Leadership is measured by results. What you accomplish or what you fail to accomplish will be your legacy. Those who act maliciously are not judged simply by their actions but by the consequences of those actions. And those who lead valiantly receive little or no extra credit for how they performed; we revere them for their achievements.<\/p>\n
It does not mean that how you perform makes no difference. There is generally a clear connection between how you act and what you accomplish. But there is an even greater connection between who you are \u2013 and what you achieve. How you choose to prepare yourself to become the kind of person you must be is more significant than the opportunities that place you in the right place at the right time.<\/p>\n
Opportunity is never the same for any two people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
While one person freezes or struggles to find what to do, another immediately recognizes the potential in front of them and acts swiftly, intentionally, and effectively to seize the moment. You might think that this decisiveness is simply a matter of courage, but it is more complicated than that. It is a function of being prepared. Being courageous in itself does not guarantee any particular outcome. You can be fearless and foolish at the same time. But lacking any courage will tilt most people towards failure in the presence of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
E. Edward Deming wrote “It\u2019s not good enough to do your best; you must first know what to do and then do your best.\u201d His suggestion about knowing what to do speaks clearly to having prepared yourself properly for whatever decision or effort you are aiming to undertake. To be successful, leaders must be active and constant learners.<\/p>\n
The problem is that you cannot easily find everything you must learn. There is no shortage of resources for finding out how things have been or should be done. There are thousands of books, innumerable sources of both free and paid advice, and great universities that are poised to unlock the knowledge you need. But none of these will prepare you to be the person you need to be in the moment you need to perform.<\/p>\n
A mentor or a coach can help show you what such a person might look like or understand what you might do, but no one can shape you into who you need to be. Only you can do that for yourself.<\/p>\n
Leaders who know what to do and are successful in accomplishing the things that matter most \u2013 are those who have prepared themselves to\u00a0be<\/u>\u00a0<\/em>that person \u2013 who\u00a0does\u00a0<\/u><\/em>what they must do\u00a0when<\/u><\/em>\u00a0it must be done.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Success in anything is rarely guaranteed. You might be fully competent and prepared for the task, muster the courage to dispel with your fears and boldly act in the face of adversity \u2013 and find that adversity wins non-the-less. Failure is part of the learning process. Recognizing that failures are inevitable does not suggest that you accept failure as your ultimate outcome.<\/p>\n
In these moments, the human qualities of persistence, resilience, and determination rise above the doubts and disappointments that stop others from pursuing their aims. Who you are accounts for more than what you know how to do.\u00a0\u00a0These qualities that make for exceptional leaders and separate away those who are most apt to fail amount to inspiration that you cannot find in external sources. The strength and character that define exceptional leaders come from a sense of purpose, from having a great noble cause in life.<\/p>\n
Purpose, more than anything else, defines who we are.<\/h3>\n
What we do provides labels that others use to sort and place us in useful categories. You might be a teacher, doctor, engineer, baker, or a soldier, but these describe what you do \u2013 not who you are. Why you choose to do these things determines how well you will do them and what you might accomplish as a result. From the simplest to the most complex of tasks, the sense of purpose you bring to your efforts is what will define you and separate those who are merely mediocre from those who are virtuosos.<\/p>\n
There are no instructions for living a life of purpose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Again, there are countless resources in books, sacred teachings, affiliations, and formal education \u2013 but none of these will provide you with your sense of purpose.<\/p>\n
Some people seek purpose in spiritual practices. Being raised around people with enormous faith and a sense of purpose can inform what you choose to believe. Or perhaps you stumbled upon something that warmed your spirit in a way that made you feel you must pay it forward and share it with others. Or you might have been shaken by witnessing something so tragic that it instilled a great determination to protect others from the horror of what you experienced. It doesn\u2019t matter where you found your inspiration \u2013 only that it becomes indelible, something you cannot shake loose from who you are.<\/p>\n
Yes, there are purposeless leaders in the world. There are people in all walks of life who stumble through their days aimlessly and somehow get through. Some of these people might seem happy enough \u2013 and who\u2019s to judge? But real joy comes from the satisfaction of your accomplishments\u2014the more significant and meaningful, the greater your sense of enduring joy.<\/p>\n
I have never seen or known of a great leader that wasn\u2019t guided by a great worthy cause. It seems impossible that anyone can suffer through what it takes to lead people through adversity unless there is a purpose guiding them. Without the guidance of a powerful sense of purpose, you may know what to do, try your best, and still fail to accomplish anything that really matters. It\u2019s not what you know to do in the face of challenge \u2013 it is always who you are in that moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leadership is measured by results. What you accomplish or what you fail to accomplish will be your legacy. Those who act maliciously are not judged simply by their actions but by the consequences of those actions. And those who lead valiantly receive little or no extra credit for how they performed; we revere them for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cohort-reading-resources","category-leadership-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13526"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13539,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13526\/revisions\/13539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}