Business Leaders. Unsung Heroes?
Michael Sommers
I authentically and tenaciously grow people and organizations, and am obsessed with Leadership Greatness & Human Potential ? Lead people ? Manage things ? LOVE + LEAD + BELIEVE
Rightfully so, teachers, first responders, philanthropic volunteers, military, and many other service professionals are considered true unsung heroes for impacting society in a very meaningful and positive way; and with a disproportionately low amount of praise and fanfare. The curiosity here is whether a business leader belongs in this group of unsung heroes.
As explained in a fantastic book by the great Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player, the three qualities that most create strong winning teams are:
1/ humble
2/ hungry
3/ smart
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If a strong leader is humble, hungry, and smart, doesn’t that mean that power and praise aren’t pursued but rather distributed and leveraged as fuel for team achievement.
Great leaders “depend, for their power, on their ability to making other people powerful.” – Benjamin Zander in The Art of Possibility. ?Distributing praise and making others powerful seems to beautifully fit the Servant Leader archetype, and hands down one of the best works on this subject is The Servant by James C. Hunter. Check it out if you haven't already read it. You won't be disappointed.
Business leadership done right aims to help others discover the absolute best in themselves and unleash their full potential, and this can be instrumental in people thriving in all facets of their lives. So, when a business leader embodies humility and is hungry to bring out the best in others, might that qualify as another type of unsung hero? ?The positive ripple effect is profound and should come with a disproportionately low amount of praise and fanfare for the leader – by design.
Lau Tzu said it best in 565 B.C. – “A leader is best when people barely know he exists…….. they will say we did it ourselves.”
DevStride COO; Strategist; Integrator; Mentor
8 个月100% agree - the best leaders I've been around have not only been great growth catalysts in people's professional lives, but also have impacted their personal lives in profound and often unanticipated ways, all simply because they invested in another person. Multiply that across all the lives that great, impactful servant leaders touch, and you have a positive force not just inside a business where you see people willingly bring their best selves daily, but in the people those people then impact with the same ethos. We desperately need more of these people in the world. And, like Vance Collins said, they don't always step up, or sometimes they do but it doesn't stick because nobody supported them once they got there, so it's on leaders to identify them, help them take the leap, and then help them stay there and hit their potential.
Vice President - Technology
8 个月I told someone just this week that they will make an excellent leader. They replied, “but I don’t want to be a leader.” I said that is one of the first traits of the best leaders.
Chief Operating Officer at Hantover, Inc. / Innovator / Entrepreneur
8 个月Spot on Michael. To piggyback on that thought, a business leader need not necessarily be one by title - not all leaders have titles, not all with titles are leaders. The unsung heroes exist in all sorts of nooks and crannies in our (professional) lives - coworkers, vendors, customers. They are those priceless individuals who encourage and push us to grow into the best we can be and to climb the next mountain. I’ve been blessed to have several in my life. I interviewed a young woman last week who said she wanted to “grow into a leadership role.” Wish I’d thought to give her a copy of The Servant…she doesn’t need to wait for the role to be a leader and unsung heroe.
Distribution Operations | Industrial Engineering | WMS
8 个月Hope you are well.
Product & Operations Management Executive | B2B SaaS Product Innovator | CEO | CPO | COO | Entrepreneur | Creating Amazing Software from Zero to Scale | Longevity Enthusiast
8 个月Absolutely, they can be heroes. A leader who creates jobs and helps an employee grow and succeed not only helps that person but also their family and the community. Personally, the most basic thing that gets me out of bed every morning is the ability to lead a team of people to accomplish something more significant than they thought they could.