Recently, I listened to a Ted Talk by Dominic Price, who by trade is a self-proclaimed Work Futurist. He looks at trying to predict the future in terms of work, education, and the economy. However, in this Ted Talk, the presentation wasn’t as much about the future of work given the shift to work from home, or how valuable education really is to creating a successful life for an individual. His talk was solely on happiness.
He discussed his life, explaining the successes he’s had in terms of financial wealth and fame, and compared it to that of his sister’s, who was not able to flaunt financially, or who wouldn’t be recognized by anyone when walking down the street. But as a result of COVID-19, and the dramatic shift that happened in our world, Dom began to evaluate what true happiness stemmed from. And it led him to creating the Personal Morale Inventory.
Dom, pulling inspiration from both the world of finance, and the military, began to trademark what he thought were four key things that contribute to our happiness. They are as follows:
Productivity and Profit - work and financial independence
People - looking at your relationship with yourself, and with others
Planet - related to your carbon footprint you leave on the Earth
Purpose - your “why”
When explaining his Personal Morale Inventory, he described that in each category, a person could receive a -1 (needs improvement), 0 (you were okay in this area), and 1 (excellent job). There is no opportunity to gain more than 1, or less than -1, as he says, “there is no amount of wealth that makes you happier”. He further talked about how the goal of this exercise isn’t to add up all your numbers for a final score. Instead, your goal should be to have a 1 in each category at the time of reflection.
This got me thinking. Often, leadership is defined by wins and losses, or dollars and cents. But so much of leadership goes far beyond these metrics, and evaluating based on this, would only crown a handful of successful leaders. Only one team can win the championship at the end of the year.
So how do we look to measure our leadership, outside of performance based metrics? We look to create a Leadership Benchmark; a set of standards we will operate in, in areas that we deem critical for success. If Dom can define happiness, a very difficult, broad emotion, in such a basic exercise, surely we can do the same with leadership.
Below is what I believe to be the four key things that contribute to leadership success.
Empowerment - how we create an environment that allows others to feel valued by having meaningful tasks, and help them reach their full potential
Connection - how we are able to relate with our players or employees, and build true relationships that do not have an agenda
Development - this one is a two-parter. How do we develop ourselves as leaders, to ensure we are consistently searching for new ideas, to be the best version of ourselves, for the people we lead. And how do we develop our players or employees, to allow them to be the best version of themselves, and help them reach their personal and professional goals.
Communication - how do we create standards for how communication is done. As a CEO, is all your communication via email, where there is little human interaction, or do you meet in person, showing to your people that you prioritize human interaction? As a coach, do you constantly yell instruction or feedback, or do you have level-headed conversations, proving to your players that correct execution or not, interactions will be conversations instead of orders?
The scoring system for this exercise would be identical to that of Price’s. It is not a sum-game, or looking to hit that double digit number in a specific category. Instead, it is an opportunity to evaluate ourselves in four key areas of leadership, constantly striving to have a 1 in each category.
There will be times where certain categories lack, and you did not live up to that 1. But the beautiful thing about failure, with reflection, can create growth opportunities, to help us score that 1 again. And when we are consistently achieving excellence in each category, the wins and losses, or dollars and cents will take care of themselves. The old saying, “take care of the cents, the dollars take care of themselves”, has never been more applicable.
And to end this, I challenge you, the leader, to think of what 4 key aspects of leading you find to be critical, that when done well, will propel you on your journey of Gettin’ Over the Hump.
Think you know someone who wants to Get Over the Hump?