A Leader is defined as: “the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country.” Right in the definition, we learn that words matter. When you think of lead vs. command, what comes to mind?
One of the many books written by my mentor, John C. Maxwell, is titled, The 5 Levels of Leadership. They include Position, Permission, Production, People Development and Pinnacle. Let’s start with why people pursue the opportunity to become a leader. In other words, what is their motive?
- Ego – Title and prestige
- Money – Riches
- Power – Control
- Desire to Make a Difference
- Desire to add value to people
For me, and maybe for you, my motives changed as I matured in my leadership journey. Early in my career, I had some great leaders and some that were not so great. I often found I learned more from the not-so-great leaders about what I didn’t want to put in my toolkit. I’m a relational person so I enjoyed being a salesperson. It fed my desire for building relationships, and it also fueled my competitive spirit. The thrill of the hunt! I was good at sales, but I quickly found I liked helping others close deals too. Figuring out what was missing to make a deal work and then watching my teammates celebrate their victory was satisfying to me. I also learned the best way for me to do all those things was to be a sales leader.
So, I started my quest to learn what it took to be a sales leader. Did you need the greatest sales, to be the most liked , and to have the biggest customer? The answer was YES to all those things. That’s what got you promoted to sales leader. Nowhere did anyone talk about leadership skills like; empathy or EQ, decision making, problem solving, communication, team building and delegation. It was assumed the best salesperson would make the best sales leader. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that model fail over the years. In most cases, the salesperson didn’t want to be the leader, but then the money and perks were rolled out and they felt they had no choice. They often failed in that role and ended up leaving the company to be a rainmaker salesperson for a competitor. Now the company was out a rainmaker, and the sales team demoralized in the process. Interestingly, in my first job out of college, I initially met and was hired by the business unit President or my boss’s boss. He was my first real working boss, and I was very blessed to have landed there. It was a circuitous path for sure and a story for another time.
We hit it off right away and he informally mentored me almost 10 years. Mentoring wasn’t really a thing back then, but we spent time together and he asked a lot of questions that helped to shape me into the leader I have become.
My boss was a very kind man and he had worked his way up through the organization through blocking and tackling, attrition and not making waves. But while he had the title, he wasn’t a leader.
He didn’t teach me; he used to joke and say he’d give me an anchor and see how well I can swim. As I said earlier, I learned from the good and not so good leaders I’ve had. Later in my career, I had moved up to a Senior Sales Leader role and found myself working for a very smart, methodical, hard-working guy who was anything but a sales-man. He was a great leader and exhibited almost all the qualities you would want in your leader. He took time to know the details of the business so he could engage at whatever level was necessary in every department. He knew the people and took time to engage with them and talk about their families and interests. He was a fierce competitor and while he hated to lose, he lost gracefully in public. (We did a lot of postmortems in private – but that made us better next time).His only real downside was he was a workaholic. That meant he expected a great deal (time) from everyone else. While I agree a certain amount of time is required, I also believe in quality vs. quantity. I used to tell my salespeople I didn’t care if they got their job done from a boat in the ocean as long as they got it done. I learned a lot about how to lead people in prosperity and adversity during this season.
So back to the original question, what (or who) is a leader?
- A leader should be A leader is someone who enjoys dealing someone who enjoys dealing with people. If you don’t like dealing with people, do anything else but become a leader.
- A leader should get satisfaction from other people’s success. If it’s more about you than them, you’ll be happier not being a leader and so will your people.
- A leader must be willing to teach, coach, mentor others and do so with humility.
- A leader is someone who can cast a vision and influence others to join them.
Many people pursue leadership roles without fully understanding what is expected of them and their obligations to the people they serve. Earlier I asked you what comes to mind when you think of lead vs. command. Leading is selfless. Commanding is self-serving. Don’t confuse commanding with the military. While those men and women hold a command, they are trained leaders. Not everyone has had the benefit of working for a great leader. If that’s you, it’s okay. However, if you want to become a better leader, you need to make the effort. You can read books, take courses, or hire a coach. Whether you lead at work, in your com-munity, church or at home, having better leadership skills will always be a benefit.
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