Lead

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LEAD

“THE change you want to see in the world starts with you.”

THE FIRST ABSOLUTE FOR LEADERS:

Remember the thrilling rush of freedom, the motivating jolt of pride, the first time you pedaled all alone on a two-wheeled bike? As you propelled yourself forward in that glorious moment there was, for most of us, someone looking on that made it possible. In their seemingly modest actions can be found the DNA of powerful leadership: a mode of being that is less about analytics and decision-making, and much more about aligning, motivating, and empowering others.

Your people drive financial performance: Who's on the bikes and how they feel is more important than where those bikes are going. The nearly irrefutable lesson gleaned from over a century of management theory and practice—a message reinforced by endless data and anecdotes from the great business gurus like Tom Peters and Jim Collins—is that great companies that get the people part right tend to get everything else right, too.

Fact is, we hyper-focus on numbers because numbers are, in a word, easy. They follow rules; they can be manipulated at will. People, well, not so much.

So here's the question. How do you get your people pedaling with that freedom and pride?

How do you get the people part right?

There's a story about Gandhi, ...