The Early Signs of Leadership

Our dog Maxy goes crazy whenever he sees me go near his lead.

And it seems like my habit of running him every day is having a knock-on impact on my family.

Over the last two weeks, both SJ and Ethan have started to run again.

I didn’t ask them to, they just decided to.

What I notice more and more in my work with leadership teams is when they focus on creating a conducive environment for better leadership or performance to happen, without an expectation that it will, more often than not, others step up to the challenge. Not because they have to, but because they want to.

And that’s what happened on Monday which caused both of me and SJ to have a quiet little parental high-five moment.

The daily run that I (now we) do has two options, a shorter option of around 3kms or a slightly longer course of around 4kms.

It’s at the 1.5km mark that a decision needs to be made, short or long. Not a seemingly hard decision, but a decision nevertheless.

When we reached this point on Monday SJ said she was going to take the shorter route because her right calf was sore.

She then said to Ethan, “You go off with dad and do the extra bit and catch me up on the way around, I’ll be fine.”

To which Ethan replied, without a moment of hesitation, “Mum, I’d rather not finish the run than finish without everyone.”

The early signs of a developing leader and a powerful approach that many leadership teams could benefit from adopting more often.

How will you make sure that everyone gets over the finish line together?