BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN PEOPLE

When I did a skype interview at the beginning of this year, the subject shifted to Leadership because of the book and the workshop Unleashing Leadership. And of course, one of the first questions that I was asked was the traditional question, “So what is a leader? How do you define a leader?”

“A leader is someone —anyone— who brings out the best in people.”

I think that answer caught the interview off-guard because he followed that question up with the why question, “Why do you say that?”

“Because leaders lead people to take action, to work together, to collaborate, to do together as a unit what cannot be done individually. So leaders can piont the way, even pioneer the way, offer ideas, suggestions, solutions, etc., but leaders work with people, groups of people and so they have to bring out the best in people or people won’t want to be a part of things. That’s why.”

The interviewer said, “Okay, that makes sense.” But the way he said it suggested to me that he was still iffy about this view of leadership.