Who do you want greatness for?

Can we talk about greatness for a minute?

Now this isn’t a conversation we’d initially have in public. We’d need a quiet, calm, and private space to ask such an intimate question: who do you want greatness for?

The reason I call this an intimate question is because it makes you reveal something about the state of your heart that you might not be ready to honestly share with me (or anyone, including yourself).

I’d love to tell you that there is no right answer. But I think there is. I think the right answer is, “the people I lead.”

But that’s now how I act all the time. I try, every day, to focus on the development of greatness in the people I lead. But sometimes I catch myself living as if my answer is, “me.”

So how do I get past wanting the spotlight? Wanting the fame or the personal achievement? The answer may surprise you.

I simply start again. Sometimes it’s 3 times a day. Other times I go 2 weeks. Either way, my goal is to change the orientation of my thinking. I ask, “what do I want for this person, and how can I help them get there?”

And the more I focus on developing greatness in others, the more fun it is. And the greater impact I have.

That’s why I said I think there actually is a right answer – because as leaders we judge things by impact. I’ll always have more impact thru people than to people.

My suggestion, for all of us, is that we hang up our own cape and work with the ones our team wears.