What Do You Expect From A Leader?

Good leaders are sometimes hard to come by. In our frustration to find the best we often times settle for much less and replace our expectations with hopeful fantasy. Do you expect a leader to beat their chest and criticize others or do you expect a leader to be someone who motivates others to work side by side for the good of the whole? Do you look for someone who takes the quick route to the top and takes credit for the work of those who actually put in the hours, the sweat, and the creativity to help build a team’s success, or do you look for someone who started at the bottom and worked their way to the top based on their accomplishments and ability to work with the entire team to achieve the mission? Do you look for a leader who collects the rewards from everyone’s efforts for themselves or do you expect that everyone should benefit from the work they invested into the collective effort? Do you look for a leader that reflects badly on who you are as a member of the team or do you look for a leader who makes you feel proud to be represented by them?

As a member of the team what are your expectations of yourself? Are you willing to hold yourself to the same expectations you have in a leader? Are you willing to step up and work to support the whole team? Are you prepared to look yourself in the mirror with a critical eye each morning and tell yourself what you need to do better that day, and do it?

We are all one team. Sometimes finding a leader that is deserving of the title is difficult simply because we have allowed ourselves to lower our standards and settle for what we get. Great teams never settle. They set the bar high and continue to go after that goal until the mission is accomplished. And great teams never feel that their mission is truly accomplished because they know success is an ongoing target.