hard towards a common goal and deliver excellence.

Are you a leader? What is your purpose? How do you choose to show up every day to show others what goals are important to you?