(Today is question #3 of 7 from my re-reading of John Maxwell’s book, Good Leaders Ask Great Questions, along with an excerpt from the book. Take time to not only reflect on the questions but to answer them.)

3. Am I Grounded As A Leader?
A Question of Stability
Just as leaders are vulnerable to acting for their own personal advantage, they are also susceptible to having an overblown sense of their own importance.
That’s why they need to remain grounded.
What do I mean by that?
Good leaders need to exhibit three important qualities:

Humility: Understanding Your Place in Light of the Bigger Picture

Leaders can start to think everything is about them – especially when their team or organization is winning. The greater the accomplishment, the greater the need to check their egos. That’s why it’s so important that they remain grounded. The most important quality of a well-grounded person is humility. Humble leaders are comfortable with who they are and feel no need to draw attention to themselves. They revel in the accomplishment of others, empower others to excel, and allow others to shine.

Authenticity: Being Comfortable in Your Own Skin

If you are a leader, your goal is to lift people up, not have them lift you up. If you allow people to put you on a pedestal or if you minimize your faults and accentuate your successes, you create what I call the Success Gap. That’s a perceived distance between successful people and those who are less successful. Inauthentic people enjoy that gap, authentic leaders work hard to close that gap.

Calling: Having a Purpose That is Bigger than You

A dream is something you really want to do, but a calling is something you have to do. Look at the lives of people like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., and Steve Jobs. They were people who felt compelled to do their life’s work. Work isn’t work unless you’d rather be doing something else.

I never want to become a leader so full of himself that he becomes unable to fulfill his purpose.

~Evolution of Self
#stability #humility #authenticity #calling #purpose #leaders #mondaymotivation