Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success

by Angie Morgan

leadership isn’t about authority. It’s about building credible influence with others.

At Lead Star, we define a leader as someone who influences outcomes and inspires others.

If you can’t do the right things in a training environment, the Corps has no interest in seeing whether you can do the right thing in combat—there’s just too much at stake.

Doing the right thing is the foundation on which trust is built.

Simply put, others just may not believe you are who you say you are, or that, under pressure, you’ll act like you say you’ll act. Why? Because they’ve observed the little inconsistencies in how you live your life.

Acknowledging the internal disconnect between values and actions is where true growth takes place.

But there are also the unspoken expectations that others have of you.

I challenge you to start uncovering these unspoken standards by paying attention to your environment and inferring what your stakeholders value. Also observe your organization’s most successful employees and ascertain what standards they’re meeting that make them so influential.

To cultivate influence, you can’t adopt a cafeteria-style approach to meeting standards;

Knowing this, Sparks always ensure that they honor every commitment they make throughout the day by following through, because they know what’s at risk if they let their standards slide—their influence.

At every level of communication, the big boss’s intentions—what he or she wanted to happen—were passed along. But we were never instructed in how to achieve the result. That was on us to figure out because, unlike the commander, we were present at the point of action.

This sometimes requires that managers dial down their efforts to control their teams by telling them what to do and how to do it.

We always encourage managers to share the “what” that needs to happen and then leave the “how” up to team members.

a great place to start bringing accountability to your team is to think about what you can do to spark an honest dialogue on performance.

In the best organizations, everyone knows where they stand. Holding someone accountable is strictly between his or her performance and the expected standard—it’s not about you and that person personally.

A better approach is to make feedback about the standard and the expectation rather than about the person, and to choose the right tone—one that makes the recipient of the feedback want to take it to heart.

a leader is someone who influences outcomes and inspires others

What we’ve found is that if you care enough to offer feedback, you also need to have ideas for how the person can improve.

Sparks are problem-solvers, not just problem-spotters.

Demonstrating accountability means relentlessly seeking ownership of mistakes, missteps, problems, and any other less-than-best outcome you are either responsible for or associated with.

When demonstrated correctly, accountability is the acknowledgment—not the admiration—of a mistake and quickly moving beyond it to get to what everyone wants: the solution and resolution.

Blaming

What is the line between blame and identifying causes or contributors to a problem?

Instead of lamenting the lack of job offers, Patrick took action—he took responsibility—to

when you initiate accountability, you inspire trust.

Sparks often have to create opportunities for accountability to happen.

Gilbert shares that we can appreciate how much we’ve grown over the years, but that we also assume the person we are today is the person we’ll be in the future.

So when the future seems murky, start by asking yourself, What have I always wanted to do?

Innovation involves making connections and connecting the dots to generate new ideas, and anyone can do that.

Sparks understand that in order to get the most out of their teams, they need to serve—and to show others how to serve as well.

results and people are both critical priorities.

to be a leader you can be tough, you can be aggressive, you can have demanding standards—but if you can’t be compassionate, empathetic, and caring, you’re never going to build a team of people who feel valued and connected.

I learned from Coca-Cola that service, true service, is meeting people’s needs so they can be their best.

Service-based leadership might help you think about what you’re not doing to help make this relationship work.

serve each other by offering difficult feedback because they care enough not to sweep uncomfortable issues under the rug.

People need to matter, especially in a fast-paced environment. By holding ourselves accountable for practicing service-based leadership, we prevent ourselves from buying into the excuse that we would definitely take the time to lead, but we’re just too busy.

don’t make people ask for help—just help them when you see you have the opportunity and resources to do so.

Did you achieve your successes . . . or did you experience them?

Pretending to be someone you’re not isn’t going to help you be the person you need to be when the pressure is on.

Confidence is about seeing yourself clearly, appreciating your abilities, and having a solid foundation on which to build when presented with challenges.

Real confidence allows us to endure setbacks and persevere as we’re trying to make sense of what the heck just happened and figure out what we’re going to do next.

Branch Rickey, the notable baseball executive who brought Jackie Robinson to the big leagues, once observed, “Luck is the residue of design.”

“truth-brokers”

BEING A SPARK REQUIRES that you be clear about your values, intentions, credibility, and confidence.

It determines whether you’re a “sometimes person” or an “always person.”

Sparks need to be able to trust themselves.

In such an environment, you need to have developed strong, consistent habits that will prevent you from losing your way when the pressure is turned up.

concept of grit, which she describes as having passion and perseverance toward long-term goals.

“The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.”

First, look around—everyone is busy. Busyness isn’t unique to anyone.

Rather than tell people they’re too busy, Sparks get to the heart of the matter by having a conversation with themselves about what’s really going on: