Leadership Teaches Us the Steps

Leadership Teaches Us the Steps August 13, 2013

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Leadership is about learning how to dance.

Being a leader is not about making us all be the same. Leaders are not about measuring our efforts and getting rid of whoever does not measure up.

Leadership is not about making other people try to be more like me.

I have worked with people in positions of responsibility who acted like the most important thing they could do was impose and enforce rules. They tended to approach leadership like it was organizing orderly rows of people all marching in lockstep.

Leadership does not come from the top down; leadership comes from the inside out.

The leaders who inspire me know themselves well. They have taken the time and done the work to find their true selves. They are discovering their own core values, their own deepest desires, and sharing themselves with the people around them. They connect and relate to people around the values they share. They understand that they cannot do everything well themselves, that each of us makes a significant contribution.

The leaders who inspire me lead with joy and abandon. They share the lessons they have learned, and they learn the lessons that other people have to teach us. They learn as much as a result of their own leadership as anyone else. They are learning along with the rest of us.

They learn to jump and twirl, to feel the sun on their arms and the sand under their feet.

Leadership teaches us the steps so we can learn to dance on the sand at the edge of the ocean.

Who has your leadership taught how to dance on the sand at the edge of the ocean?

When is the last time you felt the freedom that comes from dancing on the sand?

[Image by mikebaird]


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