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5 Concepts a Boss Must Embrace for Effective Leadership
“That debris could have killed her. I was here today to make sure that didn’t happen.”
“Pull over, pull over now!” he demanded. My Sergeant and I were on our way back from a military exercise driving on a public highway. I pulled over. He hopped out, dragged the debris from the road, hopped back in, and we left.
As a new guy just learning leadership, I asked him why he didn’t just wait for the state DOT to handle it. He said “because leaders don’t wait for other people to do what needs to be done. As soon as I saw that debris it became my responsibility. If I can do it safely without putting others at more risk then I must do it. Besides doing the right thing, maybe someone’s grandma is 10 miles behind us with slow reaction skills. That debris could have killed her. I was here today to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Leadership isn’t a title, it’s a mindset. The mindset above is what leaders are made of.
Extreme ownership of everything that takes place in your world is one of the concepts that makes a leader excellent.
As a leader in various military, corporate, and volunteer settings for 25 years, I’ve seen how a few critical concepts, when adopted, can turn a leader from average to excellent.
