Building Signifcance: The only way to Lead

As you build your leadership skills, it’s important to remember that why you lead is as important as whom you lead.  Leading for the benefit of others is much more compelling and powerful motivation than leading merely to get ahead or to hit an arbitrary target. 

Are you building significance?

Every leader is building significance in some way (some positive and some negative). This significance creates legacy. Part of our purpose in life is to build a legacy – a consistent pattern of building into lives of others.  A leader that is deliberately, intentionally, and proactively influencing others in a positive way is building significance.  It’s marking a difference in the lives of others. 

It’s Joshua standing on the banks of the Jordan River, feeling anxious and inadequate and realizing that he is being called to do something that will make a difference in the lives of the people he is being called to lead. – James Brown from Role of a Lifetime: Reflections on Faith, Family, and Significant Living.

As you begin to contemplate how to build significance in your life and to those you lead, consider the following self-reflecting questions:

 -       Evaluate your integrity: Are your actions consistent with your words?

-       Evaluate your impact: Are you making lives better?

-       Evaluate your perspective: How do you see people?

-       Evaluate your goals: Are you building relationships, or are your building a tower to climb to the top?

-       How does your leadership style need to change so that people will flourish and grow around you?

-       What people influence you?  What impact have they made on you and the way you lead?