I’ve worked with hundreds of leaders over the years — some were leaders in title only. Many were simply unable to infuse their enterprise with the necessary energy to deliver on vision, purpose, and goals. These so-called leaders could not get their people to commit, to go above and beyond, to care deeply about the organization. Their leadership was missing a fundamental element.
What element is that? It’s what provides the unswerving energy necessary for the enterprise to operate successfully. This part is vital: it can only come from leadership, and when it’s absent, it’s noticeable. That element is the essence of leadership.
The definition of essence is “the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something abstract, that determines its character.” It can also be described as quintessence, soul, spirit, nature, heart crux, nucleus, substance, and principal. Requiring leadership as the essence of the enterprise directs leaders to look at themselves more honestly and critically.
If you held leadership as the essence — the soul, the spirit, the core of the company — how would that affect your thinking and actions as a leader?
If you maintained that as the leader, you are the crux, nucleus, and substance of your enterprise, how would that change your thinking about yourself as a leader?
If you are the essence, then you are the spirit of the company that manifests in every area and in every individual at the company. Is your spirit generating an esprit de corps?
If the company were an unbiased reflection of your character, how would that impact your view of yourself as a leader? As a human being?
What Makes a Successful Leader?
Highly successful leaders hold this belief: That they are the essence of their company. They fully understand and embrace they are the context-generators, understanding that context is decisive. Great leaders accept that they are are the field — as in quantum mechanics, wherein the field is the primary determinant. In metaphysical vernacular, great leaders come from a place where they are the space in which the company really materialized.
The bottom line: really successful leaders hold themselves wholly and fully responsible.
Leaders know the company is the personification of their values, principles, and character. Those values, principles and character are always implicit in the leader’s words and actions. Leaders are the nucleus from which the company grows.
Another definition of essence: a property or group of properties of something without which it would not exist or be what it is. If leadership is the essence, it determines how the company operates; how it exists in the world. Ultimately, leadership determines how the brand expresses itself.
Radar out, radar back. Whatever the leader is putting out, the company is reflecting right back. Wherever a leader goes in the company, there they are — reflected in every person, project, and process.
As the leader, can you wake up every morning with the belief that you are the soul, the spirit, the heart, the crux, the nucleus of the company? How would that influence your thinking and actions? How would that influence how you speak and listen?
Whatever you are putting out as the leader, you are getting right back. If you are the essence of your company, that essence is reflected in every other person’s communication, performance, and culture.
It All Begins With You
Maintaining the belief that you are the essence of your enterprise is difficult and uncomfortable. Many external elements want to knock you out the box. People, market conditions, bureaucracy, regulations, the board of directors investors, customers — everyone and everything. But, like or not, you’re the leader.
When you hold that you as the leader are the true essence of the company, the first place to look when it comes to performance, results, and relationships is at yourself.
As a leader, consider that you are the essence of your company; you are the atoms of the company’s molecules. You are the DNA that’s replicated over and over; your messenger RNA is sending that essence out into every other cell in the company.
Observe this Lesson of Leadership: “Leadership is the essence,” and see what difference that makes to your enterprise and your people.
— Marc
Excerpt from “The Business Book of Wisdom,” available in March 2019.
Read more about leadership here.
