Are You Just Making Money or Making a Difference?

 In a recent leadership class, I had attendees fill out a “Most Influential Person Survey". This exercise asks you to identify a person who had a significant impact on your life and what they did that had such an influence. It could be someone who impacted you long ago or is doing so today. Many former bosses, coaches, teachers, friends, and current supervisors appear on this list. It’s interesting to note the people who most positively influence and impact us are never those who are easy on us, who let us slack, who turn their heads and pretend like we’re performing when we’re not. Instead, according to almost every attendee, the most influential person in his or her life stretched them, doled out tough love, held them accountable, saw the best in them, and wouldn’t settle for less. The most influential people are those who teach us, model solid character, and take us farther than we thought we could go.

I also have the attendees imagine everyone they’ve ever managed, led, or influenced during their career is gathered in the room to complete the Most Influential Survey. How many of their former or current subordinates would place them on the list? I ask, “Are you maintaining your people or stretching them?” “Are you bringing out their best or letting them get by?” “Are you just making money or are you making a difference?” The room often gets quiet.

If you continue to manage the way you are and I gather your people together five years from now, how many times would you end up on the list?

As leaders, we must end up on the list. A leader’s job is to stretch, develop, nudge, and cajole people toward their potential. Maintainers in management are easy to find and cheap to keep. They impact no one. They add value to nothing. They merely keep people and their organizations humming along in the status quo. They don’t lead, they preside, and in doing so, they abandon their position. One of the greatest betrayals of leadership is to thwart the potential of those in your charge.

So, how about you? Who are you impacting? Who would put you on the Most Influential Person Survey? Are you satisfied with success or motivated by significance? Are you driven by ego or by a calling?

The true measure of your influence will not be how far you go and how much you get. It will be how many people you bring with you. After all, if you’re just in it for yourself, you’re in a mighty small business.