How Do Leaders Succeed? (Hint: Not in a Vacuum)

What are we doing? How are we going to do it? Two questions leaders need to keep in mind.

   The first question often gets an “I” answer. One person, maybe a few people, who have a vision for an organization. It’s the creation story. Why it exists. In the case of Attend Safe, it’s to manage the risk from a pandemic, for just one example.

   While the second question sometimes gets an “I” answer too, more often than not, a “we” answer finds a better path to follow.

   If everyone on the team knows and understands what they trying to accomplish, it allows them to contribute toward that goal from their individual zone of genius.

   In one mythology, various god- and goddess-like beings—each with their own natural affiliations: wind, water, earth (all the usual primordial elements)—come together in a song of creation and as their song progresses, a few would join together in a harmony. When that happened, they created new things outside the capacity of one alone. The wind and water beings created snow, rain and rainbows, for example.

   In an organization, by embracing and honoring team members, by empowering them to be full contributors, great things can be accomplished beyond the vision of a single individual.

  If answering the first question creates a framework, the answers to the second complete its form, make it real, set it in motion, give it life.

   Instead of a to-do list, the team starts thinking in terms of cooperation, of pulling together, of finding success through each other, rather than competing against each other.

   The result is a mindset for success.