The Hardest Person You Will Ever Lead

I have led soldiers. I have led teams at big companies. I have led churches. And I can tell you the hardest person I have ever had to lead is the one in the mirror.

Nobody warns you about that part. We spend a lot of money on leadership training that teaches us how to handle other people. Very little of it teaches us how to handle ourselves.

Here is what 40 years taught me. You cannot ask a team to do what you will not do. If you are late, they will be late. If you cut corners, they will cut corners. People do not follow your speech. They follow your habits.

I learned that the hard way. There was a stretch of my life where I was telling other people how to live while my own house was a mess. I was good on a stage and sloppy off it. That gap always catches up with you. Mine caught up with me.

What turned it around was not some big dramatic moment. It was small stuff, done over and over. Getting up when I said I would. Keeping the little promises nobody was tracking. Saying sorry fast when I was wrong. Boring things. But boring things are what build a leader.

Discipline gets a bad name. People hear the word and think punishment. That is not what it is. Discipline is deciding one time, so you do not have to argue with yourself every single morning. It is a gift you hand to your future self.

So before you go work on your team this week, go work on you. Pick one promise you keep breaking to yourself and keep it for seven days. That is all. Seven days. You will be surprised how much of your authority comes back when you do.

If you want to go deeper on this, come find me at herbadkins.com.