“Don’t dance for the audience; dance for yourself.” – Bob Fosse

Some leaders allow things to happen, and some leaders make things happen (see last week’s conversation).  Obviously, as leaders, we want to be the ones making things happen.  That seems pretty simple.

What’s much less simple is this: what exactly do we want to happen?  It’s one thing to have a conversation about driving our organizations and leading and being successful and all that stuff, but what does that really mean?  What exactly are we trying to accomplish?

Too many leaders don’t really know the answer to that question.  I can’t answer it for you; it’s different for everyone and every business.  What I can say is that if you don’t know that answer, one will be provided for you, and you may not like it.

Here’s what I mean: when you’re a leader, everyone around you has an opinion.  Your customers think you should do X, your employees think you should do Y, some random person on the internet thinks you should do Z, and so on.  Leaders are bombarded by constant noise telling them what they should be doing.

It’s very difficult to resist that noise.  It’s relentless and exhausting.  And if you aren’t extremely clear about what you’re trying to accomplish, eventually you’ll probably give in and do whatever someone is telling you.

The result of that is that you’ll be super busy trying to accomplish something, and even if you accomplish it, it won’t feel right.  You’ll look around and think, “Is this really what we wanted to do?”.  And the answer will be a resounding “No”.

Be proactive, make choices, take actions – but do it to accomplish what you want.  Don’t try to create someone else’s version of your business.  Create yours.

And if you don’t know what that looks like, then that’s step one.  Figure out what success looks like for you.  Figure out what end result you’re looking for.  Then make a plan and get to work.