Whether we are talking about our personal or our professional development and performance, both leadership and culture will define whether we are going to Win or Lose. [FastCompany article above]
“Leadership gets us to a better state, and Culture duplicates our best in the lives of others, improving results and influencing every area they touch. There is no legacy without them.” -edj
These next two quotes define everything. Seriously. Both of these quotes are favorites of mine that I’ve learned directly from John and Ivan, who have been mentors of mine.
“Everything rises and falls on leadership.” – John C. Maxwell
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” – IvanMisner.com, BNI (podcast)
These are true in our personal and home lives for starters. Everything in our lives starts with us, our self-management. Personal leadership is the core, and it is critical to every breakthrough we experience. We are likely already aware of how much we can get in our own way, and how necessary continual growth, learning, and improvement are to our successes. Regardless of our personal strengths and intentions, we cannot be the best version of “self” in our own lives, or for those closest to us at home, until we realize we must choose to “be” the right/best person in each moment and place along our journey. Without it, we often see losing results in our personal lives that tend to repeat until corrected. Once we chose to be the best version of ourselves we undoubtedly elevate the culture in our personal and home lives that fosters continued growth and successes all around us.
You can have the best strategies and still fail due to a broken culture that cannot support your goals, or unite to address the challenges that will surely come. But even if you’re strategy is off, a strong culture will rally to make the necessary adjustments and overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals. [see Inc.]
The impact of positive leadership and culture in our personal lives not only makes us better, but it elevates the lives of those closest to us, and it reaches into future generations that we pour our better selves into. That’s the beginning of legacy. -edj
Whatever we face in life, our personal brand (integrity), and our treasured relationships are what matter most. Whether we make it “big” or not, or live long enough to see the results of our efforts, there will be few regrets when we are first true to who we really are, and are in good relationship with the people we are privileged to share life with. This is where we begin to become a #DifferenceMaker and this takes an intentional focus on leadership and culture development in everything we do.
Winning and losing can be seen everywhere in organizational leadership and culture. [HBR article] We find winning and losing examples in our marketplace, government, faith, and other institutions across every country on the planet. We need to identify and applaud the leadership that is consistently producing better results, where positive culture is being duplicated within the people it is influencing.
The challenge we find is that positive results and influence require those individuals (above) that have been willing to pay the personal price to become the best versions of themselves. That is rare. These leaders tend to be willing to personally sacrifice and are willing to serve into the lives of others, rather than be served. They lead their people to a better state and duplicate the best of themselves into the lives of their people. These leaders bring out the best in others and elevate the culture around them. They are #DifferenceMakers and tend to exemplify the best of humanity in every area of their lives, and it takes effort – a lot of intentional effort.
Nobody is perfect. It’s ok to be in training. It’s ok to be in-process. We all are. And each of us can focus on improving one or two areas of our life at a time until individually we can say, ‘I Love My Life’. [Ed Decosta, LinkedIn article and video]
Be a Difference Maker. Be a champion of leadership, positive change and culture development. We all want to win. Nobody enjoys losing. And we can make the difference in our own lives and the lives of those around us – at home, in our communities and organizations that we serve – even nationally or globally.
It’s going to take courage to be the best “you” and achieve each breakthrough in your life and accomplishments. You can do it, and when you do, you can elevate the level of leadership and culture around you, influencing the lives of others in small and great ways for the better. And that begins to create your legacy.
Originally published on LinkedIn.
