Side By Side

I’m 6’6”.  Besides airplane bathrooms that is rarely an issue, except when you’re co-training with a 5’4” woman.  I remember at a break half-way through our training event she pulled me aside and said, “James, we have to get a stool.”

I’ll be honest, the first thing that came through my head was, “She is NOT going to stand on a stool?!”

Fortunately I have learned to ask questions, “What for?”  I asked.

She said, “So you can sit on it!”

Sometimes when we stand things next to each other we notice the differences.

There’s a big difference in leaders that use their positions to lead, and leaders who lead people.  Positional leaders sit in the offices thinking “I’m responsible for this.”  Launching Leaders have a well worn path to the offices of the people on their team, creating a shared sense of responsibility and inspiring a shared vision.

Positional Leader:  Sees people in need of their help
Launching Leader:  Sees people as healthy creative and whole

Positional Leader: Wants to maintain the center position
Launching Leader: Consistently puts other people in the middle

Positional Leader:  Spends most of the day solving/putting out fires
Launching Leader:  Spends most of day managing progress

Positional Leader:  Tries to model for others in her/his actions
Launching Leader:  Not trying to make people like her/him

Positional Leader: Sees himself as the expert
Launching Leader: Sees others as experts

Positional Leader:  Avoids hard situations to avoid tough decisions
Launching Leader: Sees every frustration as an opportunity for leadership

Positional Leader: Generate answers for other
Launching Leader: Ask many questions to enable others

Positional Leader:  Drag people towards his/her goals
Launching Leader:  Draw out what others want and launch them toward their goals

What has to shift in your thinking to put people in the middle of your leadership?