Time to read: 4 minutes
Article at a Glance:
- Leaderful means everyone leads. Leadership isn’t a title or a role held by a few, it’s a shared practice where each person leads in the areas where they’re most helpful and strongest.
- Leadership flows, it isn’t owned. Like an improvisational jazz band, different people step forward at different times. Decisions emerge from collaboration, not hierarchy.
- There are endless ways to lead. Leadership isn’t one fixed trait. It looks different for everyone and evolves as we grow.
- Your Three Circles reveal where you lead best. The overlap of where you’re helpful at, what you’re wired for, and what fills your cup is where your unique contribution (and leadership) comes alive.
We like to say that Redmond is a “Leaderful” organization. But what does that mean?
A leaderful group is one where everyone leads in the area where they’re most helpful.
It’s not one leader or a few leaders, but many leaders.
What does this look like in practice?
Most of us are used to the typical corporate leadership structure where there are a few leaders and lots of followers. The usual leadership structure is about authority, control, and one (or a few people) making all the decisions.
That’s not what we do.
There’s another leadership model where people share the responsibilities of a leader. This is often called group leadership. In this model, there are more leaders, but still plenty of followers. There’s still hierarchy, authority, and a few people making the decisions.
While this is better, it’s still not ideal.
In a truly Leaderful organization, everyone is a leader. There are no non-leaders. This means that everyone moves the conversation forward in the areas where they’re strongest and most helpful. Decisions emerge from the collaboration, not from hierarchy.
Leaderful in Real Life
Think of it as an improvisational jazz band where there’s no sheet music and no goal except to create something wonderful. Everyone is tuned into everyone else and the music flows around.
Sometimes the trumpet might take center stage, sometimes the piano will have a solo, and sometimes the drums will be more prominent. Things shift around and each musician has their instrument to play while harmonizing with the others.
A Leaderful Redmond team might look like one person taking on more of the organization tasks because they’re good at that and they like it. They might help keep the conversation about prioritization going. Another person might have great long-term perspective and lead out on making sure the team’s actions are aligned with the mission. Someone else might be really good at finding ways to improve processes because they’re a natural systems thinker.
See how that works?
Notice how no one’s in charge here. And because someone is good at process improvements and tends to do a lot of that, it doesn’t mean others on the team can’t also improve processes. Because one person is inclined to keep an eye on the big picture doesn’t mean the others can’t as well.
No one “owns” a piece of the process. Instead, everyone leads. The leadership flows around.
There Are Endless Ways to Lead
Part of our experience at Redmond is to learn how we can become Leaderful.
“Leadership” isn’t a trait in itself. It’s a dance of learning to collaborate more effectively, to pay attention and gather context, and to value the perspectives of others.
In 9 Lies About Work by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall, Lie #9 is “Leadership is a Thing.” Because it’s not one thing.
Think about it: what is leadership? You can probably think of a ton of traits great leaders might have, but when you think about great leaders, you might notice that they’re very different from each other. There are as many ways to lead as there are people.
Every single person will lead in a different way, and the way they lead will change as they evolve.
At Redmond, we don't ask, “am I smart, intuitive, etc.” Instead, we ask "WHERE am I smart, creative, etc?”
Don't ask IF you are a leader. Explore WHERE you lead most naturally and helpfully.
How do we explore this?
Enter, the Three Circles
The Leaderful model only works if we’re all constantly learning about ourselves and each other so we can become more clear on the areas where we’re most helpful, where we’re wired, and what fills our cup.
We call this self-discovery the Three Circles.
We’ve written about this, but here’s a quick review:
Your Three Circles are a Venn diagram consisting of—you guessed it—three circles that represent where you’re helpful, what you’re wired for, and what fills your cup. Discovering your Three Circles is learning where those circles overlap, because that’s where you’re going to make your most meaningful contribution. That’s where you’ll lead most helpfully.
Your unique contribution might show up in lots of different ways, and it’s more than one thing. You’ll find LOTS of ways to express that contribution through different roles (professionally and personally) and in different activities. It’s as unique to you as your fingerprint, and just as complex.
You’re Already a Leader
This is a lifelong process, because you’ll always learn and discover new ways to lead. The overlap of your Three Circles isn’t an activity, a role, or even just one thing. It’s a process, an exploration.
You can’t do this alone. As we work together on teams, we help each other discover more about ourselves and where we naturally lead out.
We’re all here to help each other in the process!
