We have often observed and validated that “as go the leaders, so goes the change… or not”. We start from a conviction that leaders are not heroes but real ordinary people, often with extra-ordinary gifts, who must first live out in themselves the changes and growth that they seek for their organization. Certainly, how they engage their strengths is important, but of even greater significance is how they engage their weakness, their sense of inadequacy, their frailty. It is as leaders confront and engage their own disadvantages that they develop a capacity to elicit in others the courage, confidence and capacity to overcome their own barriers to greater performance. Inspiration matters, to be sure, but the ‘perspiration’ of personal growth in leaders is fundamental to their capacity to exert positive influence on their organizations. We challenge leaders to grow first, if they would lead others.
