Our leadership is more about who we are than about how other people respond to us.
Our own core values, principles, and vision are the ground in which our leadership grows. The leaders we become, the ways we lead, reflect who we are in our deepest selves.
At the same time, it is impossible for us to lead without other people. Our leadership depends on our willingness to share our true selves with the people around us. Our leadership is demonstrated when we bring out the best in other people.
Other people have helped me learn significant lessons about leadership.
There are people who have been examples for me not to follow. There are people who have given me one or two nuggets of wisdom that changed everything. There are people whose leadership has inspired me to become more of the leader I can be.
One of the ways leaders inspire me is by saying thank you. Saying thank you, and meaning it, carries tremendous power.
When we say thank you we recognize someone’s contribution to our shared efforts. An informed, intentional, authentic thank you connects us deeply to another person. Saying thank you describes the time and effort we have spent reflecting on our work together.
It is one thing to thank someone for doing what you wanted or asked them to do. It is more powerful to thank someone for a lesson you might not have been trying to learn.
Each person, each situation has lessons for us to learn. What we learn tells us more about who we are than about the people or the situations.
Thank you for reading this post.
Who is the last person you thanked for their leadership?
If you were accepting an award, who are the people to whom you would say thank you?
[Image by bunnicula]
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