With this post I want to start a new series which will take a good long look at what leaders actually do. Not what they talk about or what they tell others to do, but what they actually do, because, as I have trumpeted in past writings, behavior and actions matter. If someone wants to truly be a leader, they must back up their words with action. The people we lead are watching, and if our behavior doesn’t match our words, we have no credibility and we lose the right and opportunity to be an effective leader. The old adage of “Do what I say, not what I do” is about as hypocritical and useless for a leader as it gets. So, with that said, let’s begin to look at the behaviors of true and effective leaders. Let’s study what they do.
I’ve quoted Walt Disney encouraging us to “live life as a grand adventure,” which I believe begins with the first thing that leaders do…dream. Bruce Wilkinson has written a great little book, The Dream Giver (2003), in which he tells the story of a character who sets out on a journey to discover and live their dream. One of the early statements made impressed me because it deals with how we, as dreamer-leaders, have to come to a point of decision between living the normal and comfortable life like most people or jumping into the world of risk and going after our dream. The statement is, “He could either keep his comfort or his dream.” How often do gifted and able people decide to play it safe with their lives and miss out on the life they could have had, if they had only been willing to take some risks. Instead of living their dream, they settle for far less than what could be. How sad it would be to get to the end of our life journey and regret playing it safe. The Dream Giver also says, “Until you decide to pursue your dream, you are never going to love your life the way you were meant to.” To this I say amen!
I have been a dreamer all of my life. Ever since I was a child I have always been able to see things differently than those around me. If there is indeed a “beat of different drummer” to be heard, I was the first one to hear it. In fact, I often was in front of the band directing the beat itself. Unfortunately not everyone around me thought this to be a charming behavior on my part! I was often labeled as unrealistic, overambitious, and just plain weird! It made for a rather challenging childhood, particularly in junior high school, when most people did everything they could to march in lockstep with the status quo while I did everything I could to break out of the norm of what the crowd was doing! I wish I could say that I grew out of it and I fit in better now…but I don’t, though I’m not quite as obnoxious! I still pride myself in being the dreamer-visionary who can see things differently and one who runs full speed toward the dreams I see so clearly in my future.
One other statement in Wilkinson’s book is, “What you do is usually a result of what you actually believe.” Getting back to our discussion of behavior, I believe that our actions are really rooted in the belief we have in our values, our hopes, our mission, and especially our dreams. If we believe that we have a grand purpose for our lives and passionately pursue making our purpose a reality – if we truly have a dream we feel that we have no choice in life but to run toward, then our behavior will show it. I have people ask me why I do so much and why I don’t often seem content with the achievements I’ve had. The answer is because I always have a dream before me of something better. I love the things that my team and I have accomplished, but we can always take things to the next level. I never stop dreaming and you shouldn’t either. One of the things leaders do is dream.
Lead well.