If you don’t deeply care about those you lead, you shouldn’t lead.
One of the most powerful lessons that I learned about leadership was taught by two of my children when they were very young.
Kelli was five and Jeffy was two. Both of them were very afraid of the dark, like many children at that age. They believed monsters were hiding when it was dark.
We had five children at the time and the three oldest had gone off to play and left the two youngest on the couch watching TV in the living room of our then small house.
My wife and I were reading in another room and Kelli had come in with a little bit of panic in her voice. Jeffy fell asleep on the couch and it had gotten dark. She was very worried about that.
We told her it was okay, he was fine and there wasn’t any such things as monsters. We tried our best to reassure her as she left our room.
After about ten minutes or so my wife decided to check on them. When she came around the corner she saw something that she would never forget. There on the couch was Kelli, laying over her brother protecting him from what she really believed might harm him. Tears had been running down her small cheeks.
As parents we learned a very valuable lesson – our children’s fears and concerns were just as real as ours. We made a choice to never again be that insensitive to our children.
Second, I learned one of the most powerful lessons that I had ever learned as a leader. Kelli, our daughter, cared about and loved her brother so much that she overcame her greatest fear at the time in order to protect him.
Courage isn’t a lack of fear, it is caring more about something than what you fear. And if you don’t deeply care about those you lead, you shouldn’t lead.
When leaders deeply care about those that they lead, they almost always do the right thing. They do the right thing because they are putting the people they really care about first. Courageous leaders do what is right, not what is easiest. And they do it because they care.
See the above story in a video that you can share with your leadership team. It comes with a discussion guide. CLICK HERE.
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