Lead from Where You Are Already Standing

By pulling each seed we’ve been able to identify from our adversities Cindy and I have become better equipped for dealing with whatever challenge we face next, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily been easier. Even while using the influence we’ve earned with individual leaders and their organizations as a primary metric of our harvest from those seeds, the times most people would look at as relief have been few and far between. But that direct measure of influence has only been part of the metric.

We often present to groups where a large portion of our audience have no direct reports. For years, we’ve opened those sessions by asking for a show of hands from everyone in the room who has leadership responsibility. You can almost set your watch by it. (That’s an analogy for anyone old enough to know how to set an analog watch…) The folks who raise their hands have people reporting to them and those who don’t almost never raise theirs. Inevitably, some of those who don’t see themselves as “leaders” have some sort of customer facing role - be that internal customers or the actual customers making the cash register ring. That gives us an open door to emphasize how influence is earned through providing someone with support through a scenario they could navigate as well on their own. That service, and the influence it earns with the individual, is the essence of leadership.

I started this process by sharing a broad idea and asked you to think about all the seeds that may still be hidden in the adversities you’ve faced over the years. Then step by step, I built what I hope has served as a chain detailing how the adversities I’ve faced - and pulling whatever seed I could find in each - has helped me be more prepared for the next. Most recently, I warned against allowing bitterness to prevent you from realizing the full legacy you’re capable of: your true harvest. Through this framework, the six steps and running them through a real situation of your own, my goal has been to hand you the tools for connecting the dots in your own series so profitability, purpose, values, and relationships can converge into the influence you earn.

You do not need the next title, the next room, or the next clean season. You lead from the spot you’re already in, with the only two things I mentioned as being in your control from the very beginning of all this: your attitude and your actions. And as I said then, even those are often damn hard to control. Making the best of your bad situations is not about just surviving and it’s not about a prettier ending. It’s a way to lead, starting today, from the role you’re in, the shift you’re currently assigned to, or the unpaid extra mile you’re already on. Before I task you with one last set of questions as “homework,” look back at what you listed as we began working through this framework and write one simple sentence detailing how you will lean in it over the next month - from where you’re already standing.