To or For

My friend, Chief Master Sergeant (deceased) Gene Gardner, once told me, “We, as leaders, can do only one of two things...we can do something TO our people, or we can do something FOR our people.” 

Now, I’m not very good at math, but I’m pretty sure that FOR is twice as much as TO! Yeah, a little play with words there.

Doing something TO your people is adversarial and produces little, if any, power. It may, if anything, create negative power. When you do something to someone, you’re imposing your own personal values on them, which may, or may not, be theirs. If they’re not, you’re in trouble, assuming you intend to lead them. They won’t follow. If they do, it won’t be for long.

Doing something FOR your people can empower them to be their best selves and empower YOU more than you can imagine. To do more FOR your followers you’ll need to get to know their values and their purpose, among other parts of their lives.

The best way to do something FOR people is to do it WITH them. At least at the beginning. You may have studied Dr Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership II model. If your followers need help, then, help them. When they're good enough to be on their own, then free them. As you do FOR them by doing WITH them, you’ll know when they’re read to be on their own. That’s freedom. And that’s what we all want. Good leaders give their followers the freedom to be themselves.

The end result of this process is having done something IN them. Noel M. Tichy says that, “The ultimate test for a leader is not whether he or she makes smart decisions and takes decisive action, but whether he or she teaches others to be leaders and builds an organization that can sustain its success even when he or she is not around.” When your followers have it in them to do what’s right, you won’t have to worry about doing anything to them. You’ve become an Effective Leader! A PowerPact Leader!

Do FOR your followers by doing WITH them. As you do WITH them, they’ll empower themselves to do IN them. Helping them develop the capacity to act effectively creates HEIRPOWER! I guarantee you, it’ll all add up! 

Until next time, 

Be GREAT! You ARE!

 

¡HEIRPOWER!