manager ≠ leader

Many people make the mistake of assuming you need to be a manager to be a leader when the reality is that everyone is leading all the time.

Leadership is our ability to influence the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others and take responsibility for the outcomes we produce.

A few things that would happen if everyone took responsibility for the gap between where they are and where they want to be:

  • People would ask more questions like, what would it take for me to do x, y, z, instead of a, b, c?
  • Teams would be able to reflect on things that didn’t go well just as effectively as they can reflect on things that have gone well.
  • We’d recognize that change can only happen when we take responsibility for our contribution to the current situation and minimize finger pointing.