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March 13 - March 20, 2025
Leaders don’t sit back and point fingers. Leaders lead with the authority of leadership . . . or without it. The authority is largely irrelevant—if you are a leader, you will lead when you are needed.
Influence has always been, and will always be, the currency of leadership.
“Many people at the top of organizations are not leaders. They have authority, but they are not leaders. And many at the bottom with no authority are absolutely leaders.”
what you can do is focus on your own area of responsibility and make it great.
When someone has to pull out the gun of authority, something is broken. You only pull out the gun of authority when nothing else is working.
How do these mid-level managers effect change? Tabrizi says they work the levers of power in every direction. They don’t have authority over their peers, much less their bosses or the other executives in charge of the organization. So how do they do it? Through influence.
Influence always outpaces authority. And leaders who consistently leverage their authority to lead are far less effective in the long term than leaders who leverage their influence. Practice leading through influence when you’re not in charge. It’s the key to leading well when you are.
our identities precede our actions; our behaviors flow from our identities. So before we spend any energy on what we do as leaders, we really need to spend some time on who we are as leaders,
Ambition doesn’t magically begin when you are placed in charge.
having influence is the path toward authority, not the other way around.
You are in charge of you. You are in charge of your emotions, your thoughts, your reactions, and your decisions. It’s the law of personal responsibility, because everyone is responsible for leading something, even if that something is just you.
“Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does on a day-to-day basis to lead himself.”
Your moral authority is vastly more important than your positional authority, and nothing erodes moral authority more than undermining the person you claim to be following. So the first step to master in becoming a leader who leads well when not in charge is how to model what it means to be a follower.
A healthy curiosity should drive your efforts to monitor your behavior. And not just curiosity for curiosity’s sake, but curiosity for the sake of growth. You need to cultivate interest in how others see the way you act and lead.
To lead you well, you need to focus on three simple aspects: 1. Know where you currently are. 2. Have a vision for where you want to go. 3. Develop the discipline and accountability to do what it takes to stay on track.
Before you put a plan together for your own growth, you should ask your boss a question: “If an opportunity for promotion came available, what would keep you from fully recommending me?”
Self-leadership means spending the necessary time and effort to determine your own personal vision for your future.
If money were no issue, what would I choose to do with my time? • What really bothers me? What breaks my heart? • What makes me pound the table in frustration or passion? • What gives me life or makes me come alive? Spend time answering these questions with other people that know you well. It’s one of the most crucial ingredients to leading yourself well.
the satisfaction employees have in their job is directly correlated to their ability to see how what they do fits into the big picture.
Leaders who feel a strong sense of ownership are leaders who connect their job to the results of the organization.
You can choose positivity. This is not just positive thinking, a self-delusion that ignores reality. It’s based on a different perspective of your reality, a panoptic view of your circumstances.
Positivity is a character trait. Personality refers to our inherent bent, much of which is predetermined. But character is developed over time. And more often than not, character is developed when things are difficult.
The panoptic view fights for we over me. The panoptic view tells us that we’re better together than we are apart. Choosing positivity produces collective results greater than if we were each pushing our own agenda.
Asking questions is at the heart of critical thinking. Questions challenge assumptions. Questions uncover the invisible forces behind behaviors and actions.
Being observant is another key leadership quality, because as we carefully observe things, we are able to better determine cause-and-effect relationships.
Critical thinkers are also able to connect things. Similar to the ability to observe, critical thinkers are able to observe and then make connections between seemingly disconnected behaviors and feelings.
Shift #1: Stop thinking as an employee. Start thinking as an owner.
Shift #2: Stop stacking your meetings. Start scheduling thinking meetings.
Shift #3: Stop being critical. Start thinking critically.
Shift #4: Stop giving others a grade. Start lending them a hand.
When you communicate critical thoughts to those beside you, below you, or to your boss, you need to do so with a helping hand, not a grading tone. Here are a few practical ways to do this: • Assure the listener you are for him or her. When we know others are for us, we can better hear feedback that might otherwise feel critical. • Always present a solution to any problem you raise. Issue recognition doesn’t win friends. • Keep your blood pressure as low as possible when communicating feedback. If you can’t talk about it without getting emotional, you’re not ready to talk about it. • Deliver
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One of the most dangerous temptations we face when we’re working for someone else is passivity. If authority brings us a feeling of control, the lack of that authority makes us feel, acutely, our lack of control.
being aware of passivity is the first step, but step two is learning to reject it and take action.
When you sense yourself standing around waiting for more, a great first step is to look around for things that no one is addressing and take the first step.
To get out of the passivity cycle, it’s going to take some initiative. You simply need to choose something—anything—that you will pick up and own.
This is a key idea to remember for your own work: never present your boss with just a problem. Always bring a plan for the solution.
Rather than responding only to what comes next on their calendars, great leaders respond to what’s most important to the boss and move accordingly.
Here are a few questions that can help if you’re currently stuck in passivity: • What has my boss established as the greatest “win” for our team? • If your boss could wave a magic wand and have something done, what would it be? • What is your boss most worried about? What is creating stress? How can you relieve that? • On your team, what is a frequently discussed problem? Can you take steps toward fixing it today?
“You will never passively find what you do not actively pursue.”
Leaders see problems. They see things that aren’t working. And they come up with solutions. Leaders make a way when others can’t find a way. Leaders look at what is, see what could be, and organize others to move toward the preferred future. Leaders are not rabble-rousers, but they will challenge the status quo. They are not okay with “this is the way we’ve always done it.” They refuse to accept mediocrity. Leaders are not content to sit on the sidelines, managing a system that is yielding solid results, when there are potential changes pregnant with greater results.
Challenge brings change, and change is inherently challenging.
The more personally your boss relates to his job, the more personally your boss will take your challenge.
Great leaders don’t get defensive.
Any change to the present system will be perceived as a criticism of past leadership.
Great leaders challenge up with the best motives.
Great leaders are keenly aware of what the boss is most interested in.
Great leaders know what’s core and what’s peripheral.
Great leaders challenge up quietly, but they are not silent.
constantly comparing your church to another church is like comparing your spouse to a former relationship. It never goes well.
There are better ways to build your case than to speak with absolute certainty about what is currently happening. It immediately invalidates the work others are doing and questions your credibility.
