Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 49 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Remember the “luxuries” you no longer have
— From LEAD RIGHT by Steve Ventura
In his clever and funny style (read this other post), Steve Ventura, author of LEAD RIGHT, states that when we become leaders, we lose some of the “luxuries” that we had before. Those “luxuries” that he refers to, are “ways of thinking and acting that only non-leaders can exercise and enjoy.”
These tongue-in-cheek luxuries are everything that a leader is not. The opposite is true: “The mindsets and behaviors [that these lost luxuries] represent are the essence of leadership. More than anything else, they are what separate leaders from followers… they are what separate poor leaders from great ones.” So, here is the list, verbatim, of those lost, so-called lost luxuries.
As a leader, you no longer have the luxury of…
…thinking mostly about yourself—putting your own needs first.
…acting on feelings, rather than facts—jumping to conclusions and reacting in a “knee-jerk” fashion.
…whining to others or commiserating with their discontent.
…forming opinions and making judgments knowing only “one side of the story.”
…continually blaming “them” and “they”—and expecting someone else to fix what’s broken.
…not listening to others’ ideas, concerns, and opinions.
…taking sides, overtly favoring some people, and excluding others.
…wearing your emotions “on your sleeve.”
And as a leader, you no longer have the luxury of…
…closing your eyes or walking away when things happen that just aren’t right.
ACTION
TODAY: Give yourself some time to ponder the list above. While Ventura puts it in a funny way for us to better absorb it, analyze your thoughts and actions, and recognize if you’ve acted like this in the past. Analyze why. Ask why 5 times. Get to the core of the issue and learn from it, so that you can no longer give yourself that luxury in the future.
FUTURE: Keep this list handy and check it often, remember that you can no longer engage in those luxuries, and that is a great thing! Share the list with your circles, we are all leaders in one way or another, and we should all lose these luxuries in exchange for a better, gentler and more empathic way of treating each other.
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