Leadership can be exhilarating. When the team is winning, it feels incredible. When team members express their excitement for the mission, it is deeply satisfying. When customers are sending accolades, you are overwhelmingly proud. 

At its foundation, however, leadership is about accepting responsibility. It’s about being ultimately accountable for the productivity of a group creating much more than you could alone. 

If you are in a leadership role, this series is intended for you. 

This is a “table of contents” for this series. Feel free to read through or just give it a glance. I’ll dive more deeply into each one in the coming months! 

The reason we lead becomes the foundation for how we lead, ultimately determining what will come from our leadership. While our real motivations may be deep, nuanced, and even hidden, the business goals of leadership tend to be pretty straightforward. 

There are many times, however, when we need to push through hard work. Ultimately, our reason for doing the work needs to come from something deeper. 

Knowing our own personal motivation to lead is imperative.

To lead, you need to point your people in a common direction. Your team is undoubtedly a group of problem-solvers who fundamentally want to do a good job, and the best thing you can do is name the problem you want them to solve. Declare the vision. Tell them where you need them to go. By starting with a declaration of where you want to end up, you tap the power of multiple great brains figuring out how to get there. 

In my experience, the Vision should be co-created and not handed down “from up high.” If you are leading the entire organization, it’s critical that you tap into the diverse input of your team and lean into their collective wisdom.