Leaders: What are YOU willing to share?

Leadership is sharing. A leader shares.

That’s my response whenever anyone asks me to sum up leadership in as few words as possible. Think about it…

Unless you’re a genuine hermit (and probably even then) you need other people. As a leader, you are completely dependent on other people, particularly the people you serve––the people who trust in your leadership.

Your performance is measured by the performance of the people you serve. Your effectiveness is determined by how effective they are. Their productivity is the measure of your success.

Leadership is about power––if we define it properly. Power is your ability or capacity to act or perform effectively. To the point––power is your ability to get things done. 

No matter what your position of authority or leadership status, you are only as powerful as the people you serve. Their capacity to act or perform effectively is the most direct determining factor in your effectiveness as a leader. 

Why do we make it so complicated? It’s painfully simple: You become more powerful by empowering others––and that means sharing. 

Your power as a leader grows in direct proportion to what you’re willing to share with others. 

One of the most, well, empowering parts of our workshops can also be one of the most difficult. It’s when we ask these simple questions:

What are you willing to share as a leader?

How will you do it?

The focus of THE SENSEI LEADER MOVEMENT is to help leaders Inspire, Empower and Guide people to their very best. Think about these three key purposes of a leader and how each demands sharing:

Inspire: 

• Share your enthusiasm. 
• Share yourself as a model and example for others. 
• Share your vision and your mission. 
• Share your passion. 
• Share respect, trust and loyalty.

Empower: 

• Share actual power––and authority. 
• Share responsibility. 
• Share the resources necessary to help others develop to their full capacity and expand their potential. 
• Share encouragement and credit for success.

Guide: 

• Share your Self. 
• Share your time. 
• Share your knowledge, experience and wisdom. 
• Be the teacher/leader embodied in the ideal of THE SENSEI LEADER. 

Don’t stop here! This is a list of only the most essential things you need to share to be an effective leader––someone with the ability to attract willing followers and engage them in a common cause. What more can you share?

It’s no longer a matter of whether or not you should adopt this sharing philosophy. It’s only a matter of how. Of course you have to weave these responsibilities in with your managerial duties, planning and the other trappings of leadership. 

And there are self-empowering benefits of sharing too, particularly in adopting our core value of leadership through teaching, coaching and mentoring. A recent Harvard Business Review article by Daniel Dobrygowski is right on point:

“The teacher-leader, by continually growing and teaching her own team, paves the way for her own success.”

The article is appropriately titled: “Great Employees Want to Learn. Great Managers Know How to Teach.”

Teaching and mentoring are powerful expressions of sharing, but they’re not the only ones. Studies have proven for years that the simple act of sharing personal time and interest on the part of a leader has a significant impact on the people he or she serves. 

Take some time for self-reflection and ask yourself the two questions I posed earlier:

What are you willing to share as a leader?

How will you do it?

Once you determine how you can and will share, embed these practices as disciplines in your daily life as leader. Hold always to the truth that your success as a leader grows in direct proportion to what you’re willing to share with others. 

And if you want a constant reminder, just post these words where you’ll see them every day:

Leadership is sharing. A leader shares.