3 Easy Ways to Know the Quality of Your Leadership
The following three questions form three quick shoulder checks you can do.
As with all self-assessment, there are limits on how accurate it will be. But my guess is as you work through these questions in the next few minutes you’ll know a lot more about your leadership than you might predict.
And, lastly, a quick note. This post (like almost all posts on this blog) assumes you want to lead better now and steward the leadership gift that God has given you. If you don’t, you’ll push back against these questions. I get that. But if you care about leadership, as difficult as the answers to these questions might be, you will want to answer and act.
So, to gauge your leadership, as honestly as you can, answer these three questions:
1. Is Anyone Following You?
One of the best ways to tell whether you’re a leader is simply this: Look over your should to see if anyone’s following.
If no one’s following (or only a few are), you’re really not leading.
It doesn’t matter how many leadership books you read, how many webinars you do or how grandiose your vision might be, a leader without followers is not actually a leader.
While we all get touchy about this in leadership, the reality is effective leaders lead people. (This post explains why some leaders have a higher number of followers than others.)
So who is following you? Be honest.
2. Who’s Following You?
That you have followers is one thing, but the next thing to check is the kind of person following you.
High capacity leaders will attract other high capacity people.
The caliber of the people around you points to the caliber of leader you are.
Again, this isn’t always a fun question to answer, but it can become a spring board to progress.
If you don’t like what you find, ask yourself why higher capacity leaders don’t follow your lead.
