Leadership begins on the Extra Mile

LEADERSHIP BEGINS ON THE EXTRA MILE

 

I had just dropped off my children at school and was driving to the office when I got an insight that made me pull over. So here I sit, off to the side of the road with my hazard blinkers on, hammering this out on my phone because I wanted to share it with you. The big idea: Leadership – and success – begins on the extra mile.

 

Leadership is shown when a sales person makes extra calls at the end of an exhausting day – not because it’s the easy thing to do but because it’s the right thing to do. Leadership is shown by the manager who finishes a report that has taken the very best from him, then goes back to it a little later to polish and improve it even more. Leadership is shown by a team that delivers on their value promise to a customer and then digs even deeper to wow them. And leadership is shown by the human being who fights the urge to stay under the covers on a cold day and throws on her running shoes to pound the pavement. Not because running miles on a frosty morning is fun. But because it’s wise.

 

Please think about this idea. I think it’s a deeply important one. Those among us who craft extraordinary careers and spectacular lives are those who spend most of their time giving their best out on the extra mile. Yes, ordinary people don’t spend much time on the extra mile. But who ever said you were ordinary?

 

“Ordinary people don’t spend much time on the extra mile. But who ever said you were ordinary?”