170: The Inner Bully versus the Inner Wimp | Mike Lerario on Leadership Development

Effective leadership is about finding the balance between how we naturally want to show up as a leader and what the situation demands of us.

Mike distills leadership down to four domains: communication, adaptability, focus, and influence. But what’s most intriguing about Mike’s work, is that these four domains are each on a spectrum. For example, adaptability is on the spectrum of rigidity and flexibility. And the best leaders do what the task requires.

Though we might naturally feel most comfortable being flexible as a leader, sometimes the task requires that we be rigid; we might feel more comfortable being selfless, but sometimes leaders need to be selfish.

It is neither bad nor good to be rigid or flexible, to be selfless or selfish. But rather, the best leaders do what the task requires.