Start here - About Leaders Work

Leadership is about making the world better by contributing to the wellness of the people around you.

This blog is my attempt to do that by speaking up about leadership and the way we all interact with each other.

This particular page is meant as a road map to everything I’ve written and shared here. Therefore it serves as a snapshot of my philosophy on the subject of leadership, right now. But as good leadership demands continuous learning, reflection, and openness to new ideas - that philosophy, and this page, will change over time.

You can read about my background on my biography page.

Leadership is bigger than the workplace. We engage with people everywhere, not just at work. We have the potential to contribute to the wellness of others in our relationships with our co-workers but also with everyone else, from complete strangers to friends and family. Great leaders are always leading and strive to lead everyone, especially when times are tough.

Great leadership happens at a deeply personal level. To make a meaningful and ethical contribution to the wellness of others, leaders must be brave enough and skillful enough to operate in the deeper water of human psychology. Managers can sail about in the calm, shallow water where every person is assumed to be the same and everyone is assumed to be doing fine. Leaders know everyone is different and everyone brings all of themselves to their interaction with other people, for better or worse. Leaders must navigate the shoals of their own personality, preferences and experiences and strive to learn the same about others.

Leadership is always about other people, but demands an intensive focus on self. The paradox of great leadership is that although the goal is always to contribute to the wellness of someone else, the only way to do that is through one’s own words or actions. Therefore a leader must constantly and vigorously think about themselves, from the perspective of others.

Great leaders are curious about the world. Curiosity about other people enables a strong sense of empathy. Curiosity drives great leaders to meet people different from themselves, travel to places they’ve never visited before, and read about everything. Leaders seek new experiences and new ideas that prompt reflection that changes their outlook on leadership or the world. Curiosity about others’ ideas leads to the best decisions and the best performance.

In an organization, leaders focus on performance. Generally, leadership is about the wellness of other people. In an organization, leaders have the additional responsibility to lead people to their greatest professional performance. That means leaders need equal proficiency making strategic decisions that may affect hundreds of people, and interacting with and inspiring individuals. Professional performance and general wellness are linked together: neither should be sacrificed to achieve the other. Organizations do require management, but never allow management to replace leadership. Great leaders are never bystanders in a toxic climate.

Leaders work to inspire and develop other leaders. All people, but new leaders in particular, develop through experience and learn from mistakes. The most powerful learning happens when someone is there to help them make sense of it all. Great leaders recognize those learning moments and start the learning conversations.

Leaders focus on their own mental and physical health. To be most ready to contribute to the wellness of others, a leader must care for their own wellness. In a chaotic world, leaders manage their attention and make space for careful thought. Meditation is one way to take care of your mental and physical health.

Productivity is an important leadership skill. We all have work to do; the better you can manage it all, the more time and mental capacity you can devote to engaging with people. Build skill with your office technology.