The Leadership Imperative

Most leaders I’ve encountered are underachievers.?They’re getting a fraction of the results they are capable of.?And in most cases, it’s their fault.?Their failures are the result of the choices they make.?The opportunities to consistently get more results are all around them all the time, theirs for the taking.?

For instance, to start getting more results right now, simply change your mind.?Just recognizing and avoiding two leadership traps can automatically improve your results-producing capabilities dramatically.?

There are other ways to get great results by changing your mind-set.?Read about them in my latest books, The Leadership Talk: 7 Days to Achieving Exceptional Results. and 107 Ways to Give Great Leadership Talks.

Changing One’s mind-set is only one path to being a more effective leader.?There are other paths:

-- replacing speeches and presentations with Leadership Talks,

-- committing yourself to leadership contracts,

-- committing yourself to a “results are limitless” viewpoint,

-- instituting a leadership strategy,

And many more:

The paths not only help you get immediate and long-term results but also drive your mind-set changes deeply into your leadership activities. You should aim to make your leadership your life and your life your leadership.?If you don’t, you diminish both your leadership and your life.?To have the processes get traction so they change your life, you must cultivate two dynamics: a vision of purpose, what your leadership is in your job and life, and the dedication to realize that purpose.?

The word “vision” has been used and misused ad nauseam.?The trouble is that most leaders misunderstand it.?When they think “vision”, they look at themselves, at what they can do for themselves.?To do well for yourself, an inward focus is the wrong place to look.

Here’s a vision that you can carry with you for the rest of your career.?I call it the Leadership Imperative.?

I WILL LEAD PEOPLE IN SUCH A WAY WE NOT ONLY ACHIEVE THE REQUIRED RESULTS BUT GROW IN OUR PROFESSIONAL SKILLS AND THE BEST QUALITIES OF BEING HUMAN.

This vision has two parts: one is result-accomplishments, and the other is the betterment of the people.

You are never more powerful as a leader than when, in getting results, you are helping others be better than they are in both their job skills and the quality of their life -- even better than thought they could be.?Guided by the Leadership Imperative, you’ll find that the jobs you take on, the career(s) you have, will, in terms of your doing well by them, take care of themselves.

However, vision alone is not enough.?You must be dedicated to realizing it.?Realizing this vision means living not an easy life for ourselves but a hard life for others.?

One way to do that is by consistently developing and implementing leadership contracts.?

There are many other ways to make such realization happen, and it should be our life’s journey to find them and put them into action.?The point is that when you turn the focus of your ambitions away from yourself and toward other people, when you become truly ambitious for their success, your success will take care of itself.???

How do we really let our leadership sink deeply into our life and change it and shape it throughout our lives??By dedicating ourselves to passionately realizing the Leadership Imperative.

Copyright ? The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.

The author of some 40 published books, Brent Filson’s latest two leadership books are: “The Leadership Talk: 7 Days to Motivating People to Achieve Exceptional Results” and “107 Ways to Achieve Great Leadership Talks.” A former Marine infantry platoon and company commander, he is the founder of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc., which for 40 years has helped thousands of leaders of all ranks and functions in top companies worldwide achieve sustained increases in hard, measured results. He has published some 150 articles on leadership and been a guest on scores of radio/tv shows. His mission is to have leaders replace their traditional presentations with his specially developed, motivating process, The Leadership Talk. www.brentfilson.com and theleadershiptalk.com.

Besides having lectured about the Leadership Talk at MIT Sloan School of Management, Columbia University, Wake Forest, Villanova, Williams, Middlebury, Filson brought the Leadership Talk to leaders in these organizations: Abbott, Ameritech, Anheuser-Busch, Armstrong World Industries, AT&T, BASF, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Bose, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Campbell Sales, Canadian Government, CNA, DuPont, Eaton Corporation, Exelon, First Energy, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, GTE, Hartford Steam Boiler, Hershey Foods, Honeywell, Houghton Mifflin, IBM, Meals-on-Wheels, Merck, Miller Brewing Company, NASA, PaineWebber, Polaroid, Price Waterhouse, Roadway Express, Sears Roebuck, Spalding International, Southern Company, The United Nations, Unilever, UPS, Union Carbide, United Dominion Industries, U.S. Steel, Vermont State Police, Warner Lambert — and more