I am a lover and maker of soup. I don’t know why, but I have a unique ability to take a wide variety of ingredients and blend them into a delicious bowl of scrumptiousness. Whether it be from leftovers or the result of a special trip to the produce section of the grocery store, the soups I make are typically a welcome part of a great meal. Some of my team members at work refer to me as the “soup guy” because I often heat up a serving of homemade soup for lunch. Great soup is the skillful blending of the right ingredients, done with care, and with a delicious end in mind. Leadership is the same as soup.
My three favorite leadership theories are transformational, authentic and servant. When I began to get serious about learning what makes great leaders great leaders, I found that it was the characteristics of these three that really caught my attention and excited me, making me want to become the best leader I could be. Transformational leadership is just as it sounds. These leaders have the ability to transform people, organizations, and circumstances into something different from what they once were. They do this by engaging with people and creating connection that raises the level of motivation and moral focus. Authentic leaders are known to be genuine and real, self-aware, honest, relational, compassionate, and transparent. Servant leaders are all of the characteristics of being authentic, but their most prominent behavior is that they put the good of others first in virtually every circumstance. They serve first. Authentic and servant leaders both share a significant characteristic as well, humility, which means that they are God and others-focused.
I like to think that the kind of leader I try to be is a blending of the characteristics of all three leadership theories described above. I want to be transformational and I am committed to being an authentic and servant leader, putting others first, entirely self-aware of my strengths and weaknesses, and doing it all knowing that it’s not about me. It’s my “leadership soup.”
Another recipe for leadership soup is found in a fantastic 2006 article from Winston and Patterson, An Integrative Definition of Leadership. It’s a comprehensive article which is worth reading, though it is one for which you’d better carve out some significant time so as to understand and internalize its content. The short version of their recipe states,
The leader demonstrates their commitment to the values of humility, concern for others, controlled discipline, seeking what is right and good for the organization, showing mercy in beliefs and actions with all people, focusing on the purpose of the organization and on the well-being of the followers, and creating and sustaining peace in the organization – not a lack of conflict but a place where peace grows.
I hope you’ll take a moment to think about the list of ingredients they have listed, then compare it to the characteristics your team members might list if they were asked to write down the recipe for the way they see you lead. I will do the same.
Lead well.