Which people shine in your organisation?
Leadership carries responsibility. Leaders carry the can for the whole organisation. As a result, all leaders are visible and vulnerable until their people shine.
Every CEO, Manager and Managing Partner has to perform well to retain their role. That means leaders naturally worry about how they are perceived. But ‘looking good’ in front of the people who decide your fate, shouldn’t ever be a leader’s priority. That’s just smoke and mirrors. The numbers don’t lie. Your people don’t lie and nor do your customers. Failure looks like failure, however you dress it up. The real priority should always be organisational performance.
When leaders put their organisation before themselves, they will get the rewards. If leaders put their people before themselves, their people will shine and so will the leader. When leaders try to take the limelight themselves, their reports stop helping them and they end up in the dark.
Do your people shine? If not, what do you need to do, so that they do? If you raise them up, you’ll see how high you can go too.
Leadership is not about shining yourself
Some leaders focus on preserving their own position, rather than driving organisational change. They mistakenly believe that it’s safer to do little and look good. The truth is that those leaders look as dull and uninspiring as their change agenda. The people who matter are not deceived.
A leader shines, when their organisation shines and not before. Raise them and rise yourself.
“I want my players to shine. It’s not important for me to shine. But it’s important for me to show leadership.
It’s not the way to lean back and say I won’t disturb them.”
Daniel Farke, Leeds United Manager
Leaders are judged on their organisation’s performance
However well a leader believes they’re perceived, the reality is what counts. There is zero loyalty to a leader who fails to support their people, or who fails their organisation. Lose the ‘dressing room’ and you lose your job. Drive down profits and you lose your job.
No one cares about the leader unless the leader’s repeatedly shown that they care first, always first. A leader who acts first to protect themselves, becomes more vulnerable, not less. Yet, when a leader helps their people catch fire, they burn brighter too. Give them the spotlight.
What practical things have you done to support each and every one of your people?