A good friend of our organization, and a brother in leadership to me, Brad Lomenick just released a new book entitled H3 Leadership: Be Humble. Stay hungry. Always Hustle. I have not read the book yet, but I know Brad. I’d encourage you to grab a copy soon! Brad’s book is not the purpose of this post; however, a conversation I had with Brad about life and leadership is.
Brad and I were blessed to have a conversation about leadership in front of my teammates at our recent leadership retreat. We covered several topics that are important to the ways in which we live our lives. However, my world was rocked at a particular moment in the conversation. While I was channeling my inner Oprah Winfrey, I asked Brad to define leadership. His answer sharpened my view and blew my mind! He said:
“Leadership is all about building platforms for other people to stand on.”
WHOA! My mind was overwhelmed with questions:
- Who is standing on the platforms that I’ve been blessed to build?
- Why do I build platforms?
- With whom am I building the platforms?
- With what tools and resources am I building the platforms?
All of these questions flooded my mind in that powerful moment. I was both humbled and hungered by the aspiration that our world would be a much better place if leaders built platforms for others with the sole purpose of improving the human condition. What if “paying-it-forward platform leadership” was the norm? What if it was really about lifting up others?
I believe much of what embarrasses us about our nation’s culture is a direct result of decisions made by individual people who did not even consider others and their improvement in their process. What if we figured out a way to live our leadership in a way that provides platforms for others?
In order to live this type of leadership, I believe, we must be inclined to accept these two assumptions:
- We all have the capacity to build platforms. I firmly believe that each of us is hard-wired with gifts and talents (given to us at birth) that can be used to create something that the world needs. No human being is exempt from this gift.
- It’s not always about us. Humility is key to transformational leadership. If everything is about me and for my own pleasure; how do I expect to have anyone else want to join their talents and gifts with mine to create a platform that is greater than anything we could ever do alone? In order for us to experience abundance in leadership, we have to help others with their platforms and BELIEVE that ours will be a platform of influence and impact because we activated humility.
Talks with Brad are always refreshing. I’m thankful for him and his leadership. Now its time for me to get back to platform building and watch others soar!
Here’s to a new lens through which we can see our leading. Let’s go build platforms and seek out people to put on them.
Peace and Blessings,
Tim