20 Life (Not Business) Lessons For Leaders

Leadership exists on three levels: personal, organizational, and global – and we achieve them in that order. We cannot lead others unless we first lead our own lives with some sense of order, perspective, connectedness, and purpose.

That axiom underpinned all my teaching (two graduate leadership courses, 15 years) and leadership advisory (corporate across 25 industries, 27 years). We, one and all, had to commit to understanding our own personal situations first, then that of others whom we chose to lead. It was not negotiable.

That understood, here are 20 lessons to live by – in no special order – that speak to the individual in a personal way and a spiritual sense. There are no guarantees, but the more of these that are embedded in your personal life, he more likely you are to elevate yourself as well as those around you. The evidence is not empirical; it is anecdotal. And irrefutable.

1. Determine to be interested in, fascinated by, and in awe of everything around you – large and small – always. G. K. Chesterton said, “We are perishing for lack of wonder, not for lack of wonders.” If you let yourself be interested, fascinated, and awed, you will be become interesting, fascinating, and awesome.
2. Get out of your comfort zone – and stay out of it. Whatever you believe in doing, go for it. You’ll have plenty of time in your comfort zone after you die.
3. Aim high. Michelangelo said, “The danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”
4. Never give up. Thomas Edison said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
5. Don’t be afraid to make decisions. All you can be is wrong. So what? In most cases, even  wrong decisions are better than no decisions at all. And you learn from them. Mistakes, provided they are not too frequent, are splendid teachers.
6. Do things for others as much as you possibly can. And if you do this with no expectation of anything in return, you’ll do it for the right reason.
7. Learn something new every day. From the Japanese concept of Kaizen, we learn that small daily improvements eventually result in large growth.
8. Work at excellence but look for luck. “Chance favors the prepared mind,” said Louis Pasteur, one of history’s great achievers. He knew the relationship between the two.
9. Be curious. More important than thinking you have the answers is knowing you have the questions.
10. Be daring. Albert Einstein said, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has  tried anything new.” So stick your neck out.
11. Don’t expect life to be fair. But be fair to others anyway. Thank you, Mother Teresa, for that advise.
12. Create something. Play music, take up art or sculpture,   a garden, or learn to cook. There is nothing more exhilarating than creating something. Nothing!
13. Solve your own problems. Nobody else will or even can.
14. Find a reason to laugh and smile every day of your life. Then laugh and smile every day of your life. People who do – are happier, more productive, and live longer, healthier lives. And they make the world better.
15. Keep educating yourself. You’ll fulfill yourself, enjoy yourself, and even like yourself. Then find an opportunity to teach and mentor others. That’s when you figure out why you’re really on this planet.
16. Practice gratitude. It’s not enough to be grateful. Show it and, further, do things to deserve it.
17. Resolve to be successful, happy, and meaningful. But don’t confuse the three. They are entirely different things – and they’re in hierarchical order in this aphorism.
18. Work ahead. One step in advance is longer than ten steps taken to catch up.
19. Make time to slow down, “unplug,” look around, and think. Time is precious, and we need to use it more wisely, not necessarily more efficiently all the time.
20. And finally, say “What if?” Say it a lot. You’ll amaze yourself when you start answering that question. You see, the world is either an endless flow of possibilities or a limited choice  between probabilities. It’s your decision.