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Five Things You Really Don't Believe About Leadership

#4 – Character-Based Leadership is Leading from WHO You Are

Leadership isn’t about position. It’s about leading from who you are. This is a noble idea, even the right idea. But most people don’t really believe it. There’s too much risk in letting someone lead from who they are. Evil people lead from who they are. Dictators and tyrants lead from who they are. That doesn’t make them character-based leaders. More than this, there is a gravity to the positions we hold and the titles we have. People submit naturally to a uniform. In our culture, growing influence leads naturally to growing position and title. Leading from who you are is the starting place of character-based leadership. What comes next is the challenging and noble work of forging who you are into a leader worth following.

#3 – Great Leaders Have Grand Vision

Hindsight makes for great stories of grand vision. But if we take an honest look at many leadership success stories what we discover isn’t grand vision. We see wisdom meet opportunity driven by necessity. Walt Disney didn’t start by dreaming about the Magic Kingdom. Almost bankrupt, he sketched Mortimer Mouse during a train ride home. His wife suggested the name be changed to Mickey. His brother found the money to make a cartoon. Ub Iwerks redesigned Walt’s original sketch into the iconic mouse we know and love. The magic came later. Necessity drove the Disney’s into an opportunity they had the wisdom to shape into the media powerhouse we know today. Vision is important. It is the clear mental picture of what could be fueled by the conviction that it should be. But don’t let a grand vision become the apocryphal mountain that gets in the way of a good idea.

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