Q: Do you know all you need about your business to lead it to its full potential?

The Microsoft Corporation is big. Really big.  Around the turn of the millennium, Microsoft's founder and CEO overtook the Sultan of Brunei as the wealthiest man in the world.  His name is Bill Gates - you've probably heard of him.
 
Interestingly, Chairman Gates knows his stuff.  In the midst of running one of the world's largest corporations, he found time to dig into his business.
 
Gates doesn't just know leadership, he knows the guts of the business, down to the computer code, the language used to write computer programs. Former Microsoft executives tell stories about sweaty-palmed meetings with him in which he dissected computer code as easily as he led the meeting.
 
Knowing the guts of your business is an integral aspect of leading.  So is understanding those you lead at that same molecular level.

Q: Does your team know the details of the story you hope to create?

We all remember being in school and getting back a paper for a class with feedback like, "Make this better," or "This needs to be different."  It's hard to know what to do with that, isn't it? 
 
As we think more about strategy in our worklife it's important to remember that the better we define our goals and expectations, the better our team will follow. Naturally, simply asking them to "do better" or "produce more" doesn't provide enough direction.  
 
An integral part of strategy is knowing exactly what you want and where you are headed. Dream big, and dream in specifics.  The details will change on the journey, but they help unify us.  Sharing the specifics of your vision is one of the best actions a leader can take.

Q: Have you raised the capital needed to fund a committed, engaged team?

One of the requirements of leadership is having others be willing to follow you.  To get them to do so you must pay them what they're worth.  

No, I'm not talking about money or salary here.  I'm talking about the true currency of a leader:  Direction and Possibility.  These two sides of the same coin make up essential capital for a leader.

Direction: You've got to know where you're going.  Even if it is just "East!"  If you don't know where you're headed, then you're not really leading.  It's just wandering with you in front.

Possibility:  What will you find along the way?  A new land? Treasure?  Peace of mind?  Goals may even change over time, but if you don't have one to begin with they can't evolve.  

Q: If your team is ready to go, do they know where they're going?

Everything's impossible until you actually do it.  
 
During WWII, Easy Company had a platoon leader named Lt. Dick Winters. 
 
One of his first missions involved leading a small group of men to take out a cluster of four German howitzers manned by a whole platoon on Utah Beach. Winters directed some to lay down cover fire, some to flank with grenades, others to move around a hedge - one man even perched in a tree. A complete success, the battle is taught at West Point as a textbook example of strategy.  
 
Great leadership is more than simple motivation.  It involves planning, delegation and creativity. In other words, strategy.  Motivation is great and necessary.  But strategy allows our teams to funnel their motivation into reasoned, definable actions.

Q: Is the intellect of your work grounded in your spirit?

Remember the movie Robocop?  While more a pop-culture than meaningful film, there's an interesting conflict with the main character.  After his transformation into Robocop, the character of Murphy finds himself in a moral conflict.  More machine than man, he's been programmed to follow a prime directive that serves his creators rather than the greater good.

However, the spirit of Murphy is still deep inside him.  His values and purposes were different once before.  Eventually, his spirit breaks through and he is able to combine his new programming (head) with his original values (spirit).  This is necessary for the heroic defeat of the villains.

While this example is lighthearted, the problem is real.  Increasing our own intellect and the competencies of our teams is great.  But, the purposes and values behind our work, the spirit, gives us our reason for being here in the first place.

Q: What breakthrough can you imagine and engineer for your life?

Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s  contributions to a free America -- a country that he guided in a new direction, with a new set of possibilities.  It was Dr. King who imagined America as a place where a person is judged by their character's content.
 
The power of Dr. King's personality is undeniable.  Even when people had trouble believing in the dream, they believed in Dr. King.  People certainly knew where he wanted to go, a new America with a new level of freedom for everyone.  And, the possibility would have seemed unattainable had he not consistently believed in it himself.
 
Dr. King imagined and engineered a breakthrough.

Q: What becomes possible when you connect to the real reasons you do what you do?

Leading to me means expanding the capacity of ourselves and others to create breakthrough results. To do that fully we engage in four areas: heads, hands, heart and spirit.

The spirit part is often missed or misunderstood. It's the reason we do what we do. When we leave the spirit out of what we do, we leave the reason for doing it out as well.

The FIFA 2011 Women's World Cup Soccer Final between the United States and Japan provided a wonderful example. Throughout the tournament we saw plenty of instances of athletes using their heads (strategy and decision-making), hands (tactics and execution), and hearts (teamwork and connectedness). But the Japanese squad, playing for something larger than themselves, a nation recently ravaged by a tsunami, nuclear meltdown and economic disaster, displayed their true spirit in the final minutes that seemed to elevate their play...all the way to the World Cup title.

Usually our reflections focus on things missing, where our reach exceeds our grasp. More prosperity, peace, health. More. Different. Better.

May I offer something better, a better question?   Try this one - what are you doing, today and every day, to express your gratitude for the blessings in your life?

Theologian and philosopher C.S. Lewis once said that our greatest fear and our greatest desire is to be known.  To really be known we must break down the walls separating our "outside" selves and our "inside" selves.  So, what would that look like?
 
Well, it might look something like Roberto Benigni on Oscar night in 1998.  Benigni won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for Life Is Beautiful.  When his name was called, Roberto's walls fell away: he jumped on seats, shook strangers' hands, hopped up the stairs like a little boy and, in heavily accented English, spoke profusely about joy and gratitude.  Everyone watching him immediately knew Roberto Benigni inside and out.
 
Letting our walls fall away to be truly known can be scary.  But, the less we hold our true selves back the better others can know us and the better we can know ourselves.  And, we get even closer to real breakthough leading.
 
(Want to see falling walls for yourself?  Watch here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cTR6fk8frs)

Q: Your family knows your job title, but do they know what you accomplish with your genius?

So, how's work?"  It's a question we may have heard many times over the past few days.  With the holidays coming soon, answering questions about our work might be common for a while.  

Why do we fall into stock answers that don't really tell the stories of our work lives?  After all, aren't family members included as our stakeholders? Stakeholders don't have to work with us; they're just folks who affect and are affected by our work.  

Your non-work stakeholders such as family and friends can learn a great deal by knowing the source of your professional purpose. In the coming holidays we'll have opportunities to expand our personal narratives with others. We can even seek to move past mere job titles and explore the passion and purpose of our careers.