Are you leading for the right reasons?
Why are you in, or aspiring to be in, a leadership position? What is your motive [motivation]? Do you know? Are you willing to acknowledge it?
Many people strive to become ‘leaders’ for the accolades and rewards that come with the position, but abdicate the responsibilities that also come with the position.
What makes for a great leader is somebody who is not only clear why they want to lead, but when their motive for leading is to enrich the lives of others before enriching their own.
Patrick Lencioni’s latest book, The Motive, helps current and aspiring leaders to wrestle with the question of why they want to lead. And once they are clear about their motive they can make better choices, including whether a leadership role is truly what is best for them and the people they lead.
Lencioni suggests that at the most fundamental level, there are only two motives that drive people to become leaders. First, they want to serve others, to do whatever is necessary to bring about something good for the people they lead. Second—the all-too-common but invalid one—is that they want to be rewarded. They see leadership as the prize for years of hard work and are drawn by its trappings: attention, status, power, and money.
Lencioni stresses that when leaders are motivated by personal reward, they will avoid the unpleasant situations and activities that leadership requires. Reward-centered leaders operate under the assumption that their role should be convenient and enjoyable—so they delegate, abdicate, or ignore situations that only the leader can address, leaving a painful and destructive vacuum.
On the other hand, responsibility-centered leaders believe that being a leader is a responsibility; therefore, the experience of leading should be difficult and challenging (though certainly not without elements of personal gratification and fulfillment).
In The Motive Lencioni suggests that the omission of one or all of the following responsibilities of leaders may be an indication of an improper motive for leading:
- Developing the Leadership Team
- Managing Subordinates (and Making Them Manage Theirs)
- Having Difficult and Uncomfortable Conversations
- Running Great Team Meetings
- Communicating Constantly and Repetitively to Employees.
I encourage you to read The Motive before reading any other book on leadership. Until you are clear and resolved around your motive for leading it will be difficult, if not impossible, to become a great leader!
Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.