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3 questions that every leader should ask him/herself

  • Wim Meinderts

Being the leader is a challenging role. Next to leading the department you are quite often the linking pin with several departments. There are always challenges and opportunities and most leaders could work 24 hours a day and still have items on the action list. With the information and e-mails flying in and all the other distractions,  it becomes easy to lose focus on the real core of your leadership role.

To help regain focus, ask yourself the following 3 questions.

  • Why I am doing this?

It is important to habitually ask yourself this question. Why are you solving these problems? Why are you participating in this meeting? Why are you discussing  this proposal with your customer? Every time you are executing, you gain experience. But what about your team? How can your employees learn and grow? Is it really necessary that you are taking control? How would you feel if you give employees more room and accountability to solve their problems?

Leadership is never about the role, but always about the team. The core of leadership is to build teams that maximize their performance even without you being present. Employees only grow and gain experience if you let go.

  • Why would employees follow my lead? Why should employees follow me as a leader?

This is a simple question, but unfortunately there a not a lot of leaders that have the right answer. Why would employees follow your strategy? Why would employees stick to the new agreements? If your initial response is; ‘because I am the boss’ of ‘because management decided’, there is room for improvement. In the current time and age, employees are no longer automatically following their superiors based upon their position. Employees follow leaders that they respect, who inspire them and who they are connected with.

  • Why am I a leader?

For most leaders this is a tough question. Why did you end up in this position? If the answer is, because I was the Subject Matter Expert, this is not very logical. Being the SME does not automatically make you a great leader. If the answer is, because this was the only way to get a promotion, this is also not very inspiring. Why are you the leader? What do you want to accomplish?  What will be your legacy? It is important to have a clear answer on this question. It will help you to set the right priorities during the day and to avoid to being dragged in the continues flow of problems and challenges.

Are you interested in improving your level of leadership? Are you interested in getting the right answers and tools to lead your team and yourself?  Check out this training or contact us for more details.

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