I don’t’ know when or where the phrase, “Get the lead out,” originated, but I’ve heard it all my life. Even though we do not know where it originated, we do know what it means. Lead is a heavy metal. We are all aware that weight slows a person down. So the phrase, “Get the lead out,” suggests we need to speed up, to move on, to get going as leaders. We need to get rid of the things that hinder our leadership.
Everything rises and falls on leadership. Without it people and organizations will never reach their full potential. While there are many aspects to leadership, I have found that leadership consists fundamentally of four things:
• Vision
• Strategy
• Motivation
• Serving
Vision is seeing what needs to be done; strategy is figuring our how to do it; motivation is persuading others to join you in the effort; serving is adding value to those who have joined you in the effort.
When I see a person in a leadership position failing in their leadership, it is usually because their leadership is hindered in one or more of these four areas. Ask yourself, “What is it that is hindering my leadership?”
Everyone is capable of becoming a good leader, but they’ll have to get the lead out. Becoming a leader isn’t easy. Anyone who claims otherwise is fooling himself. But learning to lead is a lot easier than most of us think. We must learn to catch and cast vision, develop a strategy for achieving that vision, then motivate and serve others as you are working together making the vision a reality.
Learning is not enough however. Leaders are people who know what to do and they do it, even if it’s hard. Leadership eventually comes down to that. So, get the lead out and as the Nike slogan goes, “Just do it.”
