Leadership must be as inspirational, elevated and worthwhile as possible.

Lots of films do its praise, like The Gladiator, 300, The Last Samurai, The Lord of the Rings, Dead Poets Society, Sully, Braveheart, and if we want to extend the list to personal leadership, then there is The Pursuit of Happiness, Jerry McGuire, Working Girl, Erin Brockovich, The Devil Wears Prada, among so many others.
And do we see this honesty, courage, respect, sense of justice in business? Sometimes. I will soon get to these good, praiseworthy and exemplary exercises of leading, managing and developing people that I value.

We often hear words like “my hierarchy”, “my boss”, “my superior” in companies and none of them seem to remind me of the high-standard and differentiating behaviour that I associate with Leadership. And it’s a shame.

Leadership implies first of all looking inward: extending your self-analysis to all aspects of yourself, doing a CAT scan, or rather, an MRI, so that we can make the very best of other people, the people we serve, resonate in themselves. Yes, leadership, as I see it, is to serve, and we can only do it at our best level when we also seek in our inner selves our sense of service, our mission, our Purpose.

I don’t believe in expert leaders or leadership experts. I even think that the word “expert” expressed before or after any other word or phrase raises a misunderstanding that we should not entertain.

There are no experts in leadership, there are just people who are there with you every day, in your company, in your family, conducting your projects and teams, and who, in their leadership role, train more and more to be better skilled on these matters. And in this search, they are moved by a special concern, deep down inside they know that “if we live in acomfort zonetoo long… that becomes your norm. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.” (David Goggins, I recommend goggling him)

Simon Sinek is one of those scholars (not specialists), a consultant and speaker who works with leadership in companies and who inspires us when he shares his side B understanding of leadership (B because it promotes useful reflections on our side A, the one we exercise daily, sometimes even in autopilot).

Sinek has a beautiful video of an interview in which he talks about the importance of consistency. Although this concept is not new for any performance, growth or personal improvement, the truth is that it surprises in the way it disassembles this dimension. I will try to paraphrase what he says: “consistency are those little innocuous things that you do every day without exception, until one day you suddenly start to see results that seem unexpected. Going to the gym for 8 hours does not get you into shape. You get into shape with the daily repetition/consistency of working out several times on a regular basis.” Actually, and I extend this example: we are not generous because of a single random act of kindness. We are generous when generosity is consistently part of our daily lives: generosity towards a colleague at work, the team, a stranger on the street, ourselves (!) when we take a few minutes to appease ourselves.

And in leadership, listening to other people, creating a connection, having the courage to show your vulnerabilities and say “I don’t know”, let others shine and grow, recognise good work, support and guide when others perform badly. All these aspects and many more only reveal themselves as idiosyncratic features of a person’s “kit” when they are consistently put into action.

I confess that I often fall asleep dreaming of how to reinvent myself the next day in this noble and demanding journey of leadership, and I wake up the next day with a firm conviction similar to that of the Portuguese Nicola coffee packages that say “Today is THE day…” and I complete it in my mind: …to update my people management, to do something good that makes others happy with themselves.

Here is a challenge for you: think about your world, the people you meet, the ambitions and dreams you have for yourself, your (personal) leadership… What do you think today is THE day for…?